Rule of Law Initiative Programs - Camboda

Human Rights & Conflict Mitigation

Public Interest Legal Advocacy Program (PILAP)

 

Kong Yu press conference - This widely-publicized event drew attention to the case seeking to cancel illegal land deals and prosecute those responsible.

Human Rights Class Action Cases

PILAP’s “class action” and public interest approach to human rights violations is novel in Cambodia, and PILAP’s involvement in time-sensitive and high-profile cases and legal consultations has earned significant attention from the media and the international legal development community. The following are just a few of the worthy cases on which PILAP works:

 

Kong Yu Case

In one of the most glaring examples of land grabbing in Cambodia, an indigenous community has been dispossessed of its ancestral land.  PILAP is assisting the ethnic Jarai people of the villages of Kong Yu and Kong Thom, located in Ratanakiri Province, in their effort to have the land sale contracts cancelled, and their land returned to them. The PILAP team filed complaints in this case in the provincial city of Bunlung in January 2007.  The complaints document the various illegalities of the transfer (threats, lies and intimidation, as well as fraudulent documents and bribery) and seek the cancellation of the land transfer and the prosecution of all those involved.

 

Koh Pich Case

PILAP represented 78 families who lived on the island of Koh Pich in their effort to receive fair and just compensation (as provided under the Cambodian Constitution and the Land Law of 2001) in connection with a proposed redevelopment of their land. Koh Pich is directly offshore from downtown Phnom Penh, where there is substantial development potential, and the case was widely covered by the Cambodian media. Following extensive negotiations with City Hall, the development companies, and its client base, PILAP settled this case for all but a few families in November 2005. The highly publicized, high-impact approach is one of the first collective legal actions in Cambodia to help a community assert its legal rights to land. As one PILAP attorney, Vineath Chou, put it: “By asserting these farmers’ legal right to ‘fair and just compensation,’ PILAP successfully facilitated negotiations and settlements with government officials and private developers—parties who were only recently attempting to evict our clients from the island. We hope that this example, here in the heart of the capital, can set an example of how responsible development should occur in Cambodia.”

 

Group 78

Villagers performing at the Kong Yu press conference. The conference marked the filing of complaints to have their land returned to them.

Group 78 is a numbered land plot located in central Phnom Penh near the Bassac River.  Despite their strong legal claims to the land on which they reside, residents received three eviction notices from government officials in June and July 2006 stating that they will be trucked to an isolated and barren relocation site on the outskirts of the city. The relocation site lacks basic infrastructure, sanitation facilities or potable water, and is prone to flooding. Schools, medical facilities, markets and jobs are not available in this undeveloped area, located more than 20 kilometers from Phnom Penh.  Several adjacent communities have recently been evicted in a manner which involved gross human rights violations, and emotions have been running high for the members living in the community.  The PILAP team has defended Group 78 throughout its struggle against illegal eviction, including press conferences, media events, and dissemination of legal materials to government officials.  Recently, the PILAP team designed a new advocacy strategy to unite the community with a sense of purpose and direction.  Working with architect students and urban specialists, the community has initiated an open process to create it own plan for its future on site.  Such an “on-site upgrade” has been successfully employed in other Asian countries, and would actually cost much less to implement than the payment of fair and just compensation that the government is legally required to provide if it evicts the Group 78 residents.  Government officials will also be invited to participate.  With the plans created, the community will lobby government to select one of the community-created options, rather than resorting to a forced eviction with little or no compensation. 

 

Legal Education Reform

Students participate in an interactive commercial law class that was developed in the teaching methodology program.

The Legal Education Program’s primary objective is to improve the quality of legal and judicial education at Cambodia’s primary educational institutions, including the Royal University for Law and Economics (RULE) and the Royal School for Judges and Prosecutors (RSJP).  The Legal Education staff works with faculty at RULE and the RSJP to introduce modern teaching methodologies and materials that focus on enhancing the students’ practical lawyering skills and analytical reasoning capabilities.

