Cambodia MPs pass law allowing stripping of citizenship
The law ‘will have a disastrously chilling effect on the freedom of speech of all Cambodian citizens.’
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The law ‘will have a disastrously chilling effect on the freedom of speech of all Cambodian citizens.’
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PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodian parliamentarians passed on Monday legislation allowing people who collude with foreign countries to be stripped of citizenship, a law rights groups fear will be used to banish dissent.
All 120 lawmakers in attendance at the National Assembly session, including Prime Minister Hun Manet, voted unanimously to approve the bill.
Rights monitors have long accused Cambodia’s government of using draconian laws to stifle opposition and legitimate political debate.
A coalition of 50 rights groups issued a statement on Sunday warning the law “will have a disastrously chilling effect on the freedom of speech of all Cambodian citizens.”
“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 they should not have the power to arbitrarily decide who is and is not a Cambodian.”
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.
‘Determined by law’
Citizenship can be revoked on grounds of treason or disloyalty in 15 European Union countries, and only for naturalized citizens in eight of those, according to a European Parliament briefing in February.
The unconditional right to citizenship was enshrined in Cambodia’s constitution, but lawmakers last month amended it to say “receiving, losing and revoking Khmer nationality shall be determined by law.”
