III 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 279 

Reaffirming the commitment of the United States to promote democracy, 

human rights, and the rule of law in Cambodia. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 3, 2017 

Mr. MCCAIN (for himself and Mr. DURBIN) submitted the following resolution; 

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Reaffirming the commitment of the United States to promote 

democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in Cambodia. 

Whereas Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power in Cambodia since 1985 and is the longest-serving leader in 

Southeast Asia; 

Whereas the Paris Peace Accords in 1991 provided a vital 

framework, supported by the international community, 

intended to help Cambodia undertake a transition to democracy, including through elections and multiparty government; 

Whereas the United States Government, for more than 25 

years, has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in development aid and other types of assistance to the people 

of Cambodia and funded work in areas including civil society, capacity building for nongovernmental organizaVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:10 Oct 04, 2017 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR279.IS SR279

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tions (NGOs), global health, and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal; 

Whereas, despite decades of international attention and assistance to promote a pluralistic, multi-party democratic 

system in Cambodia, the Government of Cambodia continues to be undemocratically dominated by the ruling 

Cambodia People’s Party (CPP), which controls every 

agency and security apparatus of the state; 

Whereas the leadership of Cambodia’s security forces, including all of its top military and police commanders, sit on 

the Central Committee of the politburo of the CPP; 

Whereas the CPP controls Cambodia’s parliament and can 

pass legislation without any opposition, and has often 

passed laws that benefit its rule and weaken the capacity 

of the opposition to challenge it; 

Whereas each of the five elections that have taken place in 

Cambodia since 1991 were not conducted in circumstances that were free and fair, and each were 

marked by fraud, intimidation, violence, and the government’s misuse of legal mechanisms to weaken opposition 

candidates and parties; 

Whereas, in 2015, the CPP-controlled parliament passed the 

‘‘Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations’’, known as LANGO, which gave the government 

sweeping powers to revoke the registration of NGOs 

found to be operating with a political bias in a blatant 

attempt to restrict the legitimate work of civil society; 

Whereas, since the passage of LANGO, the Interior Ministry 

has announced that it was surveilling several civil society 

organizations and their employees for allegedly aiding 


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Cambodia’s opposition party, the Cambodia National 

Rescue Party (CNRP); 

Whereas both the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and 

the International Republican Institute (IRI) have a long 

history in Cambodia, engaging local partners and building capacity for civil society, democracy, and good governance; 

Whereas, on August 23, 2017, Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered the closure of NDI and the expulsion 

of its foreign staff on allegations that it had violated 

LANGO and was conspiring against Prime Minister Hun 

Sen; 

Whereas, on September 15, 2017, Prime Minister Hun Sen 

called for the withdrawal of all volunteers from the 

United States Peace Corps, which has operated in Cambodia since 2006 with 500 United States volunteers providing English language and healthcare training; 

Whereas the Government of Cambodia in 2016 arrested four 

senior staff members of the Cambodian Human Rights 

and Development Association (ADHOC), as well as a 

former ADHOC staff member and official on the National Election Committee (NEC), and held them in pretrial detention for 427 days until released on bail on 

June 29, 2017, in the wake of sustained international 

pressure; 

Whereas the Government of Cambodia arrested activist and 

women’s rights defender Tep Vanny in August 2016 and 

has kept her in prison for over a year; 

Whereas the prominent Cambodian political commentator 

Kem Ley was assassinated on July 10, 2016, five days 

after a senior Cambodian general publicly called on the 


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Cambodian Armed Forces to ‘‘eliminate and dispose of’’ 

anyone ‘‘fomenting social turmoil’’ in Cambodia; 

Whereas Kem Ley had been a frequent critic of Prime Minister Hun Sen, fueling concerns that his killing was politically motivated and ordered by higher authorities; 

Whereas the Government of Cambodia has taken several 

measures to restrict its media environment, including imposing a tax bill amounting to millions of dollars levied 

against independent media outlets that resulted in the 

closure of independent newspaper The Cambodian Daily 

in early September 2017; 

Whereas the Government of Cambodia has ordered several 

radio stations to stop the broadcasting of Radio Free 

Asia and Voice of America; 

Whereas the next general election in Cambodia is scheduled 

for July 29, 2018, and the CPP continues to use intimidation and misuse of legal mechanisms to weaken political opposition and media organizations in order to retain 

its power; 

