Long Prison Sentences for Reporting on Pollution and Criticizing the Government
(San Francisco) – States and United Nations officials meeting in Geneva at the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council should demand the quashing of convictions and long prison terms handed out on July 2 to ten environmental activists from the award-winning group Mother Nature, Climate Rights International said today. The charges stem from Mother Nature’s documentation of waste run-off into Phnom Penh’s Tonle Sap river, as well as the organization’s broader demands that the Cambodian government do more to protect the environment and public health.
On July 2 a politically-controlled court in Phnom Penh convicted the ten activists of plotting against the state and, in three cases, of insulting the king. The court sentenced seven of the activists to six years in prison, while three, including Spanish co-founder Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson — who has been banned from entering Cambodia — received eight-year sentences and fines.
“Documenting environmental degradation and the devastating impact on the rights, lives, and livelihoods of local communities and Indigenous Peoples is not a crime,” said Brad Adams, executive director at Climate Rights International. “While Mother Nature activists courageously stand up for the protection of Cambodia’s natural environment and future, the regime’s dictatorial behavior is once again on full public display. Governments should demand the immediate and unconditional quashing of these outrageous verdicts against peaceful young activists.”
The ten activists faced charges under Article 453 of the Criminal Code for plotting against the state. Ly Chandaravuth, Thun Ratha, Long Kunthea, Phuon Keoraksmey, Binh Piseth, Pok Khoeuy, and Rai Raksa received six-year prison sentences. Sun Rotha, Yim Leanghy and Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson received eight-year sentences for plotting against the state and insulting the king under Article 437.
After the court’s pronouncement of the verdicts and sentences, the activists present — Chandaravuth, Ratha, Keoraksmey, and Kunthea — were immediately arrested outside the courtroom, where they had peacefully gathered with supporters calling for justice and respect for environmental rights.
Today’s verdicts represent yet another chapter in the Hun family regime’s abusive playbook designed to silence dissent and avoid accountability for its own criminality, said Climate Rights International. For more than four decades, former Prime Minister Hun Sen and now his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet, have ruled the country with an iron fist, using violence and intimidation to brutally crack down on peaceful activism, dissent, and political opposition. Laws have been weaponized to suppress basic rights, independent reporting, and accountability for regime violations and corruption. The regime has effectively dismantled all opposition parties, shuttered independent media, jailed political opposition members, journalists, labor rights activists, human rights defenders, and environmental activists, and forced others into exile.
Mother Nature is a youth-led Cambodian environmental group renowned for their peaceful activism on behalf of environmental protection and the protection of the rights and livelihoods of local communities and Indigenous Peoples. It has a history of successful, often humorous public campaigns in Cambodia, including halting a China-led hydro-dam project and ending sand exports from Koh Kong province. Their efforts have earned them significant international respect and recognition, including the Right Livelihood Award in 2023, also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”
“The ludicrous charges of ‘plotting against the state,’ when Mother Nature is simply trying to protect people and the planet, should lead to a strong reaction from members of the UN Human Rights Council, who are meeting right now in Geneva,” Adams said. “The United States, European Union, Japan, and other democratic states can no longer stand by and conduct business as usual with a government that ruthlessly persecutes environmental and other human rights defenders. They must make it clear that repression will come with a price.”
