‘NGOs may operate without restriction’
MINISTER of Interior Sar Kheng on Tuesday instructed municipal and provincial authorities to facilitate the activities of civil society organisations and local communities without restriction and prior notice as previously required.
“NGOs and associations, including local communities t hat have a lready registered wit h t he ministr y, have complete freedom to lega lly carr y out activ ities wit hout hav ing to i nform loca l aut horities t hree days beforehand as t hey did before,” Sar Kheng said in a directive dated November 27.
The instruction came nearly one month after the interior minister issued a similar guideline on cooperation between authorities at all levels with civil society groups.
Soeung Sen Karuna, the senior investigating officer for rights group Adhoc, welcomed the directive.
“There have been [negative] reactions from NGOs in various fields including human rights, advocacy and election observation to authorities’ restriction on their activities.
“We have demanded wider space for our activities and it’s good to see the Ministry of Interior issue guidelines and create task forces to facilitate our activities,” he said.
Karuna said while the proNGO directive is a good sign, he worries that the instruction may fall on deaf ears.
“I don’t know how good t he loca l aut horities’ actua l implementation will be. Generally, we welcome t he directive but we want it to be widely disseminated, particularly by pro-government media outlets.
“Over the past years, any action against civ i l societ y organisations had been broadcast by pro-govern- ment media, so we want t hem to also publicise t he directive to help relevant aut horities understand [our rights],” he said.
Theng Savoeun, the director of the NGO Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community (CCFC), echoed Karuna’s concerns.
“We hope local authorities will follow the directive when dealing with civil society organisations and when the NGOs carry out their activities,” he said.
Savoeun cited examples of actua l practices over t he past years, say ing loca l authorities have been k nown to restrict NGOs’ activ ities despite t he fact t hat t hey have a lready registered wit h t he ministr y.
San Chey, the executive director of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, said the directive is apparently aimed at revising the existing law to provide more space for NGOs.
“It remains to be seen whether t he directive will become ef fective. We’ll wait and see how the new directive and task forces created by t he Ministr y of Interior will help civ il societ y organisations. We will continue to obser ve how much t he aut horities at sub-nationa l level can implement t his,” he said.