PHNOM PENH: The Ministry of Social Affairs and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) organized a training course on the right to justice for people with disabilities in the judiciary on October 31 at Phnom Penh’s Sofitel.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, OHCHR representative Roueida El Hage, said that the program was part of a United Nations program to promote respect for human rights and more specifically, the rights of persons with disabilities in Cambodia. She added that Cambodia has become a party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which ensures effective guarantees for access to justice for persons with disabilities.
"The Convention also explicitly calls for states to ensure effective access to justice for persons with disabilities. Ensuring this right requires the provision of procedural and age-appropriate accommodations to facilitate the effective role of persons with disabilities as direct and indirect participants in all legal proceedings, including at investigative and other preliminary stages,” she said. “It also specifically calls for states to promote appropriate training for those working in the field of administration of justice."
Today's training was attended by 25 participants serving as judges, prosecutors, clerks and court officials from Phnom Penh, Kampong Speu, Sihanoukville and Kampong Cham.
Speaking on behalf of the Minister of Social Affairs, Secretary of State Em Chan Makara said that the training course provides new information for legal officers and law enforcers in Cambodia to implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities using Universal Human Rights Standards, International Standards and National Laws to protect persons with disabilities.
He added that under the leadership of former Prime Minister Hun Sen, current Prime Minister Hun Manet and Minister of Social Affairs Chea Somethy, consideration for persons with disabilities has always been taken care of and their rights protected.
"People with disabilities in Cambodia have full rights as stated in the law and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and include the right to participate in political and public life, which makes people with disabilities live in society with equality before the law like people without disabilities,” he said.
Sec. Em Chan Makara, who is also Secretary-General of the Disability Action Council, raised concerns about inheritance rights of people with autism and Down syndrome. He also brought up issues related to using sign language for deaf people in court and asked the workshop’s participants to add ideas on how to increase the protection of persons with disabilities within the judiciary.
Cambodia ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on December 20, 2012 and began enforcing it on January 19, 2013. This is the third time that OHCHR, in collaboration with the Council for Disability Action, has organized this training following similar ones in Battambang and Siem Reap.
