Community Legal Education Center Annual Progress Report 2018 CLEC Goal: The target communities’ accessibility to social justice and inclusive development. Introduction and Overview The Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) was created in 1996 as a legal resource center, promoting the rule of law, justice, and democracy in Cambodia. From 1996 to 2001, CLEC operated as an arm of the University of San Francisco School of Law, funded by USAID. In December 2001, it became a locally registered NGO. Before 2018, CLEC programs supported vulnerable communities, workers and their unions by combining legal awareness, trainings, legal aid services, and advocacy aiming to empower them to legally assert their rights, mainly to labor, land and natural resources. Its trainings were designed for a wide range of target groups including local communities, NGOs and government officials. CLEC had been involved in advocating a number of significant law reform issues including the 2001 Land Law, the sub-decree on indigenous communal land titling, establishment of the Arbitration Council, the election dispute resolution process, the draft Peaceful Demonstration Law, and commentary and review of numerous pieces of legislation. Since 2004, CLEC has also embarked on a major project of high impact public interest legal advocacy, particularly in the areas of land and natural resources. Over the period, CLEC keeps reviewing its strategic intervention, and has conducted a mid-term review of its three-year strategic plan 2016-2018 beginning from 2017 affecting both its programs and structure. CLEC has removed its labor program and maintains its focus only on land and natural resources targeting vulnerable communities involved in the protection of rights to land and natural resources (LNR) and LNR-related human rights defenders (HRDs) coming from formal and informal groups and the social workers (NGO workers). With this, CLEC has structured itself into three main programs: (1) Access to Justice Program (AJP), (2) Land and Natural Resource Program (LNRP), and (3) Good Governance Program (GGP). The review also found CLEC’s three focused themes and strategies that the three programs need to be re-shaped and re-strengthened to avoid confusion of their duplication of their interventions and to make them complimentary and supportive to each other with their own strengths. Strategy 1 is entrusted to Access to Justice Program (AJP) to take on a theme that ensures access to justice where the principle of equality of arms is enjoyed by the provision of legal aid by lawyers and non-lawyers (community-based paralegals and advanced paralegals) to target communities; Strategy 2 rests with Land and Natural Resource Program (LNRP) to carry out a theme on legal empowerment of the target communities for their meaningful participation and the exercise of LNR-related rights; and Strategy 3 is with Good Governance Program (GGP) on a theme of organizing multi-stakeholders dialogue or peace table to improve the governance of land and natural resources through taking the issues/cases to solve using the alternative dispute resolution process (not in judicial system) and the improvement of related policies and laws with meaningful participation and engagement of all relevant actors including competent governmental authorities, concerned private sector, civil society organizations (NGOs) and the target/affected communities. About the CLEC Programs As mentioned in the introduction above the three programs are complementing each other, meaning a project can be implemented jointly by the three programs, of which they have respective strategic interventions and expertise. No individual program implements a project alone, even though a program manager will be assigned to manage a project. I. The Access to Justice Program (AJP) The objective of this program is to strengthen the effectiveness of the provision of legal aid services, the skills of existing paralegals and LNR-related HRDs so they have increased 2 significant roles in mutual cooperation among stakeholders for social-economic disputes resolution through both formal and informal justice system. CLEC first established its access to justice program in 2003 with the intention to bridge the gap between the formal and informal justice system in a way that is effective, responsible, and accessible. In an effort to make this possible, the Access to Justice program focuses on institutionalization and the enhancement of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, with a specific focus on local authorities and the most vulnerable and marginalized people and their communities. However, in the mid-term review of CLEC’s three-year strategic plan 2016-2018, AJP takes in all legal aid services (land claims and land-related criminal charges against land activists and human rights defenders) in addition to the strengthening of local resource of paralegals (citizen’s legal advisors) to support local communities having disputes/cases. In both formal and informal dispute resolution systems. II. Land and Natural Resource Program (LNRP) The objective of this program is to increase target communities in their active participations in holding duty-bearers accountable for tenure security of the communities’ land and livelihood- based natural resources including those in the coastal areas in fair, just and transparent manner. In complementarity to the other two programs, LNRP focuses on legal empowerment activities; in particular, the provision of legal and skill development to target communities so that they are able to understand their rights to land and natural resources and their claims when infringed upon in a proper, non-violent and legal process. CLEC also provides opportunity for different communities with similar issues to meet and share their experiences and their learning to protect and claim the rights in a more effective, synergic, legal and safe way. These efforts of the LNRP are made into legal awareness/training, social media work, workshop and other forms of meetings. III. Good Governance Program (GGP) The objective of the program is to increase credible dialogues on both issues and cases related to land and livelihood-based natural resource governance and related policies in order to meet the needs of affected/vulnerable communities. Good governance is a cornerstone of the government “Rectangular Strategy” where the governmental authorities as the duty bearers have to bear with that accountably. To support this, CLEC works to promote meaningful participation and engagement of all actors including governmental authorities, private sector, affected/vulnerable communities, NGOs and other stakeholders to peacefully talk and discuss all issues/cases on land and natural resources occurred in communities who depend heavily on the resources for their livelihoods. The policies relating to that are taking into account. As talked earlier, this program needs contribution from the two program above in the provision of legal aid where necessary and training or awareness raising of the issues to all concerned to effectively participate in the process. Such participatory discussion of issues/cases and policies is made under the forms of roundtable or multilateral dialogues. CLEC mostly facilitates for such gathering and 3 discussion after a thorough fact-finding is made a well-founded or evidence-based report comprising of possible solutions/options quoted from all concerned including the affected communities, the companies/powerful people, the competent authorities, concerned NGOs and other stakeholders. The more convincing/possible solutions in the report, the more support from the authorities and private sector and all actors. About the Achievements of the Year 1: 32 criminal cases (118 villagers/clients), and 29 civil claims (land) have received CLEC legal defense and representation services During this period, CLEC has broadly provided CLEC lawyers to defend and represent land-related high profile cases both in court and out of court. At least 32 criminal cases (with 118 villagers/clients) are under criminal charges due to their activism in outstanding land disputes, while other 29 civil claims/cases related to outstanding land disputes/cases including existing and new cases are under legal action in 14 capital/provinces including Phnom Penh, Kandal, Kampong Chhnang, Pursat, Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Oddor Meanchey, Siem Reap, Preah Vihear, Koh Kong, Kampot, Kratie, Ratanakiri, and Modnulkiri. With these 32 criminal cases, there were 118 clients of which 104 clients are under criminal charges by first instant provincial courts, appeal court and Supreme Court, while other 14 indigenous people (IP) clients are the complainants filed in Mondulkiri court against land encroachers in Dak Dam commune of O’Reang district in Mondulkiri. As a result of CLEC’s legal defense, all the 104 accused have not been detained. Among them, 6 villagers were acquitted and one was given a suspended sentence, that is, 1 client charged in Case#445 in Boeng Pram Land case was aquitted by first instance court of Battambang province, and 5 other clients (3 clients charged in Case#2541 in Borey Keila in Phnom Penh, and 2 clients charged in Case#507 in Battambang) were also acquitted. Another client charged in Case #1064 in Battambang was suspended, while other cases are under the proceedings for trial. Similarly, CLEC has received warm welcome and cooperation from certain sub-national and national authorities to participate in the outstanding-land-case resolution process