Human Rights

In light of the first week of the 37th Session on the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Women’s Commission of the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation has revealed encouraging outcomes from the conference.

Recent events have refocused international attention on the dignity of the Death Penalty in the modern era of democracy and human rights. The Non-violent Radical Party, in cooperation with Hands Off Cain, are at present engaged in a campaign to present to the United Nations General Assembly a resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on all executions.

The support and recognition for the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation as an indigenous organization representing millions of Khmer-Krom people living in the lower Mekong Delta is certainly on the increase as an overwhelming three hundred Long Beach residents have flocked to listen to KKF speak about their activities.

Only days after their conference in Taipei, Taiwan entitled, “Eighth General Assembly of Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO)”, in which the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) is a member, the KKF delegates have continued their campaign to Tacoma, Washington State last weekend.

Returning to France for the first time in a long time, over fifteen KKF representatives have continued their campaign to Paris just days after their successful three day conference in The Hague, Netherlands.

An idea taking rooting only 13 months ago, the conference on Self Determination in International Law has exceeded the expectations of the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) and the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) delegations.

Symposium: "The Right to Self-determination in International Law", 29 September – 1 October 2006, The Hague

Opening Session: Speech by Marino Busdachin, UNPO General Secretary

The subject of this conference seems to be especially important for the international community. It is fulfilling a major gap in the last years on analysing and debating the major question of the right to self-determination and its place in the context of the wider purposes of International Law.

Major conferences and studies in the 1990s found undoubtedly that the right to self-determination is conferred on peoples by international law itself and not by states. And, following, that its exercise must be given content in an International Law system of guarantees.

It is a noble deed that all Khmer national and international communities are participating. Such noble actions are motivated by generosity and humanity which all people are contributing to put an end to the suffering of the Khmer Krom People in the former Cochin-China or current South Vietnam. The purpose is, through peaceful measures which have been guaranteed by the international laws, to demand and to save fundamental rights, freedoms and dignities for tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and millions of indigenous Khmer people in Kampuchea-Krom.

By Jim Yost

In an earlier post, an observer questioned the appropriateness of a demonstration by Khmer Krom that expressed their opposition to policies and practices of the Vietnamese regime.

Perhaps such a question is rooted in ignorance of the facts of history...past and present...or is a result of innocent naiveté.

Whatever label may be applied to the Vietnamese regime, ... be it communistic, tyrannical, dictatorial, etc., ... is not as important as the acknowledgement that the oppression and state-sponsored subjugation of the Khmer Krom continues. Far from "just denouncing it now," the Khmer Krom have denounced communism since its inception in their environment, it is inherently in conflict with the Khmer Krom culture, especially the religious traditions and the fabric of family and village life.