"Clean Clothes Campaign strongly condemns the ongoing smear campaign against independent labour rights NGO in Cambodia", 21 June 2024

The Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL) recently published a report on Freedom of Association in the garment industry, and was confronted with a smear campaign and false accusations shortly after.

The report specifically evaluates the processes used by the International Labour Organisation’s Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program and analysed whether these processes appropriately assess and adequately report on employer-imposed barriers to freedom of association. The report is at times critical of the effectiveness of these processes and comes with a set of clear recommendations on how to improve the programme to ensure workers’ right to freedom of association is safeguarded better. The findings of the field research and the recommendations were shared with BFC prior to publication of the report.

Pro government unions, seemingly unaware of the exact content of the report, are now claiming that the report does not reflect the real situation of trade unions and freedom of association in Cambodia and is harmful for existing and future investors. This language, typically coming from employers organisations rather than worker representatives, can also be found in the letters of petition requesting investigation into CENTRAL’s operations and finances that over 15 different pro-government unions have filed with the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MoLVT) and the Ministry of Interior (MoI)…

This smear campaign against CENTRAL fits in seamlessly with the wider repression against labour and human rights advocates in the country… The current targeted attacks on CENTRAL appear coordinated and a well-planned effort to eliminate yet another independent voice in Cambodia’s civic space landscape.

Clean Clothes Campaign stands in strong solidarity with CENTRAL and will support CENTRAL in its fight against these false accusations.