Our Community Empowerment Program (CEP) is designed to empower marginalised Cambodians at the grassroots level, enabling them to understand principles of democracy and human rights, giving them the voice and opportunities to air their concerns and advocate for change, and providing alternative mechanisms for conflict resolution. We implement our CEP through four projects.

Our Community Training Project is aimed at providing disadvantaged rural and urban communities affected by land conflicts and other human rights violations with basic knowledge about their human rights, the relevant Cambodian legislation, and the democratic and lawful methods to defend these rights. Our training sessions also encourage and strengthen the communities in which we work, and create the foundation for a long term partnership between the community and the CCHR.

The objective of our Community Hearings Project is to provide disadvantaged rural and urban communities that have been affected by particular land conflicts and related human rights violations with an opportunity to have their concerns heard by local authorities, parliamentarians, representatives from the major political parties, NGO representatives, and other interested stakeholders. Community Hearings are a form of alternative conflict resolution and we conduct them in communities which have benefited from involvement in our Community Training sessions.

The Public Forums Project is our ‘signature’ project and is aimed at providing communities affected by human rights violations with the opportunity to discuss their concerns with and ask questions to local authorities, parliamentarians, representatives from the major political parties, NGO representatives, and other interested stakeholders. We have conducted hundreds of Public Forums that have aired on radio, been attended by hundreds of thousands of Cambodians, and been widely reported in the domestic and international press.

Our Community Dialogue Project is similar to our Public Forums Project in that it provides communities affected by human rights violations with the opportunity to raise concerns with and ask questions to interested stakeholders. However, the Community Dialogue sessions are smaller than the Public Forums, less formal, more easily organised and provide more comfortable space for dialogue.