CAMBODIA
On Cambodia, the House expresses its support to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia and insists on establishing as soon as possible the independent Khmer Rouge Tribunal, as agreed with the UN in June 2003. MEPs call on the Cambodian authorities to:
– release immediately and unconditionally Cheam Channy, return his parliamentary mandate and restore the parliamentary immunity of Sam Rainsy and the two other representatives of his party, as already requested by the EP in its resolution of 10 March 2005 and the Inter-Parliamentary Union in its resolution of 19 October 2005;
– engage in political and institutional reforms to build a democratic state governed by the rule of law and founded on respect for fundamental freedoms;
– demonstrate their will to combat effectively the endemic scourges of corruption, massive deforestation resulting in the displacement of people, and the sex tourism industry, to refuse the current culture of impunity and to bring to justice all those involved in such activities;
The House also suggests, inter alia, that an ad hoc EP Delegation visit Cambodia as soon as possible to evaluate the situation of detained parliamentarians, media representatives and trade union leaders in the country and to end the detention of all political prisoners-
LAOS
On Laos, Parliament calls on the Laotian authorities to:
– release all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, including the leaders of the Movement of 26 October 1999, Christians imprisoned for not having renounced their faith, the Hmong and, in particular, Thao Moua and Pa Phue Khang, the guides employed by visiting European journalists and arrested in 2003;
– undertake political reforms leading to democracy and the rule of law, starting through a multi-party system and the right for all currents of opinion to express their views;
– implement programmes allowing the integration of the Lao-Hmong population and other ethnic and religious minorities into Laotian society, while preserving their social and political rights so as to urgently improve their human rights and living conditions;
– allow specialised UN agencies and representatives of humanitarian organisations unrestricted access, so that they can visit political prisoners, the Hmong population, and all ethnic and religious minorities in Laos;
– ratify without delay the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
VIETNAM
On Vietnam, the House calls on the Vietnamese authorities to:
– pursue on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war a genuine dialogue involving all sections of the population in the economic, social, intellectual and political development of Vietnam;
– undertake political and institutional reforms leading to democracy and the rule of law, starting by allowing a multi-party system and guaranteeing the right of all currents of opinion to express their views;
– apply the Legal System Development Strategy in accordance with the recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Committee and with the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
– end all forms of repression of members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and officially recognise its existence and that of other non-recognised Churches in the country;
– release all Vietnamese political prisoners and prisoners of conscience detained for having legitimately and peacefully exercised their rights to freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom of religion, in particular Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do who are regarded by the United Nations as victims of arbitrary detention (Opinion 18/2005, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, 26 May 2005);
– guarantee full enjoyment of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Vietnamese Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in particular by allowing the creation of a genuinely free press;
– ensure the safe repatriation, under the Cambodia-Vietnam-UNHCR agreement, of the Montagnards who fled Vietnam, and allow proper monitoring of the situation of the returnees by the UNHCR and international NGOs;
Finally, MEPs support the projects to be funded by the Commission to promote the development of journalism and to support capacity-building programmes at the National Assembly in Laos as well as the activities in Vietnam that emerge from the Working Group on Institution Building, Administrative Reform, Governance and Human Rights.
