concerned, to join organisations of their own choosing without previous authorisation. Article 3: 1. Workers' and employers' organisations shall have the right to draw up their constitutions and rules, to elect their representatives in full freedom, to organise their administration and activities and to formulate their programmes. 2. The public authorities shall refrain from any interference which would restrict this right or impede the lawful exercise thereof. Article 4: Workers' and employers' organisations shall not be liable to be dissolved or suspended by administrative authority. Article 5: Workers' and employers' organisations shall have the right to establish and join federations and confederations and any such organisation, federation or confederation shall have the right to affiliate with international organisations of workers and employers. Article 6: The provisions of Articles 2, 3 and 4 hereof apply to federations and confederations of workers' and employers' organisations. Article 7: The acquisition of legal personality by workers' and employers' organisations, federations and confederations shall not be made subject to conditions of such a character as to restrict the application of the provisions of Articles 2, 3 and 4 hereof. Article 8: 1. In exercising the rights provided for in this Convention workers and employers and their respective organisations, like other persons or organised collectivities, shall respect the law of the land. 2. The law of the land shall not be such as to impair, nor shall it be so applied as to impair, the guarantees provided for in this Convention. Domestically, this fundamental right is protected under the Cambodian Constitution, articles 31 and 36, which read as follows: Article 31, para. 1 The Kingdom of Cambodia shall recognize and respect human rights as stipulated in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the covenants and conventions related to human rights, women's and children's rights.1 Article 36, paras. 5-6 Khmer citizens of either sex shall have the right to form and to be members of trade unions. The organization and functioning of trade unions shall be determined by law. The right to freedom of association has been reaffirmed on numerous occasions by the UN General Assembly2, the UN Human Rights Council3, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association 4 (SRFAA), the then UN Special                                                              1 In its Decision No. 092/003/2007 of 10 July 2007 regarding the applicability of the international human rights treaties by the courts in Cambodia, the Constitutional Council clarified that “‘the law’ applicable in Cambodia … refers to the national law including the Constitution which is the supreme law and other applicable laws as well as the international conventions that Cambodia has recognized.” 2 General Assembly Resolutions A/RES/53/144 (1999) and A/RES/64/163 (2009). 3 Human Rights Council resolutions on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, A/HRC/RES/15/21, A/HRC/RES/21/16, A/HRC/RES/24/5. 4 Reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, A/HRC/20/27 para. 3