Cambodia: Arrests of Activists and Opposition Leaders

We are deeply concerned by what appears to be a concerted Cambodian government campaign to neutralize its critics through targeted arrests of journalists, leaders of civil society, human rights activists, and members of the political opposition. These arrests threaten to undermine Cambodia’s fragile democratic institutions and are a critical setback to the progress Cambodia and its dynamic civil society have made towards establishing a stable, peaceful, and democratic nation since the signing of 1991 Paris Peace Accords. We urge the Cambodian government to cease the arrest and prosecution of those seeking to exercise their internationally-recognized freedoms, release the jailed activists, and drop politically motivated charges against activists and opposition leaders.