(Bangkok) – The Cambodian government under Prime Minister Hun Manet heavily repressed civic space, political participation, and other fundamental freedoms in 2024, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2025. The authorities have increasingly curtailed the rights to free expression, media freedom, and peaceful assembly, and carried out politically motivated arrests and detention of dissidents and government critics.
For the 546-page world report, in its 35th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In much of the world, Executive Director Tirana Hassan writes in her introductory essay, governments cracked down and wrongfully arrested and imprisoned political opponents, activists, and journalists. Armed groups and government forces unlawfully killed civilians, drove many from their homes, and blocked access to humanitarian aid. In many of the more than 70 national elections in 2024, authoritarian leaders gained ground with their discriminatory rhetoric and policies.
“Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has followed in his father’s footsteps by intensifying the use of repressive laws and politicized courts to silence critics and human rights defenders,” said Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Democracy in Cambodia exists in name alone and the little space that remains for critical views, civil society, and media does so under constant threat of persecution.”
- In the run-up to the February Senate elections, Human Rights Watch investigated reports of intimidation, bribes, and other unlawful efforts by ruling party officials, as well as politically motivated arrests of opposition political party members throughout the year.
- Cambodia appeared before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in May for its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights conditions. Since its last review in 2019, the government has failed to make progress on the recommendations it accepted.
- The authorities have arbitrarily arrested at least 94 people since July for publicly criticizing a government development plan with Vietnam and Laos. At least 33 people face charges of plotting and incitement, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
- The authorities continue to target and arrest environmental activists, journalists, and labor rights advocates for their work in advancing human rights.
Development partners and other governments that have invested in Cambodia should publicly and jointly call for an end to the ongoing assault on freedom of expression, political participation, and peaceful assembly, Human Rights Watch said. The Hun Manet government should reverse course in its efforts to extinguish fundamental freedoms and live up to its promises to uphold democracy and the rule of law.
