Activists protest outside National Assembly over draft NGO law

PHNOM PENH, December 20, 2011 (Cambodia Herald) - Human rights activists and community representatives from across Cambodia gathered at the National Assembly Tuesday in a bid to block a controversial draft NGO law, saying it will suppress freedom of expression.

Wearing black shirts and scarves, about 200 protestors carried a 237-metre banner with a petition by 6,167 people, shouting through loudspeakers for National Assembly President Heng Samrin not to approve the new law.

Heng Sam Orn, a representative of the protesters, said communities from 24 provinces and municipalities could not accept the latest draft.

The petition was accepted by 10 opposition lawmakers from the Sam Rainsy Party, who had earlier walked out of the National Assembly after it voted to lift the parliamentary immunity of a fellow opposition lawmaker charged with organizing a jailbreak.

Civil society groups discussed the draft law at a meeting at the Ministry of Interior on Monday without reaching agreement.

A source close to those drafting the law said last week it was still with the Ministry of Interior and had not yet been sent to the Council of Ministers, which is responsible for forwarding government legislation to the National Assembly.

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Taking aim at ‘voluntourism’

Photo by: Will Baxter

Former scavengers at the Stung Meanchey dump site practise for a performance at an orphanage in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district in March.

Campagners are hoping a new social-media campaign launched yesterday will shock tourists into rethinking what are ultimately harmful engagements with orphanages in Cambodia.

The brainchild of Friends International and Childsafe, the anti -“voluntourism”campaign, supported by Unicef, features the tagline “children are not tourist destinations”.

“There has been a 65 percent increase in orphanages in Cambodia since 1995,” said Friends International communications director James Sutherland. “This is the 21st Century; the situation should be getting better, not worse. Tourists are perpetuating that system.”

The campaign uses the image of two children trapped in a glass exhibit box, peering out at Western tourists who are aiming digital cameras at them, an attempt to highlight the number of children who are forced to perform, advertise, beg and work to bring in funding for their orphanage directors. 

“Orphanages are not zoos, and tourists should not be allowed to move through their home” the Friends International promotional material states.

“We know this is going to be contentious, and we invite debate,” Sutherland said. 

About 97 percent of children in orphanages in Cambodia are not orphans, according to Friends, which said it was eight times more expensive to house a child in an orphanage than it is to house them with their families at home. 

“As almost all residential care centres are funded by individuals from overseas, many centres turn to tourism to attract more donors, fuelling a system that exposes children to risk,” Unicef representative Richard Bridle said.

“Orphanages fundraise by offering tours to foreigners, in which children are required to perform dancing or to solicit donations. There is no legal requirement for orphanages to account for funds raised in this way.”

Friends’ executive director, Sebastien Marot, said the campaign is being launched on social media to combat the online recruit of volunteers and to get the message more efficiently to young people.
“The campaign aims to bring about a behavioural change in young people visiting Cambodia,” Marot said. 

“You aren’t allowed to go anywhere and hug a child in your own country, why should you be able to do it here?”

The campaign is being done in cooperation with the Royal government, which in 2008 passed minimum standards of care for children in orphanages, and in 2010, a draft prakas on child care. 

“Orphanages are not required to be registered; there are not standards of practices across the orphanages,” Marot said, adding that some orphanages are not registered with the government.


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KRT judge ‘bowed to’ NGO pressure, says government

Recently resigned Khmer Rouge tribunal judge Siegfried Blunk has “bowed to” a sustained campaign against him by international organisations and “persistent interference” by the media, the government said yesterday.

The Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit declared the resignation of international Co-Investigating Judge Siegfried Blunk on Sunday a “serious blow” to the United Nations-backed tribunal. 

It also claimed that calls for the co-investigating judges’ resignations were the result of a “campaign” by international organisations and the media to discredit the tribunal.

“International organisations (including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Open Society Justice Initiative) alongside persistent media interference … have long opposed the ECCC, and over the past two years have exerted increasing pressure to discredit and undermine the ECCC,” a statement from the unit said.

In a press release on Monday, Judge Blunk attributed his resignation to concerns that his independence would be doubted in light of statements from senior government officials regarding Cases 003 and 004.

Judge Blunk said via email yesterday that in the press release he “never talked about the Cambodian ‘government’” only about certain officials.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan told the Post  yesterday that the media and NGOs were attempting to mount pressure on the court.

