Amnesty International*

Today I went to an Amnesty International Press Conference on forced eviction in Cambodia. Cambodian women are increasingly at the forefront of the battle against a wave of forced evictions sweeping the country.“Eviction and resistance in Cambodia: Five women tell their stories” is a documentary that details, through first-hand testimony, the stories of Hong, Mai, Sophal, Heap and Vanny, women who have faced or continue to resist forced eviction from their homes and land.

In Cambodia, women are at the forefront of the fight against forced evictions. Many have taken the lead in their communities’ struggle for justice, putting themselves at risk to defend their communities. Tens of thousands of people have been forcibly evicted across Cambodia, in both rural and urban areas while Indigenous people face expulsion from their traditional land.

Mai, 48, a mother from the Province of Oddar Meanchey, in north-west Cambodia, was pregnant in 2009 when she watched her home go up in flames. Her house, possessions, clothes, all went up in smoke and nothing was left. Her house and 118 others in her village, Bos, were bulldozed and burned to the ground by 150 police, military, and others believed to be workers employed by a company that was granted a concession over a large swath of land, including Bos village, for a sugar plantation. In October 2009, Mai was imprisoned for eight months for violating forestry laws when she travelled to the capital Phnom Penh to complain to Hun Sen, the Prime Minister, about the eviction. She was released in June 2010, but only after signing an agreement to relinquish the rights to her land. She now has little to provide for herself and her eight children.

Mai with two other women - all victims of forced eviction* 

Rapid economic development within a newly privatized land market has seen an increase in forced eviction across Cambodia. Tens of thousands of people across Cambodia are unlawfully losing their homes because of the demands of big businesses. Forced eviction often leads to loss of possessions and livelihood, the break up of communities, and a deterioration of a family’s mental and physical well being.

Access to education and health services can be disrupted. Many victims of forced eviction receive inadequate compensation and are resettled in remote areas. Forced evictions violate a person’s right to adequate housing, and are banned under international human rights treaties to which Cambodia is a state party.