Hillary Travels to Cambodia and Advocates Women's Rights

By Allida Black on 11/05/2010 @ 03:15 PM

October 27, Secretary Clinton began her two-week long trip to Asia, where she will confer with the governments of Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Australia--as well as citizens dedicated to championing women's human rights. In many cases, this was the first time students, young leaders and NGO veterans had seen a Secretary of State - much less participate in a town hall meeting targeted to human rights.

As Noble Peace Prize nominee and Cambodian parliamentarian Mu Sochua notes in her post below, Secretary Clinton's insistence that "women's rights are human rights" and her support for grassroots engagement "sends a strong signal for support of human rights and democracy in Cambodia."

Read more from MP and Human Rights Advocate Mu Sochua:

Secretary Hillary Clinton said that she had always wanted to come to Cambodia, a country visited by President Clinton – a country that touched his heart. Her recent two-day visit to Cambodia touches the hearts of 14 million Cambodians.

I have had the honor and privilege of meeting Hillary – as we, women’s rights activists call her – at various occasions, starting in Beijing, at the 1995 4th World Conference on Women. I was a young grassroots activist, who had dreams and fought fiercely without really knowing what really I had on my agenda.

Hillary changed my life and the lives of so many thousands of women, who heard her call for “women’s rights as human rights”. She gave us the confidence that it is acceptable to be women and to have power to negotiate and that our place is also in politics. I returned home from Beijing and was offered a position by Cambodia’s First Prime Minister as advisor on women’s affairs. I joined the world of politics, ran for my first elections and became the first woman to lead the Ministry of Women’s Affairs which was previously lead by a man.

Meeting Hillary in Cambodia, with other Members of Parliament from the opposition was our chance to converse with her- a woman who is known for her straight forward and highly professional but engaging approach to diplomacy – gave us a sense that we are fighting the right cause. She strongly reaffirmed the US administration’s support for a strong opposition, for an independent judiciary and the protection of human rights. If these words came from another US high ranking official or politician, we would have heard them as just words of diplomacy. But Hillary has a clean record for promises she makes. She delivers, especially on democracy and human rights.

We told Hillary that the process of peace building or conflict resolution and democracy is built on the promotion and protection of democratic values and principles, such as pluralism, equal representation, and participation. When elected representatives of the people have lost their rights to represent their constituents and live in constant fear of prosecution, the foundation for a liberal democracy system is uprooted. Democratization must be inclusive as every voice is of most crucial importance in the next steps towards building a democratic society that include all parties in preventing conflicts.

The international community has been tolerant of the unmet government’s promises and unacceptable practices to which the Cambodian people fall victims.

The loss of judicial integrity and of other public institutions including the police and armed forces to spread fear among activists, detain human rights defenders and attack opposition parties are real cause for great concern. The main objective of such form of governance is to weaken opposing voices and forces but not to totally eliminate them as so the façade of democracy can be maintained.

I specifically made a plea for the women who are victims of human trafficking, of violence and of forced evictions and land grabbings. To silence the victims through oppression is to spread a culture of fear and it is gross violations of human rights.

We call on the United States to:

1. Support the role and existence of a Loyal Opposition whose leader has the legal and fundamental right to defend and protect the people without fear of prosecution. It is a Loyal Opposition that is allocated a budget and sufficient technical resources and a Loyal Opposition that has access to information and the power for checks and balances. It is a Loyal Opposition that can have access to state media to communicate with the people;

2. Support the principles of free and fair elections. A seal of recognition of elections that fall below international standards has grave consequences to democracy and can further legitimize dictatorship.

3. Re-activate and continue its assistance to programs to raise public awareness of corruption and the strengthening of national institutions to put an end to the system of patronage so that quality of public services can be guaranteed for the benefit of the people.

4. Ensure that Cambodian armed forces trained by the United States are not involved in cracking down on demonstrators, workers and government critics.

Secretary Clinton urged the opposition to hold further talks with the U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, Carol Rodley for specific ways for the US government to address the needs of the opposition and civil society.

The visit of Secretary Clinton at the heels of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visit is a historic event and a strong signal of support for human rights and democracy in Cambodia.

Mu Sochua's Blog: Prioritizing Women’s Issues in Cambodia

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