“The pressure that Judge Blunk felt is not from the government – it is pressure coming from NGOs who don’t understand the facts of the court,” he said. “The opinions of government officials are those that are the principles of the government – we want peace, stability and the integration of the Khmer Rouge.”

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch called for the resignation of Judge Blunk and his Cambodian counterpart You Bunleng, while OSJI reiterated their request this week for the UN to confront allegations of political influence at the court.

Last year, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters that Prime Minister Hun Sen had told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that prosecutions beyond Case 002 would not be allowed.

“We‘re not talking here about the Cambodian government only expressing concern about peace and stability in Cambodia,” OSJI trial monitor Clair Duffy said yesterday.

“We’re talking about clear directives that cases 001 and 002 are enough and that there will be no cases 003 and 004. To me that is clear evidence of executive interference with judicial independence.” 

“[The statement] ignores the fact that a number of qualified professional legal staff walked out of Judge Blunk’s office because the Case 003 investigation in their opinion had been deliberately botched,” Duffy added.

Amnesty International Asia-Pacific director Sam Zarifi said via email that the organisation had “never opposed” the court  but had called for the proceedings “to meet international fair trial standards”. 
Representatives from Human Rights Watch could not be reached for comment.

Court spokesman Lars Olsen said that judicial decision-making at the court must be done independently. Judge Blunk will formally sever ties with the tribunal on October 31, he added.


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NGO Action will make your activities known

The controversial draft of the NGO law is still under debate and is one of the hottest topics of conversation among local and especially international NGOs operating in Cambodia.

Criticism continues, although many other countries have regulations for organisations similar to those being debated for the NGOs registered or looking to register in the Kingdom.

The government and its development partners recognise that NGOs and INGOs have made an important contribution to rehabilitation, reconstruction and development for the past 30 years. NGOs are viewed as important partners in the delivery of basic social services. 

But the government says it needs to be able to better manage the thousands of organisations operating in the country. Those organisations say this will hamper their effectiveness.

Well, we at The Phnom Penh Post would like to hear about that effectiveness because we have a commitment to covering NGO activities and supporting the NGO sector.

NGO ACTION is a special supplement published on the first Tuesday of every month with interesting and informative articles on the work, action and projects of local and international NGOs operating in the Kingdom.

The areas and issues they cover are wide and varied involving almost every aspect of the life and lifestyle development throughout the nation through health, social services, the environment, agriculture, human rights, education and many other important every day areas of life.

We want to know about you; tell readers and the wider community through our pages about your backgrounds, your aims, your work and your projects, your latest news and plans.

We want to know about the NGOs who are making a difference in the lives of the Cambodian people, that “effectiveness”, and tell others.

Help us get yourselves and your work known.

If you are an NGO, work with one, represent one or are involved with one and their work, tell us your news, your story.

Our next issue will be published on November 1. Be in it.

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New look, new identity, same values for high-tech educator

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A new look and a new identity but the same values. CIST – the Centre for Information Systems Training – which was launched in 2005 in Cambodia to provide disadvantaged students with IT training and qualifications, will now be known as Passerelles Numeriques Cambodia.

A new forward-looking logo has also been launched and the changes also relate to the centres in the Philippines, started in 2009, and Vietnam, which began operating in 2010 in Da Nang.

It’s the result of an ongoing make-over which has characterised the organisation over the past few years. Passerelles Numeriques was created in Paris in 2006 as a specific NGO by offering access to education and opportunities for employment through personal and professional development programs to the underprivileged.

Since its inception professionals and volunteers throughout the world have been working through the organisation to help future generations break out of the poverty cycle through education and employment and as Passerelles Numeriques continues to expand worldwide it is now creating a new global image.

“Our objectives, principles of action and values stay the same, however we have grown and continue to grow and develop operations in different countries and feel it important to show a single global image as we operate everywhere with the same mission, the same passion,” said the chairman of the PN Board Mr Benoit Genuini.

CIST began operating in Phnom Penh in 2005, its first school having 25 students but now there are more than 450 students in its three-country operation which aims for youths to receive high level training – professional, targeted and certified – and get qualified high-tech jobs and realise their potential.

To fulfill the needs of employer companies, it develops training programs which integrate the knowledge of English and of business environment and promote business values and professional behaviour. It has built strong links with the business world, enabling it to bridge education with professional opportunities with the students supported in their job search thanks to a network of partner companies. CIST first developed a two-year curriculum for high-school graduates, called “SNA” (Systems and Networks Administration), with students learning how to install, configure and maintain computers and networks in small to mid-size organisations.

