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Cambodia

Country profile

Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia and it relies heavily on aid.

More than one third of the 14.8 million Cambodians (UN, 2005) are living below the basic needs poverty line, with 90 % of them in rural areas.

Cambodia can both be termed as a very new and also a very old country. Old because of its magnificent past best symbolised by the ancient Angkor Wat temples, and new because it is only ten years ago the first democratic election was held after a peace agreement brokered by UN was signed between the fighting parties involved in the civil war that tormented the country for more than 10 years during the 1980s. Cambodia and her people are also still suffering from the repercussions of the genocide of more than 2 million people that took place during the Khmer Rouge regime 1975-79.

Cambodia is now a formal democracy, which held its first election in 1993 and again in 1998, and 2003. In 2002, the country held its first commune election, which was the first crucial step in the decentralisation plan currently being implemented. Cambodia has signed various international human rights conventions, especially following the peace agreement in 1991.

In June 2006 the Khmer Rouge Tribunal was opened and in the coming years the cases against the leaders in the Khmer Rouge regime responsible for the genocide will proceed.

More about Cambodia