Following their arrest outside Phnom Penh City Hall, on 10th November 2014, seven women, who were protesting peacefully, have been sentenced to one year in prison and fined two million Cambodian Riel.

The seven women are: Tep Vanny, Nget Khun, Sreyleap Song, Kong Chantha, Phan Chhunreth, Po Chorvy and Nong Sreng.

The women were protesting about the flooding of their homes, brought about by the filling in of Boeung Kak Lake for redevelopment.

Boeung Kak Lake was the site of the biggest mass eviction in Cambodia since Khmer Rouge times. The company responsible for the development, Shukaku, are owned by the wife of Lao Meng Khin, a ruling Cambodian People’s Party senator.

Since the lake was filled in, whenever it rains, the water no longer has anywhere to run off, resulting in frequent flooding of the area.

The problem of flooding has been made worse recently by the municipal authority’s decision to no longer maintain the drains in the area, in retaliation for the communities’ anti-government activism.

These arrests of peaceful demonstrators are politically motivated by a government that considers its own people as an enemy that needs to be controlled.

Please sign this petition to urge the UK and EU governments to put pressure on the Royal Cambodian Government to release these women and properly address the Boeung Kak communities’ flooding and land rights issues.