UCAnews, May 27, 2014
After two decades in development, Cambodia’s independent judiciary laws should have been the finest on earth.
First proposed in the early 1990s, the laws have been in the works since 2005. A group composed of foreign experts and Cambodian officials met every few months to discuss the laws; every six months, the government would meet with donors to update them on progress.
Today, the draft legislation is awaiting a rubber stamp from the Senate and the king, after which they will be enshrined in Cambodian law. But the bills passed last week by parliament bear no resemblance to their promised aim. Instead, more than 20 years after first promised, Cambodia’s all-important judiciary laws look set to legalize government control of the courts. READ FULL ARTICLE.
