More than 60 lawyers met in Siem Reap town over the weekend to discuss strengthening the “weak” Cambodian Bar Association at a conference funded by the Cambodian Defenders Project.
The two-day meeting was held ahead of the elections for the bar presidency and Bar Council, scheduled for Wednesday.
The meeting was held primarily “to find ways to strengthen the Bar Association,” said Seng Neang, legal awareness project coordinator for the CDP. It criticized the Bar Association’s council and president for failing to solve pressing matters such as the expulsion of attorney Benson Samay.
Prime Minister Hun Sen appointed Benson Samay to serve as the country’s only notary in December 2001, and he took office in July. Members of the bar voted to disbar Benson Samay on the grounds that his position as notary represented a conflict of interest with his law practice, but the Bar Council and President Ang Eng Thong have not done so.
“We found many points to strengthen the Bar Association,” Seng Neang said on Sunday. “We want to organize the administration of the Bar Council as well as create better relationships with any ministry which works with the legal profession, such as the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Justice.”
The lawyers at the meeting also discussed “the future of the Bar Association” and the relationship between private lawyers and attorneys from NGOs such as the CDP, said Ea Sopheap, a lawyer with Legal Aid of Cambodia who attended the conference.
“We talked about how to make lawyers strong in Cambodia,” he said on Sunday.
Although Seng Neang said the lawyers at the meeting did not discuss the upcoming bar elections, a member of the Bar Council accused the CDP of using the conference to “promote propaganda” for Soun Visal, a CDP lawyer who is running for president.
“It is their right to hold this meeting, but it is not fair,” the Bar Council member said, adding that the CDP did not inform the bar president or council that it was holding the meeting.
So far, 10 candidates have applied to serve as bar president and 42 candidates have applied to serve on the council. Currently, the council has 13 members, but the bar has opened six new seats, for a total of 19.
The bar president serves for two years and bar council members serve for three years.
