Civil Society
Chairman 2005-2007 Alliance for Freedom of Expression in Cambodia (AFEC) • Led a yellow ribbon campaign to demand freedom of expression • Organized and led two historical marches: a three-day Buddhist march demanding the government to decriminalize defamation charges and a fifteen-day rights march promoting freedom of expression, non-violence and political tolerance The Buddhist march resulted in the abolition of jail time for defamation in 2006.
President 2002-2007 Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) • Established nationwide networks of more than 9,000 grassroots activists • Conducted human rights trainings and public forums at commune level across Cambodia • Founded CCHR’s Voice of Democracy radio program, a news radio program that focused on human rights issues
Chairman 2000-2007 Cambodian Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism • Collaborated with other country members of the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism to advocate for respect of human rights in the region • Collaborated with members of Cambodian Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, which consists of representatives of government institutions, parliamentary human rights commissions, and NGOs to promote respect for human rights in Cambodia • Advocated for an independent court in Cambodia and establishment of an independent national human rights commission
Chairman 1991-1992 Human Rights Vigilance of Cambodia • Founded Human Rights Vigilance of Cambodia, the first human rights organization in Cambodia • Raised awareness of human rights violations in Cambodia through international advocacy • Accepted complaints and provided legal assistance to victims of rights violation
Read more about this topic: Kem Sokha
Famous quotes containing the words civil and/or society:
“This declared indifference, but as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I can not but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world ... and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“The best conversation is rare. Society seems to have agreed to treat fictions as realities, and realities as fictions; and the simple lover of truth, especially if on very high grounds, as a religious or intellectual seeker, finds himself a stranger and alien.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)