– Your Excellencies,
– Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, I am very pleased to join you all at the presentation degrees ceremony to 55 judges Batch of the “Judicial Reforms”, present certificates to 54 Court Clerks of the First Batch and starting the new academic year for 55 student judges of the Second Batch at the Royal Academy – Judicial Profession.
Indeed, organizing this ceremony of degree and certificate presentation and starting the academic year is a new evidence reflecting the highest priority of the Royal Government focusing in human resource development and training of judicial profession to the civil servants, those who will fulfill their duties in order to contribute to socio-economic development; this is an important part in reducing poverty and improving living standards of our population.
Taking this auspicious opportunity on behalf of the Royal Government and my own behalf let me express appreciation to theRoyal Academy – Judicial Profession as well as efforts of the students for their achievements, including care and devotions of the teachers and professors of the Royal Academy – Judicial Profession in attaining such proud results today.
I am also proud of the achievement made by all 109 students of the First Batch of the court clerks and judge students Batch of the “Judicial Reforms” as it represents not only their personal achievements but also for the whole nation since it contribute to the increase in the number and improvement in the quality of human resource which is an important aspect of the Royal Government’s Rectangular Strategy which focused on Growth, Employment, Equity and Efficiency to importantly play its role in supporting the development in Cambodia. Indeed, the achievement made by the efforts of all the students today will certainly help to further enhance the successful implementation of the Rectangular Strategy of the Royal Government.
We have indeed understood that the prolonged war coupled with internal conflicts that occurred in Cambodia for almost 3 decades, have left the country with a distressing past which makes it difficult for the judicial and law system, especially it has imposed many obstacles for the implementation of the law. At the same time, the complexity of the law and judicial reformsis also caused by the social environment of Cambodia, especially the rapid population growth of youths and fast changing society that have resulted from the improvement of technology and the regional and world integration which then led to a change in the value and integrity of the society.
Regardless of the situation, the Royal Government at the 3rd term of the National Assembly is no different from the previous one in terms of its strong determination in enforcing the Legal and Judicial Reforms by setting up better Legal and Judicial reform strategies and the implementation of the policy papers and other crucial strategies which have been adopted in theGovernance Action Plan by focusing, critically on achieving the policy of poverty reduction of people. Along with this already made efforts, the Royal Government has also prepared the legal framework for promoting the development of the market economy and enhancing the improvement in trade and investment sectors by focusing on the establishment of the legal framework on intellectual property rights, business trademarks, banking, taxation, accounting systems, insurance, commercial enterprise law, bankruptcy law, contractual law, and trade funding, laws on tradable instruments and currency clearing operations, in order to ensure effective operation in the financial sector. Moreover, within these frameworks the Royal Government has created a vision for judicial and legal sectors based on the basic principals as set in the constitution concerning the individual rights, freedom of democracy, sharing of power and legislations.
Meanwhile, in achieving these objectives, I would like to take this opportunity to urge all of you to remember two important points regarding the works in legal and judicial reforms:
1) Obeying the Law: As the verdict decider, we must always put the law above all else, hence to deliver a verdict based on rules of the law without manipulating it.
2) Providing Service: Those graduates who have received training from the Royal Academy of Judicial Profession to always remember that you are the servant of the state and the people. The servant of the state and people means not only those with the power to rule but the servants of all citizens, especially the most vulnerable and poor ones. Indeed, the two jobs above are the first and foremost missions with the objective of leading the state reforms, creating a favorable condition for the development of the country through the contribution into improving the people’s living standards and contributing to the development of the economy.
Moreover, I would like to remind all the young judges and court clerks to always hold to the 4 key moral understanding as follow:
1) Quality: You must always keep learning to improve both the theoretical and practical knowledge and to use those knowledge to serve the people who are having difficulties. Furthermore, you must make decision on cases with full justice to avoid the four causes of partiality including, partiality for a loved one, bias due to hatred, partiality due to fear, and partiality due to ignorance, hence you must shape and develop yourself to become the officer with talent and full of kindness and clear capacity which can be trusted by the people.
2) Integrity: is the quality and reputation which court officers must always hold, that is to say before doing anything you must always think of yourself as role models both on duty and in personal daily live; should not use holding position for own interest. In this sense, the dignity gains from being equal, unbiased in the behavior of judge officials in resolving the cases. In other sense, we can say that judicial officials must be a person who is in flavor of honesty, no corruption, morality adherence and loyalty to the country. Therefore, dignity is law respecting that judicial official must keep in mind. The decisions that are irrational and offensive must be avoided.
3) Honesty: it is not only a word that used for the nation, but also honest to the law, no discrimination and unbiased. Moreover, I would urge all of you strongly adhere to law enforcement, recognizing rights, the comments and explanations of rights in a willingness to understand the situation and adhere to the law to protect individual rights.
4) Confidentiality: Being a judge or court clerk provided you with access to cases, thus you must not tell the story to the other side of plaintiff, to any others people or to the public, even if you do or do not receive benefit to yourself. In short, in any form outside the scope of work, you should not leak the information, since it would open an opportunities to let offender not to be punished by the law or create resentment, malice and revenge which would create a new offense.
Again, I would like to compliment student of judges and court clerks who have been trained to enhance their knowledge and know-how as well as other complementary capacity as the basis for working in the judicial sector and professionally involve in the practical work during its internship. At the same time, I would like to thank the Royal Academy of Judicial Professionand I would like to stress its important roles in modernization of judicial sector in Cambodia and its roles in training further Cambodian intellectuals to be further competence in order to assure human resources development in judicial sector. Indeed, this great achievement cannot attain without support from development partners that successfully support the development process in Cambodia. On behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia and my own behalf, I would like to express my gratitude to the government and people of France via H.E. Yvon Roé d’Albert, Ambassador of France to the Kingdom of Cambodia, which has contributed to Priority Solidarity Fund named “Sustain Sate of Law” to the Royal Academy of Judicial Profession, especially the France Government assisted in drafting the Criminal Code and procedures in Cambodia. I would like to express my gratitude to the Government and People of Japan via H.E. Fumiaki Takahashi, Ambassador of Japan to the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia, which assisted Cambodia in drafting Civil Code and procedures as well as help to train on civil code in the Royal Academy of Judicial Profession.
Finally, I wish you all who participated in this ceremony with five gems of Buddhist blessing. May I wish students of judges and court clerk who successfully finished their studies good health and success in their new positions and jobs. I would like to officially open a new academic year for the second promotion of the Royal Academy of Judicial Profession for now on.
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