July 10 marks the third anniversary of the killing of prominent political commentator and human-rights defender Kem Ley. A total of 22 organizations have issued a joint statement calling on the Cambodian government to establish an independent and impartial Commission of Inquiry to conduct a thorough and effective investigation into his death. Their statement appears below.
On July 10, 2016, Kem Ley was shot and killed while having a morning coffee at a gas station on Monivong Boulevard in central Phnom Penh. This killing occurred amid a backdrop of attacks on human-rights defenders and members of the political opposition, and a documented history of killings of human-rights defenders with impunity in Cambodia.
