Cambodia - November 2022

Police arrested labor leader Chhim Sithar for the second time this year, in what domestic and international rights groups and the US State Department condemned as emblematic of the Cambodian government’s harassment and repression of core labor rights. Sithar was arrested returning from a labor conference in Australia on the grounds she had violated the terms of her probation stemming from her previous arrest. Neither Sithar nor her legal team had previously been informed of any conditions of her probation.

The Cambodian government and large employers began increasing pressure on organized labour and activists in 2020 under the guise of coronavirus-related restrictions, and Sithar’s arrest is a further signal that such measures are likely to become permanent.

Sources: The Diplomat, Human Rights Watch