Cambodia MPs pass law allowing stripping of citizenship

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian parliamentarians passed on Monday legislation allowing people who collude with foreign countries to be stripped of citizenship, a law rights groups fear will be used to banish dissent.

All 120 lawmakers in attendance at the National Assembly session, including Prime Minister Hun Manet, voted unanimously to approve the bill.

Rights monitors have long accused Cambodia’s government of using draconian laws to stifle opposition and legitimate political debate.

A coalition of 50 rights groups issued a statement on Sunday warning the law “will have a disastrously chilling effect on the freedom of speech of all Cambodian citizens”.

“The potential for abuse in the implementation of this vaguely worded law to target people on the basis of their ethnicity, political opinions, speech, and activism is simply too high to accept,” it added.

“The government has many powers, but they should not have the power to arbitrarily decide who is and is not a Cambodian.”

The legislation must still be passed by Cambodia’s upper house before being enacted by the head of state, but both are considered rubber-stamp steps.

‘Determined by law’

Citizenship can be revoked on grounds of treason or disloyalty in 15 European Union countries, and only for naturalised citizens in eight of those, according to a European Parliament briefing in February.

The unconditional right to citizenship was enshrined in Cambodia’s constitution, but lawmakers last month amended it to say “receiving, losing and revoking Khmer nationality shall be determined by law”.

“If you betray the nation, the nation will not keep you,” Justice Minister Koeut Rith told reporters after the amendment was passed.

Last month, Amnesty International called the legislation a “heinous violation of international law”.

“It comes against a backdrop where the Cambodian authorities have completely failed to safeguard the independence and integrity of the country’s courts,” said regional research director Montse Ferrer.

“This has enabled the government’s authoritarian practices to continue unchecked, such as its persecution of opposition leaders, activists and independent journalists.”

Scores of opposition activists have been jailed or face legal cases filed by Cambodian authorities.

Opposition leader Kem Sokha was sentenced in 2023 to 27 years in prison for treason — a charge he has repeatedly denied — and was immediately placed under house arrest.