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| Interviewing evicted people at Andoung community |
A forced eviction is
the permanent or temporary removal against the will of individuals, families or
communities from the homes or land they occupy, without the provision of, and
access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection.[1] Along with the rapid urban economic development with the beautiful appearance
of the city as evidence, many challenges, including forced evictions have been
emerging so far. Statistically, since 1990, there have been around 133,000
people, or 10 percent of Phnom Penh's 1.3 million, are believed to have been
affected by evictions.[2]
Many poor families and communities have been suffered from forced evictions not
only when the Phnom Penh municipality chose to use violence against them rather
than using a non-violent approach but also when they were abandoned in the
resettlement site. According to the Cambodian Constitution, which incorporates
international law, requires that the government provides adequate alternative
housing and compensation for all those affected by forcible eviction, regardless
of whether they rent, own or occupy their homes on the land at issue.[3]
However, Cambodian government’s practices are opposite from the law. People
were forcibly evicted without transparent community consultation, deficient impact
assessments, inadequate compensation and unwanted resettlement site,
particularly in unimproved rice fields in the outskirts of the city with bad living
conditions. Calling for much attention, forced eviction is becoming a hot issue
in Phnom Penh, which has to be addressed.
First of all, it is
very important to know about the root causes of forced evictions. Notably, forced
evictions arise from the granting of economic land concessions, urban development
and mining concessions without proper consultation. For example, in 2006, the
government forcefully evicted 1,554 families from the Sambok Chab area of
Bassac in order to make way for the government projects and construction of a
casino, and brought them to the new location
situated in Andoung village which is 25 km away from Phnom Penh.[4]
Moreover, forced evictions are the result of the ignorance of the law and human
rights, the lack of inclusiveness and transparency and the misuse of the judicial
system for coercive intention. Regarding the Boeung Kak Lake, there is evidence
that in February 2007, the municipality of Phnom Penh granted a 99-year lease
to the private developer Shukaku Inc owned by ruling party Senator Lao Meng Khin, a close
associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen and a major donor to the Cambodian People’s
Party. The lease
agreement seized the land rights of Boeung Kak residents and threatened its
estimated 20,000 residents with forced eviction. Also, it violated provisions
of the Land Law that stipulates that State public property – including lakes,
which have inherent public value – cannot be sold or subjected to long-term
leases and that lessees must not damage the property or change its public
function. [5]
Communities, who are
evicted, often lose much more than their homes.[6]
Forced eviction often result in a number of violations of economic and social as
well as civil and political rights. The violations
of social rights include the rights to access to adequate housing, food, water,
health, work, security of the person, security of the home and education. Undoubtedly,
evictees were relocated to the areas which are lack of access to clean water,
sanitation, livelihoods, physical and mental health problems, such as social
stigmatization, depression, and even disruption of community cohesiveness and
further marginalization.[7]
The violations of civil and political rights include the rights to freedom of
expression, assembly and association. What’s more, the violations of economic
rights are demonstrated in terms of lower income, debt and unemployment. For
example, Andoung communities, who were evicted from Sambok Chab, have no choice
besides using dirty local pond water and impure water from wells. Because of
lack of toilets, most people continue to defecate in the perimeter of the site
and in plastic bags. Diarrhea is prevalent and many children have skin rashes
as well as diseases. Furthermore, security is bad as violence often occurs.
Communities were hated and discriminated by nearby communities because it was judged
that Andoung people lived on their land which they used to grow their crops. One
of the key issues raised was the significant decrease in salaries after the
relocation. The average daily salary of the evictees dropped from $5.78 to
$3.24. The drop in income has been compounded by higher transportation costs
due to the isolation of the resettlement site. Women are incapable of finding
jobs and must go to Phnom Penh to find employment, and are also uniquely
impacted by domestic violence. Safety in resettlement sites can also be an
issue for women, as robberies and sexual violence, including rape, are
commonplace, including at the hands of people working for the concession
companies. Land evictions also have a significant impact on children because
they are often forced to leave school and in some cases, families have to pay
fees in order to be able to transfer them to a different school, which further
impacts the families’ economic situation. Children are sometimes pulled out of
school in order to work and earn money for their families after the evictions at
the time that their families are unable to pay their debts. However, it is the
fact that, most people are hesitant to leave the site as they have been
promised some kind of certification from authorities – yet in practice, this is
not realized, or the certificates issued of tenure at the relocation site and raising
land prices in the area have raised concerns that they will be evicted again.[8]
In addition, evictions not only threaten the livelihood and psychological well-
being of affected communities, but also affect the building of a more
sustainable peace in Cambodia, by strengthening a cycle of violence and reducing
a culture of trust and social cohesion between the state and the people.
