Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

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Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

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Cambodian farmers sue Thai sugar group Mitr Phol over alleged land grab
Reuters Staff
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Farmers from Cambodia have filed a lawsuit in a Thai civil court against Asia’s largest sugar producer, accusing it of rights abuses after it allegedly kicked farmers off their land, a rights group said on Monday.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of 3,000 people, is the first class-action lawsuit filed in a Thai court by plaintiffs from another country against a Thai company operating outside Thailand, the group, Inclusive Development International, said in a statement.

The plaintiffs accuse sugar producer Mitr Phol [MIDSMP.UL] of violently displacing them in Cambodia’s northwestern Oddar Meanchey province between 2008 and 2009 to make way for plantations.

“Since Mitr Phol took my land, my family and I have suffered tremendously,” Ma Okchoeurn, one of the affected people, said in a press release issued by the rights group.

“My house was burned down. I was arrested without reason, and as a result my family had nothing to eat and had to collect trash to survive. To this day, I have no land or house.”

Mitr Phol said in a statement emailed to Reuters it had invested in Cambodia in “a good faith partnership” with the government and got temporary concessions in compliance with all local and national laws and with assurances from authorities that “all temporary concession areas had been processed legally and transparently”.

It said it had withdrawn from the project in 2014 due to a combination of factors including political tensions along the Thai-Cambodia border, business risks, adverse agricultural conditions and negative publicity.

Mitr Phol said after it withdrew from the project, it had recommended that the Cambodian government return land “to the affected communities”.

Seng Loth, a spokesman at Land Management Ministry, which was responsible for the government’s involvement in the project, said when contacted by Reuters he was in a meeting and too busy to comment.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-camb ... SKCN1H90P6
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Re: Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

In ‘historic lawsuit’, Oddar Meanchey villagers take sugar giant Mitr Phol to court in Thailand
3 April 2018
Cambodian villagers have filed a class action suit in Bangkok against Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol Sugar Corporation for human rights violations after the eviction of hundreds of villagers in Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province, with a US rights group calling the case a “historic lawsuit”.

The sugar firm was awarded three concessions in Oddar Meanchey’s Samraong and Chongkal districts – named Angkor Sugar, Tonle Sugar Cane, and Cane and Sugar Valley – in 2008, measuring around 20,000 hectares. The projects involved forced land evictions and the razing of villages starting from 2009.

The firm eventually gave up the concessions, which were nullified in 2015 and handed back to the government, following complaints filed with the Thai Human Rights Commission and a ban on the company’s imports to Thailand from Cambodia in 2011.

Mitr Phol is one of the largest producers of sugar in the world and counts Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestle and Mars among its clients.

Two Cambodian plaintiffs from Samraong district filed the lawsuit in the Civil Courts of Bangkok on March 28. It includes a class of around 600 families from the province.

The duo, whose lawyers say have been kept anonymous to the media to protect them, are claiming damages of more than 4 million baht, or around $131,000.

“The facts of this case clearly rise to the level of both negligence as defined by the Cambodian Code and the infringement of statutory provisions intended for the protection of others, resulting in damage, as codified under Thai law,” a brief of the case reads.

The lawsuit additionally alleges that Mitr Phol colluded with Cambodian authorities to violate a slew of local laws, including the Land Law and Forestry Law, as well as international human rights obligations governing both countries.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... t-thailand
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Re: Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

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Two Thai companies face flak over practices in Cambodia and Myanmar
April 05, 2018 01:00
By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM
THE NATION

UN GROUP SAYS HOUSES WERE BURNT DOWN, |FAMILIES DISPLACED FOR LAND APPROPRIATION
THAI OVERSEAS investments in Cambodia and Myanmar have come under criticism for irresponsible business operations and human rights violation, which has also led to the first-ever class-action lawsuit against a Thai company in its home country.

As the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights concluded its visit to Thailand to inspect human rights protection at business operations, it was revealed that the business operations of Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol and a Thai joint venture Energy Earth PCL have allegedly caused adverse impacts on the environment and the livelihood of locals in Cambodia and Myanmar.

The Extraterritorial Obligation Watch Coalition (ETO Watch) reported that more than 600 families in five villages of Oddar Meanchey province in northern Cambodia were displaced from their land and their houses burnt down, allegedly to facilitate the land concession to Mitr Phol’s subsidiary Angkor Sugar Co Ltd since 2008.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... l/30342484
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Re: Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

This class-action suit is the culmination of a long struggle by Oddar Meanchey villagers have their demand for compensation recognized. It has been independently documented that these people were forcibly evicted from their land after it was included in a land concession granted by the Cambodian government to Mitr Phol Sugar Corporation. A petition claiming serious human rights abuses connected to land grabs was filed by Cambodian NGOs in 2013.

