United Nations group urges Cambodia to release Cambodian-American human rights activist

A United Nations expert group claims that detaining Theary Seng, a Cambodian American human rights activist, is a violation of international law.

The judgment comes a little more than a week before Cambodia's general election, in which Hun Sen, who has been in power for 38 years, and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party are virtually guaranteed a landslide victory, since the Candlelight Party, the only other contender capable of mounting a credible challenge, was barred on a technicality from contesting the polls by the National Election Committee.

The situation is similar to that of the 2018 general election, when the popular Cambodian National Rescue Party was dissolved months before the polls by a controversial court ruling that alleged it had plotted the illegal overthrow of the government.