Cambodia since the Election: Peace, Democracy and Human Rights?

Abstract

This article examines the recent political and social context of Cambodian experience and relates it to Cambodia's tragic human rights legacy. It explores the salience of the Cambodian kitting fields in popular memory and juxtaposes this with the operations of UNTAC's Human Rights component. The idea of promoting a culture of human rights in this unlikely environment is discussed and related to measures of human rights education, social justice, and improvements in civil society which will he continued by the United Nations and other organizations in the to come. Ultimately it is argued that UNTAC has had a profound impact on Cambodian society and that the prospects for increasing respect for human rights are good in the ahead. Pre-election Cambodia: A Tragic Social History The past two have constituted a period of dramatic change in the political and social fabric of Cambodia. This remote, ill-fated region of Southeast Asia survived the zero years of the Khmer Rouge only to languish in economic and international isolation. Among the most over whelming of the many changes experienced by the Cambodian population has been in the area of human rights. Cambodia's recent history has been one of untrammelled human rights violations, culminating in the genocide of the Khmer Rouge. It is not surprising, therefore, that the activities of the United Nations