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Phnom Penh City Hall rejected requests from civil society groups, unions and opposition members to hold a public event Sunday marking Friday’s 35th anniversary of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, citing concerns over “public security and order,” Deputy Governor Sok Penhvuth said.
The decision follows a pattern of authorities keeping such commemorations small and away from central Phnom Penh. Organizers decided not to hold an event and will instead hold a news conference Monday, said Phin Savey, head of advocacy and networking at the rights group Adhoc.
“The Phnom Penh Administration does not allow the request to organize a ceremony at CDC [Council for the Development of Cambodia],” Penhvuth said at a Thursday meeting with civil society and union representatives, according to minutes of the meeting he signed.
He said the decision was made “in order to protect public security and order, especially in preparation for the 20th Francophonie Summit in 2026,” and added that nongovernmental organizations and rights groups could hold ceremonies at their own offices or at private locations. The summit is scheduled for Nov. 14-16 in Phnom Penh.
City Hall spokesperson Dor Samphor confirmed the decision recorded in the meeting minutes but declined to comment further.
More than 500 people were planning to hold an anniversary ceremony at the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), according to Savey. In 2019, organizers were also denied permission to march from the CDC and instead held their event at the relocated Freedom Park on the city’s northern outskirts. That year, the government removed Oct. 23, Paris Peace Agreements Day, from the list of public holidays.
Ros Sotha, executive director of the human rights group CHRAC, said the authorities’ concerns were a “pretext for restricting the organizers’ rights and freedoms.” He said officials had rejected requests for commemorations three consecutive years.
The agreements were signed in Paris by Cambodia’s four warring factions and 18 other countries. They committed the country to a liberal, multiparty democracy with protections for human rights and led to a U.N. transitional administration and elections in 1993.
Opposition groups and rights advocates have long said the government has not fully honored those commitments. They point to the court-ordered dissolution of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party in 2017 and the jailing of activists.
“Although 35 years have passed since the Paris Peace Agreement on Cambodia came into effect, all relevant parties, including Cambodia itself, have yet to fully and effectively implement the spirit of the agreements,” the opposition Nation Power Party said in a statement Friday.
“Cambodia has not yet achieved genuine national unity, full respect for the principle of liberal, multiparty democracy, the rule of law and social justice, or full respect for citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms,” the statement said.
Government spokesperson Pen Bona declined to comment on organizers’ claims that their right to assemble had been restricted.
Asked about calls from political parties to uphold the agreements, Bona said their key principles are already part of Cambodia’s Constitution, which provides for elections every five years and for democracy and human rights.
“All the key contents of the Paris Peace Agreements have already been included into the constitution. Therefore, what must be promoted and respected is our constitution which is currently in force,” he said.
Bona also said there are “no political prisoners” in Cambodia, “only politicians or individuals who violate the law and face legal action.”
As of October, the rights group Licadho counted over 100 people in detention whom it calls “Prisoners of Interest”: activists, opposition figures, journalists and others jailed on charges it says are linked to their political activities, activism or speech.
Among them is Srun Srorn, a member of a group of activists that identifies itself with the Paris Peace Agreements. He and two other members of the group were arrested in July 2024 after a live video criticizing the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area, a regional development pact the government has since withdrawn from. In April, a Phnom Penh court sentenced the three to two years in prison for incitement. Srun Srorn remains jailed after an appeals court in June upheld a separate incitement conviction over comments he made about the judiciary, which carries an additional two years.