Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century and considered one of the greatest world's wonders. Angkor Wat temples are Cambodia’s most famous tourist destination and, before Covid-19, were attracting more than 2 million visitors globally. 

Those visitors were universally impressed by the warm and generous welcome from the people who live in Angkor Wat. Those residents need your support now. 

Ten thousand families, many of whom have lived in the Angkor Wat area for generations, are being forced out as part of a government land grab.  The plight of the families and their appalling conditions of resettlement has been highlighted in a report by Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/03/cambodia-angkor-wat-evictions/. 

A small cash payment of a few hundred dollars allowed the authorities to misrepresent their departures as voluntary. Many families ended up living under tarpaulin sheets for months in an area lacking adequate sanitation. These people have been given small empty plots of land at a remote relocation site and told to build their own homes with sheets of corrugated iron. 

The forced resettlements started in the second half of 2022, with the authorities falsely claiming they are necessary to preserve the location’s UNESCO World Heritage status. UNESCO has denied its involvement and has denied giving an ultimatum to the government to move the families. 

But UNESCO needs to do more by insisting on justice for the families. This means relocating them back to their old community and giving them compensation for their lost income. UNESCO, as Amnesty has argued, must use its influence to demand that Cambodia’s government stop the evictions, and push for a public and independent inquiry. 

International donors to Cambodia need to understand that the Angkor episode is the latest in a long series of land grabs which are often carried out by companies with close ties to the Hun family regime. In the Angkor case, the governments of France and Japan have a particular responsibility as they are the co-chairs of the International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC Angkor). 

UNESCO, along with the governments of France and Japan, needs to understand how people are being treated on the ground in Cambodia. UNESCO should unequivocally endorse the Amnesty report https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/03/cambodia-angkor-wat-evictions/. The French and Japanese governments should refuse to continue in their ICC Angkor role until the displacements are halted and adequate housing for all those affected is confirmed to be in place. 

Human rights treaties to which Cambodia is a signatory stipulate the right to adequate housing. Join us by signing and sharing this petition as we put pressure on the government to meet its basic legal and moral obligations.