In 2020, when the EU ended Cambodia’s preferential treatment under the ‘Everything but Arms’ trade arrangement, it cited “serious and systematic concerns related to human rights” and the need for ongoing monitoring of restrictions the governing regime was imposing on freedom of expression and political rights.
Three years later, despite troubling reports concerning the political environment in Cambodia, including the barring of opposition parties and an upswing in state-backed intimidation and arrest of dissenting citizens, the EU opted against sending a team of observers to monitor the country’s elections.
A Soviet-style pseudo-act of democracy ensued.
