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Keynote Address at the
Opening of the National Workshop on the Dissemination of Criminal Code
Intercontinental
Hotel, 10 March, 2010
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen distinguished national and international
guests!
I am pleased to be
here in the opening of the dissemination workshop on “Criminal Code”,
jointly hosted by the Ministry of Justice and the Embassy of France with support
from the Government of the French Republic. Taking this opportunity, I would
like to commend the Ministry of Justice and all related institutions as well as
development partners for the mental, material and technical contribution to
realize the Criminal Code for dissemination in this workshop. More
importantly, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the both legislative
bodies of Cambodia, led by Samdech Akkar Moha Thormak Porthisal Chea Sim,
President of the Senate and Samdech Akkar Moha Ponhea Chakrei Heng Samrin, President of the National Assembly.
This workshop is
designed to disseminate the Criminal Code to legal professionals and courts,
including judges, prosecutors, clerks, lawyers, related institutions and the
public to ensure the effectiveness of law enforcement. This workshop attests to
the Royal Government’s firm commitment in legal and judicial reform. The
Criminal Code, which acts as the fundamental law in conjunction with the
Criminal Procedure Code, a procedural law adopted in 2007 will become core tools
for the execution of criminal judgment and ensure fairness and justice for
Cambodian citizens. Prior to the adoption of this new Criminal Code, we used the
Interim Criminal Law, adopted by the Supreme National Council of Cambodia in
1992 and other scattered legal documents which make it difficult to understand
and enforce, and inadequate to deal with new forms of crime at present time.
I think the new law is
more comprehensive than the law being enforced presently, and will become a part
of modernization of Cambodia’s regulatory system and pave the way for the
enforcement of the Anti-Corruption Law. Along with this, the new Criminal Code
is designed to be used by both the public and legal professionals as it is easy
to understand and provides full coverage of a case, for example Criminal Code,
Criminal Procedure Code, Civil Code and Civil Procedure Code.
Lengthy civil war,
especially the Khmer Rouge Regime, destroyed most of the social, economic,
cultural and religious infrastructure and ruins were left everywhere. Amongst
these, the legal and judicial system was almost destroyed too. After the 7th January 1979, government’s ministries and institutions were re-established. All
civil servants employed by government’s ministries/institutions at that time
were former students, intellectuals, and civil servants who survived the Pol Pot
Regime. With firm determination and affection for the country, all the civil
servants took part in rehabilitation and development effort by starting from
scratch and an incredible progress has been made in just a short period of time,
especially those who do not witness the situation might not believe this.
Regional and global integration, along with concerted reform efforts have
allowed for a proud achievement in human and institutional capacity building. At
that time, as the restoration of peace, political stability, security and social
order took place, the legal and judicial reform play an important role in the
Royal Government’s all sectoral reforms. The objective of the legal and judicial
reform since the first legislature of the National Assembly focuses on the
improvement and establishment of legal documents that are the foundation of
development, assurance of rights, individual dignity, private ownership, free
market mechanisms and so forth.
The Royal Government
of the second legislature of the National Assembly has established the Council for Legal and Judicial Reform. Since then, legal and judicial reform
had become more broadened and deepened and had been considered as an important
factor supporting the implementation of government platform.
Indeed, legal and
judicial reform program has been considered as one of the 4 programs of “Good Governance” which is the core of Rectangular Strategy for
growth, employment, equity and efficiency in Cambodia. In this spirit, the
government had paid great attention to legal and judicial reform by mainly
developing and strengthening the legal framework, modernizing and laying out
strategy and necessary measures aiming at bolstering the capacity, independency
and neutrality of the court which are vital factors in the process of
strengthening the state of law through promoting the respect of right and
dignity of the people, strengthening the culture of peace and culture of respect
for the law with the objectives to promote social justice, reduce corruption and
finally eradicate the culture of impunity. At the same time, usually in the
context of a democratic country, the government has clearly identified that
legal and judicial reform must be in line with the appropriate and effective law
enforcement because it would not only eliminate the culture of impunity, ensure
justice equity for each individual and respect of personal freedom, but it also
help to prevent corruption and gain credibility from the public.
Obviously, despite the
fact that we still not have the law on corruption yet, the government had paid
special attention to the fight against corruption through adopting chained and
systematic Governance Action Plan and promote the enforcement of a number of key
laws such as Forestry Law, Land Law, Law on Public Financial Management, Law on
Customs and Excise, sub-degree on public procurement, government circular on
management of non-tax revenue, code of conduct of customs and excise
officials…etc… Furthermore, the Criminal Code that we are disseminating
at the moment also inscribes 40 articles relating to anti-corruption.
A “Kram” or Code is the true symbol and representative of a state of law in an era of history.
