UN Authority Figures

UN Development Programme (UNDP)
Executive Board: Cambodia

The Cambodian government has decimated opponents through imprisonment, intimidation, and is believed to be involved with the assassination of Cambodian activist Kem Ley on July 10, 2016.
Source: AP, December 24, 2016

Mission of the UN Development Programme: "UNDP works in nearly 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion... UNDP focuses on helping countries build and share solutions in three main areas: Sustainable development; Democratic governance and peacebuilding; Climate and disaster resilience." (UN Development Programme website, "Overview")

Term of office: 2018-2020

Cambodia's Record on "democratic governance and peacebuilding":
"The most significant human rights problems included a politicized and ineffective judiciary; increased restrictions on freedoms of speech, assembly, and association; and the use of violence and imprisonment--both actual and threatened--to intimidate the political opposition and civil society as well as to suppress dissenting voices. Other human rights problems included continued prisoner abuse, restrictions on press freedom and online expression... [M]ost abuses persisted with impunity... [B]eatings and other forms of physical mistreatment of police detainees and prison inmates continued during the year. There were credible reports military and police officials used physical and psychological abuse and, on occasion, severely beat criminal detainees, particularly during interrogation... The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, but at times the government did not respect these prohibitions... [T]he government generally did not respect judicial independence... There was widespread corruption among judges, prosecutors, and court officials... The government used libel, slander, defamation, and denunciation laws to restrict public discussion on issues it deemed sensitive or against its interests."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2016, Cambodia)

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