Measure comes amid sustained crackdown on opponents of the ruling Cambodian Folks’s Social gathering.
Cambodian lawmakers have handed a legislation giving the federal government the facility to strip citizenship from folks who “collude” with overseas international locations.
The legislation handed on Monday empowers authorities to revoke the citizenship of anybody convicted of conspiring with overseas international locations, scheming in opposition to Cambodian pursuits, or committing acts resulting in “destruction of sovereignty, territorial integrity and nationwide safety”.
The laws was accredited by all however 5 lawmakers within the 125-member Nationwide Meeting, which is dominated by the long-governing Cambodian Folks’s Social gathering.
Beneath the legislation, revocation of citizenship is to be determined by a committee established on the request of Inside Minister Sar Sokha.
Whereas the laws should nonetheless be accredited by Cambodia’s higher home and the king, these steps are broadly thought of formalities.
The measure comes amid a sustained crackdown on opponents of the governing celebration, the political automobile of former strongman chief Hun Sen and his son, present Prime Minister Hun Manet.
In June, Hun Sen, who dominated Cambodia for greater than three many years earlier than his son took the reins in 2023, mentioned Cambodia wanted to take motion in opposition to nationals who “aspect with overseas nations”.
Quite a few distinguished political figures have fled Cambodia to keep away from arrest amid the crackdown, together with Sam Rainsy and Mu Sochua, the cofounders of the banned Cambodia Nationwide Rescue Social gathering.
Earlier than the parliamentary vote on the legislation, a coalition of fifty rights teams on Sunday warned that the laws would have “a disastrously chilling impact on the liberty of speech of all Cambodian residents”.
“The potential for abuse within the implementation of this vaguely worded legislation to focus on folks on the idea of their ethnicity, political views, speech, and activism is just too excessive to just accept,” the group mentioned.
“The federal government has many powers, however they need to not have the facility to arbitrarily determine who’s and isn’t a Cambodian.”
