Cambodia

On the invitation of the well consolidated regional NGO, Asia Human Rights Commission, the DIHR undertook a mission to Cambodia in 1999 to explore the possibilities of contributing to judicial reforms. The Minister of Interior responded positively to the recommendations put forward by the DIHR, and it was agreed to initiate a partnership. A pilot phase was started involving law enforcement, judicial officials and civil society representatives raising debate about the need of legal and judicial reforms.

DIHR in Cambodia

DIHR has supported the Council for Legal and Judicial Reform, its Permanent Coordination Body (PCB), and its Project Management Unit (PMU) since 2002, when a value-process was carried out for the legal and judicial sector in Cambodia. The value process was based on the Constitution and the international human rights obligations applicable to Cambodia, and defined four so-called concepts, liberal democracy, the separation of powers, the rule of law, and the rights of the individual.

Discussions among stakeholders led to the definition of values under each of the concepts, and for each of the values a number of criteria were defined for the fulfilment of the values. Finally, a list of interventions to comply with the criteria was developed.

The Value Document was merged with the Governance Action Plan and the National Poverty Reduction Strategy into the Legal and Judicial Reform Strategy, which was adopted by the Council of Ministers on June 20^th 2003. Subsequently, a Plan of Action – a project catalogue to achieve the implementation of the Strategy – was developed in cooperation between the relevant State institutions, civil society and international community representatives, and was adopted 29 April 2005.

Throughout the cooperation, DIHR, the PCB and the PMU have cooperated on coordinating the reform efforts, in developing the necessary tools to develop, manage and monitor the reform projects, and to maintain a constructive dialogue with the international donors in order to align their support with the strategy and action plan.

In 2007, DIHR has, besides from continued support and cooperation on the management of the reform, entered into projects funded by Danish and Australian development agencies, Danida and AusAID, respectively. One project aims at establishing an indicator system for the legal and judicial reform and for the performance of the legal and judicial sector, and the other aims at establishing model courts based on identified criteria and needs of the operators and users. Once implemented and evaluated, the model courts should be rolled out in the entire country. Other donors than Danida and AusAID are involved in this project.

Contact person: Project Manager Tomas Martin