Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Cambodia (Ratification: 1999)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received.

The Committee notes the comments on the application of the Convention submitted by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in a communication of 10 August 2006. The ICFTU refers to matters already raised and alleges a permanent harassment against the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association, the arrests and disappearance of trade union leaders, police and military violence against strikers and the conviction of two innocent men for the murder of a trade union leader. In this respect, the Committee recalls that the right of workers’ and employers’ organizations can only be exercised in a climate that is free from violence, pressure or threats of any kind against leaders and members of these organizations and it is for governments to ensure that this principle is respected. The Committee requests the Government to send its observations on all these serious comments, as well as on the ICFTU comments of 2005 (the exclusion of civil servants from the scope of the Labour Law, the limitations to the right to elect union representatives freely and the restrictions to the right to strike notably by imposing a minimum service requirement in all enterprises regardless of whether they are public utilities, the non-recognition of the Cambodian Construction Trade Union Federation (CCTUF), the murder of two trade union leaders, threats against unionists, intimidation, harassment and physical attacks and that strikes and protests met with violent police repression).

The Committee is addressing a request directly to the Government.