Moreover, Kram or Code also reflects the legal will and means of a state of law
to achieve democratic objectives which is set to have law understood and
enforced. Obviously, Kram or Code is a clear proof of legalization activities,
because preparing Kram or Code is the collection of the whole legal procedures
which are laws and regulations in legal sector in order to produce a structured
set of legislation. The Criminal Code of Cambodia also bear the same
nature, especially our Criminal Code is the law and regulation that exist
in legal and judicial reform sector which is a set complimentary law to existing
laws and documents which are properly structured.
Indeed, the
strengthening of law enforcement and legal system must be linked to and include
the enactment of new and modern laws like this Criminal Code. Our Criminal
Code had been prepared to ensure the continuity of Cambodian institutions in
conformity to legal tradition and culture of the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia which
based on the Civil Law System or Continental Law. This Criminal Code is a
law that is conforming to key principles of organic and institutional structure
of Cambodia and international standard. Furthermore, Criminal Code is a
law that will not affect the harmonization of Cambodian legal system and can be
implemented efficiently and smoothly. This Criminal Code is a set of all
criminal regulations of which a part of the legislation states the basic
principles and common rules for criminal law for judges to implement in
providing justice for criminal cases and other parts states about crimes to be
punished.
I am of the view that Criminal Code is the fundamental law that determines clearly those
activities or conducts that are prohibited by the law because this Code
apparently highlights all kinds of crime by emphasizing meaning of those crimes.
On the other hand, this Code also identify individual who is claimed to have
committed the crime, and the punishment that follows in order to respond to
misconduct against society as set in the following 3 objectives:
1. Protect individual freedom
in order to punish any act that is prohibited by law,
2. Ensure individual
compensation for damage incurred by criminal acts,
3. Restore social order that
had been disconnected and misbalanced due to crimes,
Moreover, Criminal Code is a
legal text that is the collection of criminal regulations and is well structured
in a consistent and harmonious way, as well as patching some loopholes.
Therefore, Criminal Code is an important legal mean that does not only
help the judges, prosecutors and legal officers to easily enforce and fully
comprehend the law, but it also help to raise our people awareness about their
rights and the limitation in exercising those rights, especially on what are to
be prohibited and penalized.
In this regards, I view that the
Criminal Code will contribute to (i) the state of law, democracy and the
protection of rights and dignities of human being in Cambodia, (ii) the
modernization of legal framework in criminal field, (iii) the strengthening of
legal institution, especially improving the effectiveness of justice delivery to
our people, and (iv) the accessibility of legal and court information and
providing legal safety to our people.
Taking this opportunity, to realize
the commitment of the Royal Government according to plan of action for
implementing legal and judicial reform strategy, the Ministry of Justice, the
government’s agent on legal sector, has to continue its efforts on the following
key works:
First—continue
to strengthen legal institutions, especially through the adoption of the other
fundamental laws that have been prepared and finalized by the Ministry, such as
Law on the Statute of Judges and Prosecutors, Law on the Function of Judiciary,
Law on the Statute of the Magistracy etc. and the other legal laws to develop
and modernize the legal framework, including the Amendment Law of Law on the
organization of court and its administration, Law on statue of notary, Law on
statute of court clerks etc.
Second—actively
monitor and follow up the implementation of courts and prosecutors following the
principles of the law to upgrade the state of law and confidence of public on
justice to ensure social stability and stability of the whole state institution.
Third—continue
to train legal practitioners and court officials according to the development of
Cambodia’s law and new technologies such as automatic data processing system and
ITC etc.
Fourth—strengthen
and raise awareness about the law by all means to law enforcement institutions
and the public to promote knowledge of law and the limitation of exercising of
rights to ensure effective enforcement, the prevention and reduction of crime
rates as well as increasing security and upgrading state of law.
Fifth—publish
the criminal code and widely disseminate the code to relevant institutions and
the public to promote the effectiveness of law enforcement as well as promoting
the people’s rights to receive information about the law and justice system.
Once again, on behalf of the Royal
Government of Cambodia and my own behalf, I would like to compliment and highly
appreciate the effort of the Ministry of Justice, relevant institutions and
development partners for their contribution to the legal and judicial reform in
Cambodia, especially for the creation and dissemination of this Criminal Code.
Taking this opportunity, I am pleased to appeal to all relevant institutions,
sub-national administration, national and international organizations, and the
private sector to jointly educate, disseminate and invoke the spirit of
respecting and enforcing this Criminal Code rightfully and effectively.
At the same time, I would like to emphasize that when all regulations of the Criminal Code are being enforced, it is the ending of transitional criminal
code created by UNTAC in 1992.
Finally, along with the dissemination
of the Criminal Code, I would like to wish Excellency, ladies and
gentlemen four gems of Buddhist blessings.
EndItem.
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