Whereas the Cambodian parliament in 2017 passed two repressive amendments to Cambodia’s Law on Political 

Parties that allow authorities to dissolve political parties 

and ban party leaders from political activity, and which 

contain numerous restrictions tailored to create obstacles 

for opposition parties in an attempt to maintain the 

CPP’s hold on power; 

Whereas Kem Sokha, the President of CNRP, was arrested 

on September 3, 2017, and charged with treason and 

conspiring with the United States Government to overthrow the Government of Cambodia, and if convicted 


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faces up to 30 years in prison, which sets the stage for 

the CNRP to be dissolved; 

Whereas the United States Embassy in Cambodia has publicly called for the immediate release of Mr. Sokha and 

the removal of restrictions on civil society; 

Whereas the CNRP’s previous leader, Sam Rainsy, remains 

in exile due to an outstanding warrant for his arrest in 

a politically motivated criminal case; 

Whereas Human Rights Watch reported that local elections 

held in Cambodia on June 4, 2017, took place in a 

‘‘threatening environment hostile to free speech and genuine political participation, leading to elections that were 

neither free nor fair’’; 

Whereas international election monitoring groups reported 

fundamental flaws in the electoral process and violations 

of Cambodia’s election campaign rules during June’s 

local election; 

Whereas the Interior Ministry of Cambodia demanded that 

two election-monitoring organizations cease their activities just months after the local elections for allegedly violating the LANGO law, which will allow the CPP to continue to increase restrictions on election monitoring as 

the 2018 national elections approach; 

Whereas, despite irregularities in the electoral process, the 

CNRP made significant gains in local elections compared 

to previous cycles, making clear that national elections in 

2018, if they are conducted freely and fairly, will be 

tightly contested; 

Whereas national elections in 2018 will be closely watched to 

ensure openness and fairness, and to monitor whether all 


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political parties and civil society groups are allowed to 

freely participate; 

Whereas, on September 7, 2017, the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate reported out the fiscal year 2018 

appropriations bill for the Department of State and foreign operations (S. 1780), which restricted any funds to 

the central Government of Cambodia unless it has 

‘‘ceased efforts to intimidate civil society and the political 

opposition in Cambodia, is credibly investigating the murder of social and political activists’’ and ‘‘is supporting 

the conduct of free and fair elections in Cambodia 

through a non-partisan election commission; fair election 

processes; open and inclusive participation, to include the 

return of exiled former opposition leaders and the release 

of jailed opposition leaders and civil society activists; respect for freedoms of assembly, speech, and the press, 

and credible post-election dispute resolution mechanism’’; 

and 

Whereas S. 1780 also includes language addressing the ‘‘inadmissibility of Cambodia officials who undermine democracy in Cambodia’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) reaffirms the commitment of the United 

3 States to promote democracy, human rights, and the 

4 rule of law in Cambodia; 

5 (2) condemns all forms of political violence in 

6 Cambodia, and urges the cessation of ongoing 

7 human rights violations; 

8 (3) urges Prime Minister Hun Sen and the 

9 Cambodian People’s Party to end all harassment 


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1 and intimidation of Cambodia’s opposition and fos2 ter an environment where democracy can thrive and 

3 flourish; 

4 (4) urges the Department of State, in associa5 tion with the Office of Foreign Assets Control 

6 (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury, to con7 sider placing all senior Cambodian government offi8 cials implicated in the abuses noted above on the 

9 Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list; 

10 (5) urges the Government of Cambodia to free 

11 Mr. Kem Sokha immediately and unconditionally; 

12 (6) calls on the Government of Cambodia to re13 spect freedom of the press and the rights of its citi14 zens to freely assemble, protest, and speak out 

15 against the government; 

16 (7) supports electoral reform efforts in Cam17 bodia and free and fair elections in 2018 monitored 

18 by international observers; and 

19 (8) urges the President to communicate to the 

20 Government of Cambodia that if it ignores the rec21 ommendations of the international community and 

22 maintains the current restrictive and intimidating 

23 political environment, the United States Government 

24 will have no choice but to determine that the 2018 

25 elections were not conducted freely or fairly because 


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1 the results could not be an expression of the demo2 cratic will of the Cambodian people. 

Æ 


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