Jurist Proposed Cambodia constitutional amendment criticized for permitting citizenship revocation

[Dadparvar]

Amnesty International on Friday condemned a recent amendment to the Cambodian Constitution approved by the National Assembly that permits the revocation of Khmer citizenship, warning that it could be weaponized to silence dissent and leave individuals at risk of statelessness.

Amnesty International’s Regional Research Director Montse Ferrer stated:

Revoking citizenship often violates human rights, and when done in a way that renders people stateless is a dangerous step that is prohibited under international law. Revoking a person’s citizenship must not become a political tool to silence and intimidate critical voices, and Cambodian authorities must immediately reverse the amendment, end their authoritarian practices and uphold their international human rights obligations and the rule of law. The international community should publicly condemn the Cambodian government’s heinous proposed amendment to the constitution.

In commenting on the latest development, Senate President Hun Sen publicly endorsed a proposal to amend Article 33 of the Cambodian Constitution, which currently guarantees that no citizen can be deprived of their nationality, asserting that citizenship should be revoked from “Cambodians who side with foreign nations to harm our country.” This rhetoric, delivered amid escalating border tensions with Thailand, underpinned the National Assembly’s swift approval of the amendment, prompting alarm among legal experts, civil society organizations, and international human rights groups.

Critics argue that the amendment opens the door to arbitrary deprivation of nationality and is legally incompatible with both domestic constitutional guarantees and Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which safeguards the right to nationality and prohibits unjust denial of citizenship, a jus cogens norm increasingly recognized as customary international law and affirmed in UN Resolution 20/5 of the Human Rights Committee. A jus cogens norm, Latin for “compelling norm,” refers to a body of fundamental principles that are so essential that member states are not permitted to derogate from it due to the grave consequences that will arise as a result. Additionally, the constitutionality of the amendment to the citizenship provision is difficult to address as the Cambodian judiciary is controlled by the Cambodian People’s Party, therefore underscoring concerns that the judiciary does not have independence in coming to just decisions.

Rights advocates also note that the judiciary in Cambodia is unable to act as a check and balance on the decisions of the country’s executive body, further enabling the descent of the country into an authoritarian regime and resulting in the persecution of activists and journalists. Becoming stateless in the aftermath of having one’s citizenship revoked means that individuals become invisible in their own country, being denied basic rights and access to healthcare, education, freedom of movement, and employment. Article 8(1) of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness further prohibits the deprivation of nationality if it would result in statelessness, echoing international sentiment on the consequences of being rendered stateless.





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