The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of Mr. Sam Rainsy, leader of the opposition and a member of parliament at the time of the submission of the communication, and to the resolution it adopted at its 190th session (April 2012),

Taking into account the communication from the Chairman of the First Commission of the National Assembly dated 9 October 2012,

Recalling the following information on file:

• Having had his parliamentary immunity lifted in a closed session by a show of hands and without being afforded the opportunity to defend himself, Mr. Sam Rainsy was prosecuted and, in judgments handed down in January and September 2010, sentenced to 12 years in prison and a heavy fine for: (a) having pulled out border post #185 marking the Cambodian/Vietnamese border in a village in Svay Rieng province and inciting racial hatred; and (b) divulging false information by having published a map reportedly showing a false border with Viet Nam; on 20 September 2011, the Appeal Court reduced the prison sentence for the second charge from ten to seven years;

• The verdict whereby Mr. Sam Rainsy was found guilty of destroying public property was upheld in March 2011 by the Supreme Court, and the National Assembly stripped Mr. Sam Rainsy of his parliamentary mandate on 15 March 2011 by virtue of Article 34 of the Law on the Election of Members of the National Assembly, which stipulates that members convicted at final instance of a crime and sentenced to imprisonment forfeit their membership in the National Assembly,

Recalling that, according to the members of the Cambodian delegation heard during the 126th IPU Assembly (Kampala, March-April 2012), Mr. Sam Rainsy should have raised his concerns regarding the border between Viet Nam and Cambodia in the National Assembly; recalling in this regard that, when opposition parliamentarians asked for a public parliamentary debate on the issue, the Government reportedly refused to take part, arguing that it had already provided all necessary explanations in the past,

Considering that, in his report of 16 July 2012 to the United Nations Human Rights Council (A/HRC/21/63), the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Cambodia stated that “respect for freedom of expression, opinion and assembly remains a principal concern in Cambodia (…) It appears that many Cambodians exercise self-censorship in what they say and write, provoked by a fear of arrest and detention. This holds particularly true in respect of people wishing to express views critical of those in power (…)”, and that “a political solution should be found to enable [Mr. Sam Rainsy], as the leader of the opposition, to play a full role in Cambodian politics. The Special Rapporteur believes that a concerted effort by the ruling and opposition parties towards reconciliation is in the interests of strong and deeper democratization of Cambodia”; recalling that, in his previous report of August 2011 (A/HRC/18/46), the Special Rapporteur expressed concern at the use of the judiciary for political ends and had the following to say regarding the Sam Rainsy case in particular: “The allegation made by the Government was that Mr. Sam Rainsy had manipulated a map to show that Viet Nam had encroached on the territory of Cambodia. In any properly functioning democracy, such political matters should be debated in the parliament and become a matter of public debate rather than the subject of a criminal case before courts. Scrutinizing the activities of the Government and requiring the Government to respond to any criticisms of its policy decisions is one of the basic functions of the leaders of opposition parties and they should not be subjected to criminal proceedings for discharging their responsibilities in a peaceful manner”; recalling that the Special Rapporteur recommends inter alia that “Parliament should safeguard the right to freedom of expression of its own members and protect their parliamentary immunity”,

1. Thanks the Chairman of the First Commission of the National Assembly for his communication;

2. Considers, however, that it provides no new information to dispel its long-standing concerns that Mr. Sam Rainsy’s removal of temporary border markers was a political gesture and that, consequently, the courts should never have been seized of the matter in the first place;

3. Regrets, therefore, that, with national parliamentary elections drawing near, it is still not possible for Mr. Sam Rainsy to return to Cambodia to make, as the country’s principal opposition leader, a meaningful contribution to free and fair elections in 2013;

4. Fully endorses the Special Rapporteur’s call on the ruling and opposition parties to work together with a view to resolving the situation so that Mr. Sam Rainsy can soon resume his place as a member of the National Assembly and stand as a candidate in the upcoming elections; wishes to ascertain what steps are being taken by either side for this purpose;

5. Requests the Secretary General to inform the competent authorities and the sources of this resolution;

6. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and to report back to it in due course.

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* The delegation of Cambodia expressed its reservation regarding the resolution.

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