{"id":1701,"date":"2025-07-11T22:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T22:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/cambodia-passes-constitutional-change-allowing-govt-to-revoke-citizenship\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T22:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T22:45:12","slug":"cambodia-passes-constitutional-change-allowing-govt-to-revoke-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/cambodia-passes-constitutional-change-allowing-govt-to-revoke-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"Cambodia passes constitutional change allowing gov\u2019t to revoke citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Human rights activists fear the move approved by lawmakers could be used to target political opponents.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lawmakers in Cambodia have amended the country\u2019s constitution to allow legislation that would see citizenship stripped from those deemed to have colluded with foreign powers.<\/p>\n

The constitutional change, which was unanimously supported by 125 politicians in the National Assembly on Friday, has drawn criticism from rights groups, which have expressed concern that it could be used to target political opponents.<\/p>\n

The government said it will soon make use of the amendment.<\/p>\n

Justice Minister Koeut Rith confirmed that a new citizenship revocation bill would be swiftly brought before parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you betray the nation, the nation will not keep you,\u201d he said before dismissing critics\u2019 unease about the move.<\/p>\n

The justice minister claimed that those who have not harmed the national interests will not be stripped of their citizenship, adding that they might still \u201cface other charges\u201d.<\/p>\n

Before Friday\u2019s vote, the constitution specified that Khmer citizens could lose their citizenship only \u201cthrough mutual agreement\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, after being revised, Article 33 of the constitution now states that \u201creceiving, losing and revoking Khmer nationality shall be determined by law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International condemned the change on Friday, urging the international community to criticise Cambodia over the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the proposal moves closer to becoming reality, anyone who speaks out against or opposes the ruling party will be at risk of having their citizenship revoked,\u201d the NGO\u2019s regional research director, Montse Ferrer, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply concerned that the Cambodian government, given the power to strip people of their citizenship, will misuse it to crack down on its critics and make them stateless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, Hun Sen, the influential former Cambodian prime minister, called for the constitution to be changed so Cambodians could be stripped of their citizenship.<\/p>\n

This came after exiled opposition figures condemned the government over its ongoing border dispute with Thailand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who lives in exile to avoid being sent to prison, was among those Hun Sen accused of speaking against the interests of the nation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source: <\/p>\n

Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human rights activists fear the move approved by lawmakers could be used to target political opponents. Lawmakers in Cambodia have amended the country\u2019s constitution to allow legislation that would see citizenship stripped from those deemed to have colluded with foreign powers. The constitutional change, which was unanimously supported by 125 politicians in the National Assembly … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}