LANGO has now shut down its first NGO, according to Devex.
The National Democratic Institute, a US-based organization, was ordered to shut down within seven days on 23rd August. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen stated that the NGO had violated the new NGO law by working with the opposing political party. He gave a warning to similar organizations, “foreign agencies and groups who eat foreign funds — please retreat. We are watching you. Your NGOs could be dissolved via the party law”.
Cambodia’s Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO), was passed two years ago to much debate.
Critics protested the law, saying that the law was put in place purely to shut down NGOs that came into conflict with the government, as it required such organizations to have ‘political neutrality’.
Chaninat & Leeds Thailand NGO lawyers provide legal services to NGOs and their staff.
Other NGOs have also been warned that they’re in danger of being shut down. The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) has received three warnings for violating the law, one of which was given for publishing the number of political prisoners in Cambodia online.
Read more here.
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