Threatened Phnom Penh Poor Communities Show Solidarity on International Human Rights Day
The Dey Krahom community has been engaged in a land struggle since 2005, when the 7NG company was granted title to land that was earmarked to the community for a social land concession by the Council of Ministers in July 3, 2003. The Council of Ministers issued Letter Number 875 following Prime Minister Hun Sen’s May 2003 speech calling for tenure security and upgrading of 100 slum communities each year for five years. Dey Krahom was one of four communities identified in the Development Plan to receive legal recognition and upgrading.
Over the past two years, Dey Krahom community residents have been subject to repeated acts of deceit, intimidation, and arbitrary raids resulting in violence and the destruction of housing and property. The community’s ongoing attempts to redress their grievances through legal channels have been unsuccessful. The system has not only been non-responsive to their complaints but it has been successfully used to break up the community and debilitate its leaders. Six community representatives find themselves today facing a range of spurious criminal charges, while others have gone into hiding out of fear of arrest.
In an impressive show of solidarity, representatives from sixteen threatened communities came together and joined hands around Dey Krahom to show their support for the community and proclaim the following:
“We, representatives of Phnom Penh poor communities who have been forcibly evicted or threatened with forced evictions, in solemn observance of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declare:
Following the human chain ceremony at Dey Krahom, protesters marched to Group 78 and Rick Reay communities, which are also facing eviction notices and being denied fair and just compensation for their property.
“The Tonle Bassac Declaration is a turning point for urban poor communities in Phnom Penh,” said David Pred, country director of Bridges Across Borders. ”It is the first time we have seen communities in Phnom Penh uniting in this way to assert their rights and ask the government to stop forced evictions.”
Click here to download Tonle Bassac Declaration |
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On December 10, International Human Rights Day, Bridges Across Borders joined more than 1000 residents from 16 Phnom Penh communities who are living under the threat of forced evictions at Dey Krahom to show our solidarity for this community and two other nearby communities that are slated for imminent eviction in the Tonle Bassac area of Phnom Penh. This historic event was attended by Yash Ghai, UN special human rights envoy to Cambodia, who linked arms with protesters around the threatened community.