Previous reports on the subject:
Families Call for Boycott of Senator’s ‘Blood Sugar’
4 July 2012
https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/new ... ood-sugar/

Cambodian NGOs allege serious abuses linked to Thai sugar giant, Mitr Phol Sugar Corporation
May 31, 2013 - Two Cambodian NGOs, LICADHO and Equitable Cambodia filed a petition on behalf of 602 complainants about serious human rights violations linked to large sugar concessions held by Thai sugar giant, Mitr Phol Sugar Corporation.

The organizations allege that systematic, serious abuses have taken place in the issuance and cultivation of the Thai company’s three enormous economic land concessions (ELCs) for industrial sugarcane production. The concessions are located in the districts of Samrong and Chongkal, in Oddar Meanchey Province, in northwest Cambodia. On the same day, and in the same letter, 70 year concessions were granted to three companies directly linked to Mitr Pohl: (1) Angkor Sugar Co. Ltd., (2) Tonle Sugar Cane Co. Ltd., and (3) Cane and Sugar Valley Co. Ltd.The directors of each of the three companies are all senior figures in Mitr Phol, and the company has admitted they are all part of one venture. Cambodian Senator Ly Yong Phat is also believed to have been involved.
http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/pressre ... p?perm=312

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Re: Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

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June 12, 2019 / 2:13 AM / 2 days ago

Cambodian farmers battle in landmark lawsuit against Thai sugar firm
SAMRAONG, Cambodia (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As a young woman living in Cambodia’s northwest Oddar Meanchey province, Hoy Mai witnessed some of the fiercest fighting and atrocities during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.

Two decades on she is preparing for a different and landmark battle, one against Thai sugar company Mitr Phol that she accuses of violently forcing her family off their land and burning their home to make way for plantations.

The lawsuit against Asia’s largest sugar producer, filed on behalf of about 3,000 people, is the first class-action lawsuit filed in a Thai court by plaintiffs from another country against a Thai company operating outside Thailand.

“It was the first time that we got involved with the police, lawyers and a lawsuit. But we had no other choice,” said Hoy Mai, 56, who was arrested in 2009 for protesting the loss of her land and spent eight months in prison.

“We want compensation so we can rebuild our homes and farm our land. We hope the court will give us justice,” she said, adding they were seeking 4 million baht ($128,000) compensation.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-camb ... SKCN1TD00P
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Re: Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

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Thai court rejects class action against sugar giant Mitr Phol
Cambodian villagers accuse Thailand's biggest sugar company of stealing their land, something the company denies.
by Leonie Kijewski
4 Jul 2019
In a major setback to a group of Cambodian farmers, a Thai court rejected their application on Thursday for their legal case against Thailand's biggest sugar company to be treated as a class action lawsuit, according to the plaintiff's lawyer and a land rights organisation.

Though the Cambodian plaintiffs, representing more than 700 families, say they will appeal, the decision means each family would most likely have to bring individual cases against Mitr Phol, making the legal expenses too high for their low incomes. Class action suits are rare in Thailand.

The plaintiffs, Smen Te and Hoy Mai, took the case against sugar producer Mitr Phol to court last year claiming that their land had been appropriated by the company in 2008. Other dispute settlement mechanisms they tried have failed.

Mitr Phol is Thailand's biggest sugar producer and says it is the world's fifth-biggest sugar company. Last year, it recorded a revenue of 95 billion Thai baht ($3bn) and a profit of $30.5m.

Smen Te and Hoy Mai are among hundreds of families in Oddar Meanchey province in Cambodia's north who claim that Mitr Phol's subsidiary wrongfully took their land. The company returned the land to the government a few years later, but villagers say they have neither received adequate compensation nor their land.

As a direct result of losing their land to the company, the villagers say they lost their incomes and livelihoods, their children could not go to school, and multiple villagers were arrested for protesting against the company.
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/thai ... 57955.html
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Re: Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

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Cambodians, activists cheer Thai court’s move to allow lawsuit against Asia’s largest sugar firm
A Bangkok court ruled that about 3,000 Cambodians could proceed with a class-action suit against Mitr Phol, the world’s fourth-largest sugar producer
Farmers in Oddar Meanchey province are seeking compensation after the Cambodian government allocated land to the company for sugar plantations

Sen Nguyen
Published: 3:00pm, 6 Aug, 2020
For Mai Hoy, a mother of eight children in rural Cambodia, seeking justice from an overseas company might previously have been unthinkable. But after 12 years, she finally got a little taste of it.

Mai, who was jailed for eight months while pregnant after staging a protest in 2009, is one of thousands of Cambodians in the northern province of Oddar Meanchey who say their lands were seized and homes bulldozed for sugar plantations belonging to Mitr Phol, the world’s fourth-largest sugar producer, and the largest in Asia.
The Thai firm, which is also a bioenergy producer, has operations and investments in China, Laos, Vietnam and Australia.

On July 31, the Bangkok South Civil Court ruled that 712 families or about 3,000 people who were displaced from their homes could proceed with filing a class-action suit against Mitr Phol.