The training focused on maximum interaction with local companies through various activities: company visits, conferences, workshops and internships.

In 2007 it had 153 students in Cambodia and its first 20 graduates and the following year had 240 students as well as launching the Data Entry Operator curriculum (DMO) and Web Development Program (WEP).

With its new image launched, last month also saw the ending of the complex annual PN Cambodia selection process started in January 2011, which took place in 18 provinces and 40 exam centres with 7200 students attending the information sessions, 2200 sitting the written exam (English, Logic and Maths, Speed and Accuracy) and 992 meeting PNs selection team to prove their motivation.

Finally, 200 students were selected and 38 of these were chosen among the youths of some of PN’s NGO partners, such as EDM, PSE, Aspeca, Krousa Thmey, BFD, AFS, Partner in Campassion and the Sangkhem Centre for Children.

The new school year starts this month.

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Quilting women create a new lifestyle

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Mekong Plus, previously Vietnam Plus, was founded 16 years ago in Vietnam by a group of Vietnamese and Belgians, one of whom was a quilter and came up with the idea of teaching local women how to quilt. It was the start of a booming operation and high quality products which now form a two-country business with quilting production and sales finding major success in Cambodia. It expanded into the Kingdom in 2007, changed its name then to Mekong Plus and later established Mekong Quilts, a retail arm with outlets in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. The mission of Mekong Plus which began in southern Vietnam was to provide skills to rural women – in its case, teaching them how to make quilts – then sell what they made and invest some of those proceeds back into the community. Ingrid K Mogstad talks to the women quilters and the organisation’s founder.

OM Nuon remembers the days 10 years ago when she had to forage for food in the forest to feed her child.

“I could sell a little bit, but I was very poor,” says the 45-year-old resident of Romduol village in Svay Rieng province.

“Now I earn about $70 a month and am very happy with my salary. I’m not rich, but I have enough. I used to go hungry, but these days I have enough to eat and so does my child,” she said.

Om Nuon is one of hundreds of Cambodian and Vietnamese women who have benefited from Mekong Plus.

It is a private-sector approach to development, and one that founder Bernard Kervyn says has proved its worth. The organisation, which operates five shops in the two countries and has more than 400 employees, strives to create incomes that in turn provide independence.

The idea to use quilts came from Thanh Troung, a self-taught quilter who is still on the board of Mekong Plus, which oversees the umbrella of subsidiary organisations such as Mekong Quilts.
Kervyn says it took time to get going.

“The first year we only trained a dozen. It took a couple of years until we could sell the first quilts. In the beginning we had to ask friends to buy the products as favours.” 

But after several years of effort, failure and continual training, the quilts took off. Mekong Plus opened its first shop in Ho Chi Minh City and called it Vietnam Quilts. 

Four years ago it expanded into Cambodia, which now boasts two shops in Phnom Penh and another in the tourist haven of Siem Reap, home to the Angkor Wat temple complex. 

Also the sister enterprise Mekong Creations has opened, selling rugrags, purses, bamboo products and other creative items.

“We get customers from all over the world. People tend to bring the quilts home or give them to friends and family living in colder countries,” says Channy Panh, who manages one of the shops in Phnom Penh.

Quilts are not a Khmer tradition, so the bulk of clients are foreign tourists and expatriates.  

Om Nuon’s village of Romduol in the southeastern province of Svay Rieng is the main Cambodian centre for making quilts and rugrags, a particularly poor part of the country, a place of muddy, red dirt roads and seemingly endless lush green rice paddies. 

Half an hour of bumping along on a motorbike brings us to our destination: Rugrag Group 1. The women sit together underneath a roof, chatting and working quickly. In their midst sits Un Noan, her legs stretched out and covered by a piece of flowered batik cloth.

Un Noan, who is divorced, recently started working for Mekong Plus. 

“I used to work in a factory in Phnom Penh, but I hurt my leg in a traffic accident so I had to stop. When I worked in Phnom Penh I could only come home during festivals. My children lived with my parents so I didn’t get to see them much.”

She says the accident made everyday tasks much harder, but working now does not present problems and she sees her children more.

“They often come to visit me at work so I get to see them a lot. It’s the same with the rest of my family.”

