CONTENTS

Objectives 

Lobby and Advocacy activities generate support from local, regional, and international communities for the protection of human rights in Cambodia. The Lobby and Advocacy programs raise human rights and other development issues affecting the protection of human rights to relevant, influential people and state bodies. ADHOC’s goal is to promote legislation that protects the rights of all Cambodian people.  

Functions 

ADHOC participates actively in local, regional and international seminars and forums on issues related to human rights. At present, ADHOC has one staff member in the executive committee of the NGO Forum, one in the Environment Working Group, one in the Civil Society Working Group, and one part time researcher/coordinator on the Structural Adjustment Policies Review Initiative (SAPRI). 

Occasionally, depending on political developments or outside demands, ADHOC will conduct research and produce documents to highlight concerns and give recommendations on human rights and development in Cambodia. 

Lobby and Advocacy activities are taken up by the Heads of Section in the central office, the Secretary General, and primarily by the President. Generally, the Heads of Section in the central office and the Secretary General are occupied with Lobby and Advocacy activities at the local level, whereas the President represents ADHOC at the regional and international level. 

The Royal Government of Cambodia has requested NGOs and members of civil society to provide their comments on drafts of various legislation that are crucial to the development of Cambodia’s democratic system of government. ADHOC has actively participated in a number of working groups that submitted comments on draft laws to the Council of Ministers. Some of the laws currently being drafted are:  the Land Law, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Penal Code, the Statute on Judges, the Law on the Organization of the Courts, the NGO Law, the Law on Arms, Explosives and Munition (see NGO forum website), and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal Law. 

Alone or in coalitions with others, such as the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, ADHOC is involved in lobbying with the Royal Cambodian Government and Cambodia’s bilateral and multilateral donors to bring about changes in the human rights situation in the country. Lobbying takes place in the form of meetings, letters, issuing statements and press releases, publishing reports and publications,  and organizing workshops and conferences. Issues that have been in the spotlight recently include necessary reforms of the judiciary, the proposed tribunal to try the former leaders of the Khmer Rouge,  and good governance.  

In important and serious cases of human rights violations, the HRAC uses the international networks of its member organizations to bring cases under the attention of organizations, media and concerned individuals within and outside of Cambodia.