Article from Swedish newspaper GöteborgsPosten

https://www.gp.se/nyheter/världen/sänk- ... 1.79281397

Translated with Google:

"Don't lower standards in trade with Cambodia"
The worldRepression in Cambodia has increased in recent years, and the country is now described as a one-party state. Despite that, human rights activists appeal for continued trade with the country - as long as requirements for a high standard of living are met.
- Companies like H&M must not lower the standard just because it is Cambodia, says activist Naly Pilorge.
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TT
16:28 - 20 Aug, 2022
Developments in Cambodia became painfully clear about five years ago. Ahead of the 2018 elections, opposition parties were arrested, parties and media were banned, and the country was transformed into a de facto authoritarian one-party state, with 37-year-old Prime Minister HE at the helm.

Since then, it has gotten even worse, says Naly Pilorge, who heads the Cambodian human rights organization Licahdo, and Vuthy Eang, CEO of the organization Equitable Cambodia, during a visit to Stockholm.

Mass evictions
The Covid pandemic has given the regime more tools to attack dissent. In recent years, mass evictions have also occurred on an increasing scale, since the Cambodian government hammered through a law that makes it possible to lease out land, despite protests from those who in some cases have lived on or farmed the land for generations.

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Both domestic and foreign companies take advantage of this, and one million people are estimated to have lost access to their lands in the last ten years.

- There is not really anyone monitoring the situation, so they (the government) can do whatever they want, says Vuthy Eang, whose organization works specifically against mass evictions and land grabbing.

Fear of isolation
In response to the growing repression, for example, the EU has decided in 2020 to withdraw parts of the trade benefits that export-heavy Cambodia previously enjoyed. In the same year, Sweden suspended its bilateral aid to Cambodia, although Sida still provides aid through Sweden's regional development strategy for Asia and Oceania. The US has also imposed an arms embargo on Cambodia and in 2021 imposed sanctions on five high-ranking Cambodian military personnel close to HE, linked to the construction of a Chinese naval base on Cambodia's western coast.

The international withdrawal from Cambodia has raised concerns that the country is being pushed even further into the arms of totalitarian China. But China is already deeply involved in Cambodia, with several major infrastructure plans and a geographic and cultural proximity that the West cannot compete with.

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However, there is no market for Cambodia to sell products to there. China already has access to its own factories with low-wage workers, unlike Western companies that exploit the cheap labor in Cambodia to produce mainly clothes and shoes.

Cambodia is in dire need of good relations with the West, says Naly Pilorge, and foreign companies could contribute positively by raising the standard to more bearable living conditions.

- What we want is to say to Europe, which has higher standards in terms of working conditions and environmental protection, is not to lower that standard just because you operate in Cambodia.

H&M has "nice rhetoric"
Western companies, such as the Swedish fashion giant H&M, according to Naly Pilorge, often have "nice rhetoric" about livable wages and good working conditions, which she does not think correspond to reality.

- We work with the workers who manufacture products for these companies. If you could only see how they feel, how they try to survive, what they eat and above all what they don't eat during the day, and how they struggle to take care of their children, you will notice that it doesn't add up, says Naly Arrowhead.

H&M does not own the factories in which production takes place and therefore does not set the wages either.

In an email to TT, H&M writes that they demand that their suppliers pay the statutory minimum wage to their workers and that the average wages for the fashion giant's suppliers in Cambodia in 2021 were on average 18 percent above the minimum wage of $253 a month.

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All suppliers must also sign H&M's "code of conduct", writes Christer Horn af Åminne, country manager in Cambodia for the H&M group, via the company's press service.

"Because we work closely with our suppliers on the ground here in Cambodia, we have the opportunity to not only check that they meet our requirements, but also work together for improvements. I feel that our suppliers want to be good employers, and we at the H&M Group work daily to to support them and their employees," writes H&M.

Change through trade?
Vuthy Eang believes that the government is afraid of losing trade opportunities with the West, which would be devastating for the Cambodian economy. Hopefully the EU and Sweden will continue to put pressure on that regime, he says. Perhaps it will be possible to reverse the trend in time for next year's national elections, which at the moment only seem to take place with the ruling government party on the ballots.

- Now would be a good opportunity to make it clear that a change must take place.


Facts: Cambodia
Cambodia has close to 17 million inhabitants and is located between Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The capital is called Phnom Penh.

The country is a monarchy where the king is head of state, but with toned down power. In the constitution, the country is described as a liberal democracy.

Cambodia's parliament has two chambers: the National Assembly, whose 123 members are elected in general elections every five years, and the Senate, whose 61 members are elected by municipal councilors. The largest party forms the government. The next national election will be held in 2023.

Between 1975 and 1979, the former French colony was ruled by the hard-line communist movement the Khmer Rouge. Close to two million people were killed or died of starvation during the reign of terror. A special tribunal has been established to investigate genocide and the crimes against humanity committed at the time.

The country's ruling party, the CPP, is the successor to the old Communist Party. Its leader HE was a member of the Khmer Rouge, but claims himself to have joined the movement in opposition in 1975. He has been prime minister since 1985.

HE is accused of ruling the country with an increasingly authoritarian hand, with increased crackdowns on human rights organizations, journalists, opposition parties and other government critics.

Source: Landguiden/UI, Reuters