Mother Nature Cambodia Activists
We Long Kunthea, Phuon Keoraksmey, Thun Ratha, Yim Leanghy and Ly Chandaravuth are environmental activists and members of Mother Nature Cambodia (MNC), an environmental rights movement. We have been imprisoned since July 2024 for our work on environmental protection in Cambodia. Five other members of the group were also convicted on the same day, in absentia.
On 2 July 2024, Yim Leanghy was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for the offence of ‘insulting the King’ and ‘plotting against the state’ under the Criminal Code. Thun Ratha, Long Kunthea, Phuon Keoraksmey and Ly Chandaravuth, along with three other MNC members were sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for the offence of ‘plotting against the state’.
The charges of ‘plotting’ date back from 2012 to 2021 and cover a wide range of Mother Nature’s activism while the charges of 'insulting the King' are linked to statements made in an online meeting in May 2021.
We have faced systematic judicial harassment for our activism. Previously, three of us - Long Kunthea, Phuon Keoraksmey, Thun Ratha were arrested in September 2020 for planning a solo march to the Prime Minister’s residence in protest against the filling of Boeung Tamok lake. The authorities accused us of intending to cause “social chaos”. In May 2021, Long Kunthea and Phuon Keoraksmey were sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, and Thun Ratha was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment.
In June 2021, Yim Leanghy and Ly Chandaravuth were arrested by the authorities while taking water samples and documenting wastewater pollution in the capital Phnom Penh and were charged with ‘plotting against the state’.
Presently, all five of us are detained in different prisons across Cambodia separated far from our friends and families.
The appeals against our convictions have been delayed since June 2025 which human rights groups have stated as a violation of our right to a fair trial.
We collectively call on the international community to urge the Cambodian government that continues to stifle activism and restrict civic space to end the harassment and imprisonment of activists, especially those exposing environmental violations.
Civic space in Cambodia is rated as ‘repressed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor.
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