 

The Teaching Methodology Program

The Teaching Methodology Program at Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE) commenced in early 2006.  The program began by introducing ten law professors to new interactive teaching methods at an initial workshop.  The professors with the ABA assistance, revised their curricula and lesson plans to make them more interactive and innovative.  By winter 2006  the professors successfully develop over 75 new interactive lesson plans on subjects including as family law, commercial law, and ethics.  These lessons will be implemented throughout the 2006-2007 academic year and beyond.  Over 300 students will benefit from these new interactive classes every year.

In August 2007, PRAJ extended its teaching methodology program to include two private law faculties in Cambodia: Norton University and Cambodian Mekong University. PRAJ sponsored a workshop that taught interactive teaching methodologies to twenty law professors from these schools.

 

Regional Study Tours

To train PILAP’s Cambodian staff, the ABA has implemented a number of regional study tours. In 2005, PILAP attorneys trained in Philippines and Thailand. Such tours have provided staff attorneys with the opportunity to learn about the evolution of legal NGO movements in other Asian countries, and how such countries’ more open political systems and participatory attitudes have had positive impacts on decision-making.  Future study tours are planned for China in 2007.

 

Public Service Announcements (PSAs)

The PILAP team created three sixty-second public service announcements related to legal rights targeted at Cambodian youth, aged 11-14.  The purpose of the project is to raise public awareness, particularly among the young, about legal rights and responsibilities that apply to all segments of the population.   These PSAs aired in January and February 2007 throughout Cambodia.

 

Mock Trial Competition

In the spring of 2007, PRAJ worked with Cambodian law faculties to host the country’s first national mock trial competition. PRAJ delivered a two-day training program to the schools in March and April. Then PRAJ assisted RULE in sponsoring the “First Annual Cambodian Mock Trial Competition” in June 2007.

 

Legal Profession Reform Programs

ABA-Asia offers Clinical Legal Education through the Lawyer Training Center (LTC).

A Consultant works with two commercial law professors on an interactive exercise during the workshop.

The Legal Education through the Lawyer Training Center, established by the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC) with assistance from the Ministry of Justice, provides a ten-month mandatory practicum for law school graduates who wish to become practicing attorneys and members of the bar. The strategic goals of the Asia Division clinical legal education program are to: (i) professionalize and further institutionalize clinical legal education in Cambodia; (ii) enhance the public interest function of clinics by helping develop substantive specialized skills in particular fields of human rights concern: and (iii) strengthen and develop professional commitment to public service among the members of the bar.

The LTC has been fully operational since 2002, and was opened with significant financial and technical support from the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA). The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) and the Bar of Lyon ( France) also support the LTC. In order to ensure maximum cooperation, in April 2004 ABA-Asia entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the BAKC, the JFBA and the CBA, memorializing a shared commitment to supporting legal education in Cambodia, and since then, has been coordinating closely with these organizations in implementing the clinical program.

Consultant Teri Gould assists the Rector and another professor in developing a syllabus for a new ethics class.

In February 2005, the LTC clinic opened its doors to clients from the community – individuals otherwise unable to afford representation – thereby bridging the LTC to the community. Since then, the clinic has provided much-needed legal services to the community and has allowed young Cambodian lawyers to put into practice the “live client” teaching techniques developed over the course of the program. Clients come to the clinic through a variety of sources, including NGO referrals and walk-ins. Legal consultations and cases cover a broad span of topics including: family law issues (marriage, paternity, and adultery); property issues (land disputes); labor matters; debt; and criminal matters (assault, property damage, possession of an illegal weapon and drug trafficking).

In 2006, the clinic commenced the Law Fellows Program (LFP), under which recent LTC graduates are placed with local NGOs throughout the country for one year of supervised practice. This not only strengthens the professional advocacy capacity of the law graduates, but increases legal services available in predominately rural, underserved areas of the country. The LFP recently completed its recruitment and selection process for 2007 and interested non-governmental organizations were chosen as placement organizations for the 2007 LFP.