The Arbitration Council officially inaugurated its fund-raising institution, the Arbitration Council Foundation, in a ceremony on Thursday.
Men Nimmith, executive director of the foundation, said it was established to make the council financially sustainable as an independent body.
The independence and transparency of the council were unique in Cambodia’s judicial system, and the foundation would be critical to maintaining those standards, said Hugo van Noord, chief technical adviser of the International Labor Organization’s Labor Dispute Resolution Project.
“Numerous strikes have been avoided or ended voluntarily,” with the council’s help, van Noord said.
But US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli remarked that “Cambodia is still far from being a genuine worker’s paradise.”
He expressed concern about the violence union leaders have faced.
“The deaths in 2004 of union leaders Chea Vichea and Ros Savannareth are disturbing reminders of the threats that union leaders still face in Cambodia,” he said.
The “legally questionable arrest” of Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association President Rong Chhun, and warrants for other union leaders, show that unions “often face limits on their freedom of expression—and the penalty for breaching those limits is sometimes severe,” he added.