Un Noan explainED that her salary now depends on her output – the more she makes, the more she will earn. 

“So if I can get good at quilting, I will earn more than in the factory. But it is more expensive to live in Phnom Penh than to live here, so at the end of the day, when all expenses are paid, I am left with more money.”

Quilting is also physically less demanding than factory work, and the women are able to work fewer hours. 

But making quilts is only half the purpose. Social upliftment is the other, and Mekong Plus’s philosophy is to attack a range of poverty-related issues.

One simple program sees children lined up daily at a local school to brush their teeth. Each gets a cup with their name on it and a toothbrush to go with it. The hope is that they will pass on their good dental habits to their parents.

Then there is the latrine program, under which families can apply for funding for a toilet. The program sees Mekong Plus cover the cost of the plumbing and fittings, while the family pays for and builds the structure.

Staff say that compelling families to carry some of the cost allows the organisation to “get further with less money and people have a sense of ownership and responsibility when it comes to the things we provide”.

The principle guiding these services is simple: To resolve poverty one has to tackle all angles of the problem. If a mother has a sick child, she doesn’t need free education, she needs health care. People in extreme poverty have a range of needs that require meeting, and they are all important.

Getting the community involved is vital too, as is recognising different communities have different needs. 

Another factor is making sure a little goes a long way, and over the years the cost of the programs has come down thanks to outside help. Last but not least, the programs need to target the poorest of the poor – many of these beneficiaries were living on less than one dollar a day.

Back at Rugrag Group 1, Om Nuon says she will continue perfecting her craft. 

“I want to stay working here, and I want Mekong Plus to make this group sustainable and safe for us who work here,” she says.

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NGO ban questioned

PRIME Minister Hun Sen allegedly approved a recommendation from Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon that foreign NGOs be banned from doing advocacy work in Cambodia, according to documents received late yesterday by the Post.

In an accompanying translation of the yet-to-be verified June 17 letter, he also agreed to a call for Cambodian NGOs that do advocacy not to have foreigners involved in them. The letter also includes a recommendation that the Council of Ministers speed up its review and implementation of the draft law on associations and NGOs.

The recommendations followed sharp criticism from NGOs of the resett-lement impacts of the US$141 million railway rehabilitation project, which is funded by the Asian Development Bank and AusAID.  

Hun Sen gave his approval to the recommendations on June 19, according to the copy of the documents. The letter had been photographed, apparently by a cell phone, is marked with the Finance Ministry’s stamp and is accompanied by what appears to be Hun Sen’s signature. 

Some Khmer wording was not clear in the copy and though sections of the translation have been verified by the Post as accurate, its authenticity has not yet been independently confirmed.

The letter accuses “ignorant foreign NGOs” of inciting the about 4,000 people affected by the railway project “to file complaints”, according to the translation. It also accuses the NGOs of creating chaos and confusing “affected people” so that “those who possess the land illegally … believe that they possess [it] legally”. 

Four NGOs had written to the bank’s president last year calling for the suspension of loans for the project until resettlement issues were addressed. One, Sahmakum Teang Tnaut, was suspended by the Ministry of Interior in late July, while Bridges Across Borders Cambodia and NGO Forum received written warnings from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both STT and Bridges Across Borders are mentioned by name in the letter.

Government officials either said they were unaware of the letter or not in a position to comment on it, or both, last night. Ministry of Interior spokesman Phay Siphan said he had no knowledge of the letter. After it was briefly described to him, he said that only the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Prime Minister’s Cabinet or the Asian Development Bank could comment on it.  

Keat Chhon could not be reached for comment. Kong Vibol, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said he had no knowledge of the letter and could comment no further. Eang Sophalleth, an adviser to Hun Sen, also said he could not comment because he had no knowledge of the letter.

Sothea Ros, spokesman for the Asian Development Bank, said the bank would carefully review the document before replying. The ADB said it had conducted an internal investigation following allegations – also contained in the letter – that consultants for the organisation, both Cambodian and expatriate, had requested that two NGOs be shut. 

It also reiterated its support for the NGOs, saying they had “provided useful information about the resettlement process which has helped us to address the needs of the people affected by the project. We hope that the NGOs will be allowed to continue their work”. 

Meanwhile, NGO Forum has responded to its warning letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its executive director, Chhith Sam Ath, said yesterday the umbrella group of 88 NGOs had responded to the ministry on September 2, but declined to comment further. According to PPP

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