Citizen Advisor provide legal counseling to citizens in Stung Sen district, Kampong Thom province.

The project been implemented in cooperation with a partner, ISFOL, an Italian research and vocational training Institute. The project started in January 2006 for a period of 2 years and has been carried out in Dang Tong and Chhouk district of Kampot province and in Boseth, Phnom Srouch and Tpong district of Kampong Speu province. The project consists of the extension of the network of ombudsmen in two new provinces to provide legal counselling and law dissemination to the rural population to enhance the protection and preservation of human rights, and prevent conflict.

After intense field visits to assess the situation and meetings with the potential citizen advisors, the Institute selected in June 2006 72 citizen advisors to receive training so that they could provide legal counselling to the rural villagers.

As of May 2007, 72 citizen advisors and 18 master trainers have been trained by KID's trainer on democracy, human rights, Family Law, Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence, Adultery Law, Land Law and Criminal Law.

During the training, main group discussion techniques such as brainstorming, simulations, role play and case study were introduced and experienced by participants. The manual on "Learning Methodologies and Technique" for the training of the master trainers has been developed by the ISFOL experts and sent to KID for translation in Khmer to be distributed to the participants. Manuals on the above topics have been also distributed to them. A compilation of the curriculum on democracy, human rights, Family Law, Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence, Adultery Law and Land Law, has been printed for wide distribution to the citizen advisors, villagers and other NGOs. With the technical assistance from ISFOL, an e-learning platform (www.kid-elearning.org) has been set up to allow the citizen advisors to search the Internet and the Cambodian laws to enrich their knowledge.

In the meantime, the master trainers and KID's trainer conducted pilot training on Family Law and Land Law in the provinces of Kampong Cham, Kratie, Seamreap, Kampong Thom, Prey Veng and Svay Rieng for citizen advisors based in those provinces, villagers, teachers, village chiefs, commune councillors, commune policemen and students. A total of 298 participants were attending the training.

The Institute notes there is a high interest in the training among the population especially the local authorities who are eager to learn methods for solving problems in the community. The common citizens wanted to learn to protect their interests and those of the community, and promised to disseminate knowledge to other villagers to promote the respect of laws in the community. They emphasized the importance of the training, as it responds to their needs: knowledge of the law would assist in protecting the rights of the individual. They requested that the Institute conduct more training.

Relating to the project, the Institute carries out the trial implementation in May 2007 to introduce the citizen advisors to the district and commune authorities. The citizen advisors will seek the authorities' support and cooperation in their efforts to contribute in the programs to provide protection of citizens' rights and a peaceful conflict resolution outside the court system.