The continuing detention of Mother Nature youth activists underscores the weaponization of laws and legal processes to stifle opposition. Photo from Facebook post of Mother Nature
This post is also part of Global Voices’ July 2026 Spotlight series, “Statelessness.” This series offers insight into the issue of statelessness and how it hinders people’s freedom of movement, educational opportunities, political access, and more. You can support this coverage by donating here.
Cambodia amended its Constitution and enacted a new law in July 2025, enabling authorities to revoke the Khmer citizenship of those who commit treason, collude with foreign powers, or undermine national security. The government said the law will strengthen nationalism amid the country’s border row with Thailand, but critics and opponents said it is the latest authoritarian measure aimed at suppressing dissent.
On June 27, 2025, former Prime Minister and incumbent Senate President Hun Sen proposed an amendment to allow the revocation of Cambodian citizenship for those accused of colluding with foreign forces. This was approved by the Constitutional Council on July 2, 2025, passed by the National Assembly on July 11, 2025, and endorsed by the Senate on July 15, 2025. The amendment bill to the citizenship law was passed on August 25, 2025, and the “Sub-Decree on Implementing the Law on Nationality” was published on January 22, 2026.
In summary, the amended Constitution now allows officials to revoke citizenship of those found guilty of “committing treason, colluding with foreign countries, undermining national sovereignty or national security, or being convicted by the courts of various crimes, including treason or insulting the king.”
Prime Minister Hun Manet, the son of Senate President Hun Sen, said in a speech that law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear regarding the amendments.
If you are a patriot and are determined to your last breath not to act against Cambodian interests, please do not worry. But if you have a plan to conspire with a foreign country to destroy Cambodian interests, then you should be [concerned]. And, if you are like that, you should not remain a Cambodian.
His supporters in the Parliament insisted that the amendments underscored the value of nationalism and the need to “protect the nation.”
But in a joint statement, around 50 civil society organizations warned that the amendments could be used to target activists and human rights defenders, and legalize statelessness.
We risk becoming stateless, rightless, and prisoners in our own homeland. The potential for abuse in the implementation of this vaguely worded law to target people on the basis of their ethnicity, political opinions, speech, and activism is simply too high to accept. The government has many powers, but they should not have the power to arbitrarily decide who is and is not a Cambodian.
The process is so vaguely worded that anyone merely accused of affecting national security or sovereignty can lose their Cambodian citizenship, even if it is the only citizenship they have. In addition, anyone convicted of misdemeanours affecting ‘national security’ can also be stripped of their citizenship.
A statement by human rights groups in September 2025 highlighted the grave consequences of stripping individuals of their citizenship.
The removal of citizenship in Cambodia carries harsh and significant consequences. It erases the foundation of the person’s right to own land, to access healthcare, to go to school, to marry, to work legally, to participate in politics, and to travel in and out of the country.
These amendments risk arbitrarily stripping Cambodians of their nationality and fundamental rights, with a far-reaching chilling effect on freedom of expression.
The position paper of the Khmer Movement for Democracy mentioned how the new law could normalize statelessness.
Another major gap is the absence of explicit protection against statelessness. International law prohibits rendering individuals stateless, yet the draft law does not guarantee that revocation will only apply to those who hold dual nationality. As a result, Cambodians with only Cambodian citizenship could lose all legal identity and rights.
In response, authorities pointed out that other countries have similar laws, including the UK, Canada, and many European states. But civil society groups noted how Cambodian officials have a track record of abusing laws and judicial processes to silence criticism and dissent. In an interview with CambojaNews, NGO rights Adhoc president Ny Sokha summed up the concern about how the law might harm critics and political rivals.
We have observed that institutions which have the authority to impose punishments on political groups have yet to make truly independent decisions. We are concerned that if this draft law is passed, certain groups will be powerless to defend themselves, as our judicial system is still not strong.
In recent years, the ruling party has been accused of weaponizing laws and the courts to force the closure of media outlets, disband opposition parties, and imprison young activists, including the high-profile continued detention of youth activists from Mother Nature, an environmental rights group focused on strengthening environmental protections in Cambodia.
In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Vann Dara, a former provincial leader now living in exile in Australia, shared that she lost her passport in 2020 and became stateless because of her critical stance against the Hun Sen government.
I’ve never done anything to harm my country. I only helped the people. I didn’t cut down forests, sell land, gems, or minerals. Yet Hun Sen hunts me down, abuses and arrests us without fault, and even strips us of citizenship and passports.
Exiled politician Mu Sochua added that based on her experience, the amended laws pose a serious threat to people’s civil liberties.
For me, this is not an abstract debate. It is deeply personal. I know what it means to lose your birth place and the identity attached. I know how easily words like ‘traitor’ and ‘enemy’ can be wielded by those in power to crush hope and sow fear. I also know silence, from the international community, often emboldens further repression.
Border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia persist, and the ruling party led by Hun Manet and his father continues to consolidate political control by criminalizing dissent. Another legal tactic they can now arbitrarily deploy is to threaten to revoke the citizenship of critics and political rivals, reflecting the country’s deteriorating civic space.
