Australia thanks the Special Rapporteur for his report and welcomes Cambodia’s ongoing engagement with the Special Rapporteur and OHCHR.

Australia is pleased to partner with Cambodia and provide constructive support to improve its human rights situation and democratic governance. We positively note Cambodia’s ongoing work on preventing gender-based violence and furthering disability reform - areas Australia is pleased to support.

Australia shares many of the Special Rapporteur’s concerns about restrictions on civil and political rights and urges Cambodia to apply the ten-point ‘Cambodian Human Rights Action Agenda’. We encourage Cambodia to allow the expression of peaceful, dissenting views in all forms, and move towards an open political environment.

We call on Cambodia to allow Kem Sokha, and all opposition politicians and activists, to participate in democratic processes, free from harassment or imprisonment. We encourage Cambodia to ensure genuinely representative elections occur in 2023, free of intimidation of voters and party officials.

Australia seeks the Special Rapporteur’s views on how the Council can assist Cambodia to address growing concerns of online scams resulting in human trafficking, forced labour and other forms of exploitation.