Legal framework related to
indigenous peoples’ land rights
International law
Cambodia is legally committed to the following
international treaties, covenants agreements,
and declarations:
• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). (However,
the country has not ratified ILO Convention
no. 169, which defines indigenous peoples’
rights to lands, territories and resources under
international law.)
• International Covenant on Social, Economic and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
• International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR)
• International Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)
• Climate Change & REDD+
It has also to be noted that IP rights, including
rights to land, territories and resources, are not
a special new category of rights but form part of
the indivisible human rights of all human beings,
which are contextualized to reflect the group and
communal dimension of IP way of life.
Accordingly, all the rights of IPs are confirmed
and underpinned by major human rights treaties.
The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has
ratified most of the key international human
rights treaties, with a bearing on indigenous
peoples’ land rights, including the Convention on
the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW), Convention Concerning the
Protection of the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage, and the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CDB).
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None of the international human rights
instruments mentioned seem to be effectively
enforced in Cambodia. Many of the treaty
monitoring bodies and Special Procedures of
the UN, such as the Special Representative on
Human Rights in Cambodia raised concerns about
land grabs and lack of respect for the rights of
indigenous peoples to land.
National laws, policies, programs, structures
and mechanisms
Land management
Land Law 2001. In 2001 the RGC passed a new
Land Law, which classified Cambodian land into
five categories: State Public Property; State Private
Property; Private Individual Property; Monastery
Property, and Collective Indigenous Community
Property (Land Law 2001, Art. 16). State Public
Property (Articles 15 and 16 Land Law) is land
held by the state in public trust, which carries a
public interest use.
State Private Property can be privately possessed,
sold and owned. According to the Land Law 2001,
State Public Property may be reclassified as State
Private Property if the property loses its public
interest use.
According to the Land Law, any person who
enjoyed peaceful, uncontested possession of land
– but not State Public Land – for at least five years
prior to the law’s promulgation has the right to
request a definitive title of ownership.
National Policy on the Development of
Indigenous Peoples. In 2009, the Ministry of
Rural Development (MRD) produced the National
Policy on the Development of Indigenous Peoples
(NPDIP), which was approved by the plenary of
the Cambodian Council of Ministers on 24 April
Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC)
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