Human Rights Portal - Sithi
What?
The Sithi Project – “Sithi” means “rights” in Khmer – began in order to develop and implement collaborative and decentralized approaches to human rights advocacy in Cambodia. The Project strives to facilitate more detailed research and analysis, and more sophisticated evidence-based dialogue and advocacy. CCHR wishes to progress tactics for monitoring, documentation and information sharing, as a basis for an improvement in the situation of human rights – particularly civil and political rights – in Cambodia.
Why?
Cambodia suffers from a widespread disregard for human rights, and the situation continues to deteriorate. Cambodian citizens are regularly targeted, harassed, charged with criminal offenses and subject to politically motivated persecution for speaking out against oppressive government policies. The Sithi Project seeks to improve documentation and monitoring for more sophisticated evidence based dialogue and advocacy to improve the situation of human rights in Cambodia.
How?
- Strengthen and maintain CCHR’s Human Rights Portal Sithi.org – The Sithi Project developed a web portal, Sithi.org, to disseminate varied information on the situation of human rights in Cambodia. The following human rights maps, all uploaded on Sithi.org, play a crucial role in advocating and protecting human rights in Cambodia: Garment Factories and Supply Chains, Map of Female Candidates for 2013 National Assembly Election, and Map of Elected Female Members of Parliament in 2013 National Assembly Election.
- Adopt a collaborative approach to monitor and document the situation of human rights in Cambodia– CCHR collaborates with fellow Civil Society Organizations (“CSOs”), conducting trainings and sharing information, to generate more ideas and new approaches for ensuring that universal human rights are realized in Cambodia.
- Through CCHR’s Sithi Hub, the Project provides a space where innovators and human rights advocates can come together, share ideas, and exchange information and knowledge. The Sithi Hub holds weekly trainings, forums, and talks, for the development of new technologies and digital innovations in the field of human rights. The ultimate goal is to promote the protection of human rights in Cambodia through the use of Information Communications Technology (“ICT”). The Sithi Hub webpage is at “hub.sithi.org”.
Who?
The target audience and intended beneficiaries of the training and capacity building elements of the Project are CSOs. The target audience for the dialogue and advocacy are the RGC and government representatives, as sources of human rights violations, and the Cambodian people, to whom the RGC owes guarantees of human rights and the international community. CCHR aspires to exercise influence on the government and support Cambodians in the quest for respect for their human rights.
Recognition— The Sithi Portal won the 2013 Communications for Social Change Award awarded by the Centre for Communication and Social Change at the School of Journalism and Communication, of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. The 2013 Communications for Social Change Award is in recognition of the Sithi Portal’s role in highlighting and enhancing access to information regarding to human rights violations in Cambodia. This is the second award the Sithi Portal has received since the inception of the Portal, the first being the 2011 Information Society Innovation Fund Award (ISIF) in the Rights and Freedom Category.
