right to privacy. This is a clear violation of Cambodia’s obligations under constitutional and international law. The Constitution guarantees the right to confidentiality of correspondence; 6 farreaching and unchecked discretionary powers to seize data regarding individuals’ telecommunications activities amount to a violation of this right. Additionally, the Constitution recognizes Cambodia’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to protect individuals against arbitrary and unlawful interference in their privacy and correspondence and explicitly requires the law to protect individuals against such attacks. 7 Criminalisation of expression and restriction of rights Alongside the comprehensive surveillance powers, the law also creates new criminal offences relating to the use of telecommunications devices that are punishable with imprisonment and heavy fines. The combination of surveillance powers and the new offences means that all public or private expression by means of telecommunications devices could potentially be observed and interpreted as a crime. There is a strong possibility that this will bring about a chilling effect on individual expression of opinion and association through telecommunications. Furthermore, the provisions could be used to spy on high profile-individuals and selectively interpret the content of their communications as criminal activity. Below is an analysis of some of the provisions that constitute the greatest threat to the rights and freedoms of individuals:  Article 80 states that “Establishment, installation and utilization of equipment in the telecommunications sector, if these acts lead to national insecurity, shall be punished by sentences from seven to 15 years imprisonment.” 8 No telecommunications activity appears to be excluded. This means any form of expression, public or private and conducted by any electronic means of communication, could be criminalized if it is deemed to create “national insecurity”. This could heavily punish legitimate expression via radio shows, television, online and even through private messages and phone conversations between individuals, should the authorities determine it to be a threat. This offence appears to carry strict liability; no intention to cause national insecurity is necessary yet an individual could face up to 15 years’ imprisonment and excessive fines of 140 million riels to 300 million riels. 9 The vagueness of the law also means the legality of an activity is not clear to the individual at the point of commission and is only clearly determined later on the basis of its perceived consequences. This makes this provision and its open-ended definition of “national insecurity” easily exploitable by Cambodia’s politically partisan judiciary.  In addition to the new offences created, Article 66 includes a general prohibition on telecommunications activity which merely “may affect public order or national security,” 10 without the requirement of actual harm. Essentially, an act with no tangible consequences could subsequently be deemed to have violated this law and incur penalties.  The law creates new telecommunications “expression” offences that replicate existing Criminal Code provisions while imposing higher penalties, particularly those relating to threats expressed via telecommunications means. These offences add nothing new to the body of criminal law other than arbitrarily increased financial penalties and added risk of conflict between laws. 11These 6 Cambodian Constitution Article 40 Cambodian Constitution Article 31; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 17 8 Telecoms Law Article 80 9 Telecoms Law Article 81 10 Telecoms Law Article 66 11 Telecoms Law Article 93 is broadly equivalent to Criminal Code Articles 231 (Threats); 232 (Threats with extortion) 233 (Death threat); 234 (Death threat with extortion). Telecoms Law Article 95 broadly replicates Criminal Code Articles 423 (Threats to cause damage) and 424 (Threats to cause damage followed by an order); however, Telecoms Law Articles 94 and 96 enact higher penalties for these offences than for their Criminal Code counterparts. The Telecoms Law also expressly permits additional penalties under Article 168 of the Criminal Code concurrent to those levied under the Telecoms Law. 7 Page 2 of 7