MEMBERS of Parliament passed legislation allowing people who “collude” with foreign countries to be stripped of citizenship, a law rights groups fear will be used to banish dissent.
Rights monitors have long accused Cambodia’s government of using draconian laws to stifle opposition and legitimate political debate.
A sitting of 120 lawmakers in the National Assembly, including Prime Minister Hun Manet, unanimously passed the Bill, empowering authorities to strip nationality from citizens for “an act of collusion” with a foreign power.
The law “will have a disastrously chilling effect on the freedom of speech of all Cambodian citizens”, a coalition of 50 rights groups warned in a statement on Sunday.
“The potential for abuse in the implementation of this vaguely worded law to target people on the basis of their ethnicity, political opinions, speech, and activism is simply too high to accept,” it added.
“The government has many powers, but it should not have the power to arbitrarily decide who is and is not a Cambodian.”
Under the Bill, citizenship can also be stripped for acts leading to “destruction of sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security”.
Revocation will be directed by a committee established at the request of Interior Minister Sar Sokha.
Ahead of the vote, he urged lawmakers to pass the legislation because Cambodia was facing threats from “a small handful” of turncoat citizens working at the behest of neighbouring Thailand.
Five days of border clashes erupted between the countries in a territorial dispute last month that killed at least 43 people.
Cambodia’s plan to curtail citizenship rights, however, predates that spate of fighting.
The unconditional right to citizenship had been enshrined in Cambodia’s constitution, but was excised by an amendment passed earlier last month saying nationality could be “determined by law”.
The legislation must still be passed by Cambodia’s upper house before being enacted by the head of state, but both are considered rubber-stamp steps.
Citizenship can be revoked on grounds of treason or disloyalty in 15 European Union countries, but only for naturalised citizens in eight of those, according to a European Parliament briefing in February.
Last month, Amnesty International called the legislation a “heinous violation of international law”.
“It comes against a backdrop where the Cambodian authorities have completely failed to safeguard the independence and integrity of the country’s courts,” said regional research director Montse Ferrer.
“This has enabled the government’s authoritarian practices to continue unchecked, such as its persecution of opposition leaders, activists and independent journalists.”
Scores of opposition activists have been jailed or face legal cases filed by Cambodian authorities.
Opposition leader Kem Sokha was sentenced in 2023 to 27 years in prison for treason – a charge he has repeatedly denied – and was immediately placed under house arrest. — AFP
