Project Description: In fall 2008, the Leitner Clinic partnered Description of Fieldwork: The Leitner Clinic traveled to Cambodia in October 2008 to conduct interviews with: community members in resettlement camps; community members at risk of forced eviction; SCC staff members; and land rights NGOs. Project Outcome: The Leitner Clinic produced a 118-page report, entitled “Forced Resettlement in Phnom Penh: The Consequences for People Living with HIV/AIDS.” This impact study provides recommendations for action to SCC. Specifically, the report: (1) Documents and analyzes the effects of land resettlement on communities of people who have been or are at risk of being forcibly evicted from their homes, with a specific focus on Boeung Kak Lake residents and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and their families, in order to inform SCC’s strategy for addressing the problems their beneficiaries are likely to face after forced eviction; (2) Provides
with the Salvation Centre Cambodia (SCC), to draft a report that addresses the forced resettlement of people living with HIV/AIDS in communities in Phnom Penh. The Leitner team consisted of Fordham Law students Ernie Gao (`09), Elizabeth Joynes (`10), and Jessica Mikhailevich (`10) and was co-supervised by Prof. Chi Mgbako and Anna Cave, an associate at the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Partner Organization: Salvation Centre Cambodia (SCC) is a Cambodian NGO established in 1994 to respond to the urgent need of Cambodian people for education, care and support relating to HIV/AIDS. SCC works with Buddhist monks to implement HIV/AIDS prevention and care activities and has improved the lives of many people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS, especially orphans and vulnerable children. SCC currently works in communi!es that are at risk forced eviction.
recommendations for creative projects that SCC can implement to support its beneficiaries in resettlement in order to address and mitigate the most common problems they are likely to face, especially those affected by HIV/AIDS; (3) Provides a list of potential partner organizations that provide social services in resettlement communities or work on land rights and resettlement advocacy in Phnom Penh with whom SCC could develop partnerships; and (4) Provides transcripts of first-person interview narratives from families in Dam Nak Trayoeng, Boeung Kak Lake, An Dong, and the Borei Keila Green Shelters. The report was published as Forced Eviction and Resettlement in Cambodia: Case Studies from Phnom Penh in the Washington University Global Studies Law Review (2010).
