Tuesday, 21 October 2008

The King of Cambodia advocate Francophonie

Norodom Sihamoni. ©DR

Cambodge Soir

Norodom Sihamoni arrived in Quebec on October 15. The following day, he had a meeting with the Prime Minister, Jean Charest, and gave on the morning of the 18 a long speech during the opening ceremony of the XIIth Francophonie (World French Speaking countries) summit.

The four hundred year-old town of Quebec is bustling. More than 4,000 police have been deployed in the town, most of them around the Parliament and the conference centre, with helicopters patrolling the sky. For the summit 700 journalists were accredited, with 350 volunteers, 130 official vehicles and 400 limousines to ferry the participants to the XII th Francophonie summit, which lasts until October 19. Nonetheless, 68 Heads of State and governments came to take part in the biggest summit ever organised in North America. There are no vacancies in hotels for kilometres around Quebec. Entire neighbourhoods have been sealed and a new traffic scheme has been implemented in the town centre to by-pass the surrounding areas of the convention centre and of some of the major hotels, which are hosting 6,000 delegates.

During his opening speech on October 18, King Norodom Sihamoni recalled the “deep ties that Cambodia always expressed to Francophonie. A movement created by the founding fathers: President Léopold Senghor, President Habib Bourguiba, President Hamani Diori and His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk [my] father, who asked me to convey His warmest regards, His deepest friendship and reiterates His unfailing support to the great French-speaking family.

The young Monarch also took the opportunity to list all the fields where French language is prevailing in the Kingdom: “The Royal Academic of Legal Professions, the Law and economics University but also the Ecole Royale d’Administration (administrative college), are examples where French is used to teach, as a vector to strengthen exchanges to enable developing countries to improve the quality of their educational systems. It is the same with the use of French in technical training, such as at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia and at the University for Health Sciences which not only upheld the use of French for the Cambodian elite but also gave back to French the place it should have in the scientific and research communities. Culturally, the French language kept a privileged stance in particular with the presence for one hundred years of the Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient (French School of Asian Studies) on the Angkor site. Finally, the artistic/creative fields, the cinema, audiovisual, music and dance give our francophonic community horizons to conquer which could strengthen exchanges between their members, creating employment and therefore development”.

At the same time in the City Hall gardens, a few blocks away, Amnistie internationale Canada francophone, the Association québécoise des organismes de développement international (AQOCI, Quebecer association of International Development Bodies) and Carrefour tiers-monde, held a forum with the agenda: “do human rights increase development?” »

Through their activities these organisations would like to raise awareness that “many countries belonging to Francophonie do not respect basic human rights". Several state members are identified by Amnesty International: Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam among others in a report published for the forum listing the main violations to human rights.

“Cambodia is a member state of Francophonie and does not respect international obligations to guarantee decent housing to all its citizens. Large development programmes threaten with eviction around 15,000 Cambodians. They have to leave their homes and to relocate to sites with no basic infrastructures. Health services are limited, in particular for children due to a lack of medical staff, lack of health centres in rural areas and the high costs of health", stated the report which is available online.

Echoing this parallel forum, King Norodom Sihamoni in his speech touched upon this subject: “French is the language for democracy and the Rule of Law, for the prevention and resolution of conflict, for the promotion and awareness of Human Rights! Cambodia sticks strongly to these values, pivotal for a modern humanism advocated by our large community. Cambodia for example, is proud to have abolished capital punishment. And even though we still have a long way to go, free press, large numbers of Non-Governmental Organisations and political parties are witness to the committed efforts and the progress that we have accomplished for the past fifteen years in promoting sustainable development universally based on Human Rights”.

F.A.