NGOs cooperate to influence the policies and practices of governments, donors, investors and relevant stakeholders to ensure that the rights of the poor and vulnerable people in settlements and those informal settlements to secure tenure are recognized, and that the government and donors are supportive of the process.

The NGO Forum has been raising resettlement issues in its dialogue with Multilateral Development Banks and the Cambodian Government since 2000. In 2002, a group of NGOs requested that the NGO Forum formalise this work through the establishment of an NGO working group. Initially, the project focused on Highway One (HW1) Improvement Project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), specifically on problems related to involuntary relocation. In 2002, NGO Forum interviewed 99 families who had been affected by the HW1 project, documented problems regarding the resettlement and submitted the report to the ADB and the Government of Cambodia. The Resettlement Action Network (RAN) was formed in 2003, with a committee of eight NGOs (RAN/C) leading the activities. The group has so far had some considerable success in training NGOs in how to support resettled communities and in seeking justice for resettled people on specific cases.

In 2006, in response to a growing need, the project expanded its focus to include housing rights and questions of tenure security in informal settlements so as to protect poor people from eviction. Between 2006 and 2008, the project continued to focus on HW1 and National Road One (NR1) rehabilitation projects with the ADB and JICA respectively. During 2006 and 2007 RAN also increasingly responded to forced evictions in urban areas, in collaboration with the Housing Rights Task Force (HRTF) and then in 2007 and 2008 the network began to investigate the impacts of development projects to rehabilitate airports in Sihanoukville and Ratanakiri, and the railway network. At a policy-level, RAN worked closely with HRTF during 2007 and 2008 to successfully lobby the Ministry of Economics and Finance (MEF), the Inter-ministerial Resettlement Committee (IRC) and the ADB to extend the period for public consultation on the draft Sub-degree on Land and Property Acquisition and Addressing Socio-Economic Impacts caused by State Development Projects (the “resettlement sub-decree).

Cambodia is undergoing rapid development, as is shown by its annual economic growth of 10-12%. However, the costs and benefits of this development are not being distributed equally. According to the Amnesty International Reported that there is growing information about both urban and rural forced evictions of more recent date. Human rights groups, donors and UN agencies have increasingly raised alarm about various factors that lead to forced evictions and displacement, including economic land concessions, land grabbing, land disputes and a lack of rule of law. Although forced evictions in Cambodia are often depicted as an urban phenomenon, a growing share of cases take place in rural areas as competition over land, aquatic and forest products and other commonly held resources is on the increase. In rural areas, however, the scope of forced evictions and the number of persons affected are unclear: limited infrastructure makes it hard for isolated communities to voice their grievances beyond their locality. Infrastructure development projects in urban and rural areas are being implemented by the companies and International Financial Institutions (IFIs), with no respect for the rights of communities negatively impacted. As a result, the number of households facing involuntary resettlement or forced eviction is increasing annually; in 2008, 150,000 households were estimated to be threatened by forced eviction in the wake of development projects. These problems are being made worse due to the rapid increases of land value seen across Cambodia and increasing investment in land for speculation, all of which are forcing poor and vulnerable people from their land. One reason for this is the lack of secure tenure for land, and the lack of enforcement of the law protecting peoples’ rights. Previously, involuntary resettlement primarily affected households in informal settlements; however this is becoming an increasing problem also for those with legal documentation and rights according to the 2001 Land Law.

In addition to these problems, the agencies implementing these development projects are failing in their duty to comply with either their own safeguard policies, or those under international law. For example, affected peoples are not being sufficiently consulted during development planning stages, relocation sites are inadequate and compensation payments provided are not fair. Although the Government is developing a sub-decree to define the procedures required for resettlement caused by state development projects, the current draft does not comply with international standards and affected communities fear its adoption will legitimise current violent and illegal practices. Finally, commitments made by the Government in 2003 to upgrade, rather than resettle slums within Phnom Penh have not been fulfilled.