Forced eviction to be resolved, there
must be the need for strong commitment of three essential components, including
government, relevant NGOs and communities themselves. Forced evictions can be
resolved and prevented by changing the behavior of decision makers and promoting
active citizens. First of all, we have to deal with those in power by
pressuring or convincing them to adopt policies and implement in a good way
which benefits the people. Forced eviction generally happens when the evicted
people do not have power. We can influence the decision makers by giving power
to disadvantaged people. More than these, we must empower people in community,
especially youths to become active citizens in protecting their rights and
urging government to provide education and training, including skills and
knowledge. We should therefore engage in activities that raise awareness and concern
about the issue. Techniques include education campaigns, workshops and media
strategies. We have to inform vulnerable
groups of their rights, how their rights are being violated and the ways to
address. Media is an essential tool for raising public awareness and pressuring
decision-makers.[9]
Press release, radio, television spots, blog, website and Facebook are ways to
deliver message to the public. It is inexcusable that media helps us spread
information and has much influence on government. Furthermore, we can change
the behavior of decision makers and get support from the public by doing advocacy
campaigns. Advocacy normally can be organized by those affected by forced
evictions or by individuals or agencies that are particularly concerned with the
situation. Certainly, if empowered, the marginalized or vulnerable individual
or community will be more likely to organize by themselves. Additionally, open
forums or debates are also the effective way to bring parties together. It
allows various stakeholders, including local leaders to express their point of
view and hear arguments they would not normally encounter. Besides, forums and
debates are good ways to hold policy makers accountable for their actions and
to make villagers aware that they have power to influence their elected
leaders. It also creates dialogue between policy makers. It is the fact that community
forums and meetings with local leaders are good ways to determine their
response. Local communities always want relocation sites close to the city. Thus,
communities can join organizations to advocate with local government to demand
relocation sites that allowed squatter communities access to their precious
income generating sites, such as local business areas where they had
established market and clients. To be most effective, we must build networks at
both the local and international levels. Networking and coordination between
different interested groups was essential in beginning the campaign and has
substantially contributed to its successes. Specifically, we can work in
partnership with interested national and international NGOs. Importantly, under
the Cambodian Constitution and the 2001 Land Law, Cambodians have the rights to
own land. Individuals may only be deprived of ownership when removal is in the
public interest and only with appropriate and just compensation, as decided by
the court with due process of law.[10]
Thus, the government must respect people’s property’s rights according to the
land law, adopt a law on access to information to enhance transparency and
public participation, and inform the affected community and relevant
stakeholders about land concessions and development projects. Therefore,
relevant civil society organizations and international or multinational organizations,
such as the World Bank or the United Nations must ensure that the government is
implementing by respecting the laws, and the United Nations also have to put
pressure on the government when the citizens’ rights are violated, as well as
work closely to prevent the issue rather than resolving the issue.
To sum up, forced evictions in Phnom
Penh are the controversial issue which results from the demand of government to
urbanization and development as well as the ignorance of international and
national law concerning land, housing and other human rights’ provision. The
impact of forced evictions can be seen as the violations of social, economic,
and civil and political rights, including the impact on most vulnerable people
who are particularly women and children. Moreover, forced evictions help
increase the poverty by making the poor poorer. In order to address the issue,
we have to change the behavior of those in power and develop active citizens by
providing education, training, using advocacy campaigns and media strategy. However,
the forced evictions can be effectively resolved and prevented when there is a
transparent and accountable government with cooperation among relevant
stakeholders and active citizen engagement.
[1]
CESCR, General Comment No.7: The right to adequate housing (Art.11.1): forced
evictions, E/1998/22, (20 May 1997), http://bit.ly/HbQDIV
[2] LICADHO,
Land Grabbing and Poverty in Cambodia: The Myth of Development. Report (May
2009), available at http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/reports/files/134LICADHOREportMythofDevelopment2009Eng.pdf
[3]
Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, art.31 and the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Art.11.1.
[4] CCHR
Report (December 2013) Cambodia Land in
Conflict: An Overview of the Land Situation ENG.pdf
[5] Inclusive
Development International (2012) Cambodia: Boeung Kak Lake evictions, available
at http://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/bkl/
[6] UN
Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development -Based Evictions and
Displacement, Annex 1 of the Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate
housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living,
A/HRC/4/18, (2007), http://bit.ly/HbSJIF
[7]
CCHR Report (December 2013) Cambodia Land in Conflict: An Overview of the Land
Situation ENG.pdf. p. 32
[8] Office
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: Eviction and Resettlement in
Cambodia – Human Costs, Impacts and Solutions
[9] Mansfield,
Cristina and MacLeod, Kurt (2003) Advocacy Handbook: A Practical Guide to
increasing Democratic in Cambodia. Available at http://www.pactcambodia.org/Publications/Advocacy_Policy/Advocacy_%20Handbook%20_A%20Practical%20Guide_EH.pdf
[10] Constitution
of the Kingdom of Cambodia, arts. 51, 44; Land Law of 2001, arts. 4, 5.
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