cambodia-comment-on-the-draft-penal-code

Comment on the Draft Cambodian Penal Code ARTICLE 19 London September 2009 ARTICLE 19 · Free Word Centre · 60 Farringdon Road · London · EC1R 3GA · United Kingdom Tel: +44 20 7324 2500 · Fax: +44 20 7490 0566 · info@article19.org · http://www.article19.org 1This Comment provides an analysis of the draft Cambodian Penal Code (draft Code). The draft Penal Code has been passed by the Cambodian Council of Ministers and is now before 2the National Assembly. We welcome efforts to reform the Penal Code, which currently 3includes a number of provisions which unduly restrict freedom of expression. This Comment assesses the draft Code against international standards on freedom of expression and, in particular, rules regarding restrictions on the content of what may be published or broadcast. The draft Code has a number of positive features but, at the same time, ARTICLE 19 has a number of concerns, as outlined below. This Comment does not detail all of ARTICLE 19’s concerns with the draft Code; rather, it focuses only on the more important of these concerns. 1. General
Comments 
In many instances, the draft Penal Code makes an attempt to commit an offence punishable in the same way as commission of the primary offence (see, for example, Articles 303 and 319, 1 We would like to thank Sinfah Tunsarawuth who helped draft this analysis. 2 We are not aware of whether or not this is an ...