A lower court had earlier thrown out the lawsuit application, citing the plaintiffs’ lack of Thai language skills and the complicated logistics of sending court notices to rural Cambodia.

Human rights activists hailed last Friday’s ruling, saying it showed corporations would need to stay accountable even beyond their national borders.
https://www.scmp.com/print/week-asia/po ... ow-lawsuit
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Re: Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

Post by John Bingham »

This seems to be another case where a land concession was given, villagers lost their land and livelihoods, the place was stripped bare, and then.........nothing, allowed to lie fallow.
Meanwhile the competent authorities are saying this was resolved years ago.

https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national- ... plications
Silence, exile, and cunning.
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Re: Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Smit Tit v. Mitr Phol: Ensuring Access to Remedies Against Land Grabbing by Transnational Corporations
By Binit Agrawal - 12 August 2020

On 31st July, the Bangkok South Civil Court admitted a petition by 700 farmers from Cambodia, whose land was grabbed by Mitr Phol, a giant sugar company based out of Thailand. In 2008-09, Mitr Phol’s subsidiaries leased land under concession from the Cambodian government. These lands belonged to the Cambodian farmers, who were forcibly evicted by the company and Cambodian government.

As per the then UN Special Rapporteur on Cambodia, the company “hired armed forces and security guards to set up check points and restrict the use of roads”. This case is the first of its kind in Asia, paralleled in the west by precedents like Vedanta, which was sued in the UK for violations in Zambia.
In this post, I will first, detail how the natives are permanently disenfranchised during the process of land grabbing in fragile countries; second, critically look at the defence presented by Mitr Phol; and lastly, display the importance of this judgement.

What are the implications of this judgement?

The judgement, by allowing Cambodian farmers a forum for seeking remedies, has created a much-needed precedent. The victims of such human rights violations, especially in the Asian region, will now feel empowered to file more such class-action suits.
Secondly, everyone will look at how an Asian court appreciates the arguments which are based on international human rights instruments and treaties like the guiding principles. Until now, most such cases have been fought only in the Western countries. For most victims, those legal systems are very far-fetched and costly. Thus, creation of precedents within the global south on trans-boundary human rights violations by businesses will certainly improve access to justice by reducing costs.
Lastly, if successful, this case will help the farmers seek compensation from Mitr Phol, in the process destroying whatever value it may have captured by getting the concessions. This will pressurize multinationals to not engage with and perpetuate such land grabbing. This directly contributes to countries like Cambodia reforming their land laws and policy to encourage fairer investments.

Full blog article: https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blo ... nsnational
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Re: Cambodian farmers file class-action suit in Thailand against sugar producer

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Cambodian villagers challenge sugar giant in Thai court
25 October 2022 By Christine Chaumeau, special envoy in Bangkok (Thailand)
Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol, accused of forced displacement, property destruction and land grabbing, is being sued by Cambodian villagers in a class action suit before the Thai courts. This is a David and Goliath battle that is also a first in the region and illustrates the creativity of the activists who support them.

[excepts]
“It is a victory for us, and it is a first in the region,” says Eang Vuthy, director of Equitable Cambodia, a Cambodian non-governmental organization. The activist is savouring the moment a day after the first hearing in an exceptional trial on September 21 in Bangkok. For the first time in south-east Asia, a multinational company is being sued for its activity in a foreign country in a "class action" suit, a collective action of plaintiffs who have suffered the same damage. The case pits Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol, fifth largest sugar producer in the world and a supplier of Coca Cola, against 711 Cambodian peasant families. This is a David and Goliath battle that began in 2008.

In 2014, the villagers, supported by IDI, Equitable Cambodia and the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (Licadho), filed a complaint with the Thai Human Rights Commission. They based their complaint on the Human Rights and Business Action Plan, which had just been adopted by Thailand, the first country in the region to do so. At the end of its investigation, the Commission noted the numerous human rights violations committed by Mitr Phol, underlining the impoverishment of the populations, and asked the sugar company to repair the damage suffered.

The following year, the Thai company obtained from Cambodia the cancellation of the concessions and withdrew from Cambodia. But its promises of reparations were not kept. In 2018, the plaintiffs filed a class action suit in the Thai courts. Their request was rejected at first instance, the court pointing out the logistical complexities of such a trial. But on appeal, in July 2020, this decision was overturned.

Hence the hearing on September 21, which “set a precedent for the community to bring the complaints outside of Cambodia”, according to Eang Vuthy. “We expect to win the case because the Thai court is much more independent and not being controlled by government like in our country,” says Hoy Mai.

The parties are to reconvene on January 25 for another preliminary hearing. The trial on the substance of the case is expected to start in April 2023, with a verdict at the end of next year. A happy outcome would be a consolation for the victims, whose fight against Mitr Phol has upset their lives. “Five of my children went to Thailand to find work as we could not afford to live at home. One of them disappeared. My husband died during the struggle,” recounts Hoy Mai.
Full article: https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/108138-c ... court.html
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