Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, yesterday afternoon held talks with Dr. Vitit Muntarbhorn, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia via videoconference.
H.E. Eang Sophalleth, Assistant to Samdech Techo Prime Minister, told reporters after the virtual meeting that Dr. Vitit Muntarbhorn congratulated the Royal Government of Cambodia on its efforts against COVID-19 and on the success of the vaccination programme.
On the occasion, Dr. Vitit Muntarbhorn sought Samdech Techo Prime Minister’s recommendations on four important points: priority of the Royal Government of Cambodia on human rights issues; Cambodia’s lessons learnt in preventing the COVID-19 spread in prison; expansion of the economic, social, and political spheres of Cambodia; and what he should do to support Cambodia in the field of human rights.
In response, Samdech Techo Prime Minister said the first priority of Cambodia from the beginning is the right to life of the Cambodian people in accordance with the Constitution and international conventions, and to maintain this, Cambodia has to maintain peace and stability along with the vaccination of people in this context of COVID-19.
For the second point, he continued, Cambodia has been paying close attention to all, especially to female convicts by setting up new facilities for them to avoid contracting COVID-19. Moreover, the Royal Government has already provided all prisoners the full doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and is preparing to give them the booster dose as well.
On the third point, Samdech Techo Hun Sen said Cambodia wants to have a good social, economic and political environment with a democratic space, and for the last point, what Cambodia wants is a mutual trust, and constructive cooperation that does not blame each other.