REDLIGHT: Anti-Child Trafficking Film Sold-Out Premiere

“Cambodian Parliament Member Mu Sochua received a standing ovation from the sold-out, standing room-only crowd at the red carpet world premier of REDLIGHT last week. Produced and narrated by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Lucy Liu, the film left many stunned and some in tears. It is that wrenching.

“I am not a victim in Cambodia, but a survivor of Cambodia!,” Sochua told the guests present. “In the darkest recess of human trafficking, there is hope!” The film featured the work of both Sochua and Somaly Mam, forming a narrative of the children they have helped out of the pits of exploitation – such as Reena and Sokha.” (Read the full article here.)

Sochua’s speech on Human Rights in Manila

Speech on Asian Liberals in Power: Getting There, Remaining There – Conference organized by the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), in Manila from 27 June – 1 July, 2010

Opposition takes on plight of border villages

Having now received for five years numerous villagers’ personal complaints of land being absorbed into Vietnam, Cambodia’s opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) has been determined to carry out fact-finding missions on government alleged plantation of temporary demarcations for Vietnam on Cambodia’s territory, within the context of the 2005 recently-applied treaty. This is the case in the Takeo (Takev) Province notably, where the SRP was leading a fact finding mission last week [June 14, 2010]. 

The Cambodian authorities had rejected the SRP’s demand with the National Assembly President, Heng Samrin, forbidding this visit earlier in the week. However, as SRP spokesman Yim Sovann declared on 2 June this year, ‘We are the lawmakers, so we have the obligation […and] we have the right to monitor government action’. Mr Sovann had also added that this visit was to be done peacefully, solely to visit the border.

Thus, on 3 June, as planned, 22 SRP lawmakers, accompanied by local and international journalists, gathered at the party’s headquarters early in the morning. Leaving with a dozen cars, the group slowly gained in size, as more SRP members joined it along the way, finally reaching over 100 people.

Read the entire article here.