Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC)

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Cambodian Human Rights and Development
Association (ADHOC)

• Chan Krisna Sawada
• Head of Womens and Childrens Rights Program

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Background of THE organization
Cambodian Human Rights and Development
Association (ADHOC) was founded by a group of
political prisoners in December 1991 after the
signing of the Paris Peace Agreements on October
23, 1991. ADHOC is an independent, non-partisan,
non-profit, non-governmental organization.
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ADHOCS VISION AND GOALS

• Vision 
• A society that respects human rights and
  law.
• Goals
•  To strengthen the capacity of ordinary citizens
  to claim their rights and to assist victims of
  human rights abuses in their quest for justice.
• To help ordinary citizens to assert their human
  rights fully by lobbying and advocating for
  improvement and enhancement of laws, institutions
  and law enforcement

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ADHOCS ACTIVITIES

• In pursuit of these goals, ADHOC has structured
  around
• two core programs Monitoring and Womens and
• Childrens Rights and engaged in the following
  types of
• activities
• Counselling and legal aid, provided chiefly by
  the 22 provincial offices, occasionally supported
  by ADHOCs central office and external allies
  (e.g. fellow human rights organisations who
  participate in joint investigations in larger
  cases, or legal aid groups who provide pro bono
  lawyers)
• Sensitisation and training by ADHOC staff to
  ordinary people and duty-bearers (e.g. local
  government officials) on human rights and related
  issues

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ADHOCs ACTIVITIES
Facilitating the emergence of grassroots groups
(called communities or grassroots networks)
around specific cases, usually involving land and
natural resources issues Investigating human
rights violations throughout the country,
recording them in monthly provincial reports to
Phnom Penh and a database, and intervening as
appropriate Human rights advocacy using a range
of approaches, from low-profile lobby and
persuasion with duty-bearers (e.g. local
officials) to naming and shaming in the media
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ADHOCS ACTIVITIES
? Campaigning, as a leading member of the
Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC)
and issue-based national networks, on national
legislation and institutional reforms
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How ADHOC TISCO interrelated?

• ADHOC is involved in and
• is good at
• Providing legal aid to beneficiaries
• Analyzing practices of dispute
• resolution and developing
• work-methods to set up a state
• of the art dispute resolution service
• that will provide fair and effective
• outcomes to clients
• Implement a project in which these
• work methods will be used and
• tested with outreach in the rural
• areas through field offices
• Organizing workshops and learning
• events for ADHOC staffs and
• network members

• TISCO is involved in and is
• good at
• Identifying international best
• practices in justice services
• Evaluating best practices with the
• help of academic lecture
• Making transparent practices that
• work to solve conflicts
• Linking stakeholders in improving
• access to justice across borders

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ADHOC AND TISCO PARTNERSHIP

• To develop state of the art dispute resolution
  techniques and a strong evidence base about
  effective practices
• To test and apply the knowledge in a
  micro-justice facilitator/community dispute
  resolution project that ADHOC will set up in the
  coming time

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OBJECTIVES Of ADR PROJECT
? To build ADHOCs staffs and community
representatives capacities in ADR ? To create
facilitating tools for ADR process in Cambodia ?
To share these tools within the micro justice
workplace and to pool resources at the
international level
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ADR PROJECT ACTIVITIES

• Pre-meeting with TISCO to get familiar with the
  five steps (1) Meet (2)Talk (3) Share (4) Decide
  (5) Stabilize
• Designing Tools
• Tool Testing
• Finalizing and sharing tools

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ADR PROJECT OUTPUTS
Through phase 1 and phase 2 testing period, ADHOC
had successfully mediated 10 DV cases out 16
total testing cases (10 DV cases 3 land conflict
cases 2 child support cases and a labor
conflict case) Good Practices ? ADHOCs
mediators have good reputation in the communities
to convince unwilling party to the dispute to
engage in mediation? ADR process is time and
cost effectives and unbiased
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ADR PROJECT OUTPUTS
? Flexibility of the mediators on the use of the
tools ? ADHOC had successfully mediated 10 DV
cases without using the fourth party to the
mediation? Stabilizing and formalizing the
agreement made through the mediation with the
assistance of the local authorities and all the
relevant parties ? Using the person with higher
authority in the communities to convince the
unwilling party to engage in the mediation but
not to decide for any party to the dispute
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Challenges

• Sustainability of the project (human and
  financial resources)
• Lack of cooperation among NGOs and state
  institutions working on ADR
• Remain neutral when forming a relationship with
  the unwilling party to persuade him/her to engage
  in the mediation can be difficult
• If an invitation letter is too formal it can
  intensify the dispute
• It can furthermore be difficult to convince the
  parties that a decision that is agreed upon by
  both parties is in fact better than a decision
  taken solely by the arbitrator

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Thank you!