UN envoy, US ambassador lead rare human rights march in Cambodia

The UN's special envoy for human rights and the US ambassador to Cambodia on Monday led a rare march to demand social justice reforms in the impoverished kingdom.

UN rights representative Yash Ghai and US ambassador Joseph Mussomeli joined 500 local rights activists, who carried banners calling for an end to corruption.

"The lesson therefore is that the struggle for human rights and human dignity is unending," Ghai, who arrived here last week, told a rally in Phnom Penh to mark international Human Rights Day.

"The ultimate custodians of human rights and social justice must be the people themselves, just as they must be the custodians of political and economic sovereignty," he added.

Ghai, a Kenyan lawyer who has clashed repeatedly with the government over his blunt appraisals of Cambodia's rights record, said earlier this year that impunity for human rights violations threatened the rule of law there.

He also wrote a report that accused the government of systematically abusing human rights to keep a grip on power.

Relations between the government and UN rights envoys have historically been poor, with Prime Minister Hun Sen calling Ghai and his predecessor Peter Leuprecht "stupid". He has also described Ghai as "rude" and a "god without virtue".

Mussomeli called Ghai a "sincere human rights advocate", but said he had met no one from the government during his current visit.

Among the top human rights concerns in Cambodia is land grabbing, which Ghai and previous envoys have warned could lead to mass unrest as more Cambodians become destitute.

Land seizures by government and military officials as well as businesses have left thousands of families homeless.

Rampant corruption and a lack of credible land records -- most of which were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s -- have made land disputes increasingly common in Cambodia.