The Cambodian government has established a national authority that would settle civil disputes separate from the country’s backlogged court system.
Prime Minister Hun Manet announced on Monday that the National Authority for Dispute Resolution Out of the Judiciary could offer a quicker way to resolve civil litigation through mediation.
Decisions would be considered final and would have the same effect as a court’s verdict, he said at an inauguration ceremony for a provincial administration building in Kampong Speu province.
The authority won’t be a substitute for the judiciary, but an additional and voluntary option, he said.
Cambodia’s judiciary has long been criticized for its lack of independence. A statement from nearly 140 civil society organizations last year called on the court system and other relevant institutions to “strengthen the implementation of the legal system” and “to be fully fair and in accordance with the principles of the rule of law.”
Legal scholar Vorn Chanlout told Radio Free Asia that he worries that the new authority will make decisions without transparency, a process that would benefit the rich and powerful.
“We often see that the authorities – who are supposed to be neutral mediators – are biased toward those who have money and power,” he said. “They always close their eyes and ears and pretend not to see and hear the real problem of the people.”
But if there is some commitment to neutrality, the new authority could pave the way for more widespread trust in the government, according to Seung Senkaruna, a spokesman for the rights group Adhoc.
“We know that in the past, all officials performing their duties from the grassroots to the national level, from the lower courts to the higher courts have been distrusted by the people due to the [improper] implementation of the law,” he said. “There are issues related to corruption, misuse of roles and benefits.”
The authority will be chaired by a deputy prime minister and will include senior ministers and other top government officials, according to a press release from the Government Spokesperson’s Office.
The government of former Prime Minister Hun Sen has set up a number of other national authorities or working groups to address various problems.
For example, the National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution was created in 2006 following an agreement between Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy.
However, that authority was "largely ineffective in securing land rights for the poor" while also enabling "greater central government control of other institutions involved in land management," according to the World Bank.
Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.