In March 2008, a new level of cooperation was established between the United States and the Royal Government of Cambodia, when USAID and the Cambodian Ministry of Interior signed a Memorandum of Understanding which provided that the Ministry of Interior would accept the first U.S. advisor to be placed within the Cambodian government. USAID asked PRAJ to put the provisions of that assistance agreement into effect.

The primary goals of PRAJ's support to the Ministry of Interior are to increase the legal skills and capacity of Ministry staff at the national and provincial level, improve communication between the Ministry and civil society, and strengthen the Ministry's investigation of and response to allegations of wrongdoing by government officials. PRAJ is working to accomplish these goals by working with two of the Ministry's key departments, the Legislation Council and General Inspectorate.

Legislation Council

Representatives of MoI's Legislation Council and civil society discuss language for a poster concerning rights under the Land Law

The Legislation Council was created by subdecree in 2005, "to develop draft laws or subdecrees related to the Ministry of Interior." The work of the Legislation Council is divided between an 11-member Technical Team, and the 30 members of the Secretariat and its sub-departments. In addition to performing the drafting tasks of the Legislation Council, the Technical Team also disseminates information and training to provincial governments regarding laws enacted by the national government, reviews laws enacted by Cambodia's provincial governments, and participates in the working groups of other ministries to develop draft laws.

Although PRAJ only recently began its work with the Ministry of Interior, it has already worked effectively with the Legislation Council, helping the Council to improve its outreach capacity and fostering greater engagement with NGOs.

A major component of PRAJ's work with the Legislation Council has been the establishment of a Working Group consisting of member's from both the Legislation Council's Technical Team and representatives of leading civil society organizations. The Working Group is jointly developing educational materials related to key national laws, which will be used to educate both provincial authorities and the communities they serve. The Working Group will also soon begin jointly preparing training materials related to the process for resolving land disputes, and anticipates using those materials to jointly provide training to village and commune-level government officials.

General Inspectorate

Deputies from the General Inspectorate meet with the complainant in a land dispute in Battambang

Under the terms of a 2006 subdecree, the Ministry of Interior's General Inspectorate has control of the operational activities of the thousands of national and provincial officials under the supervision of the Ministry, and is responsible for the inspection and settlement of citizen complaints concerning those officials.

The responsibilities of the General Inspectorate are divided into two departments: the Political and Administrative Affairs department and the Police Affairs department. In practice, the General Inspectorate often operates as an Alternative Dispute Resolution bureau; it investigates disputes and then tries to work with the parties to those disputes to find a mutually acceptable resolution. Land dispute cases make up a significant and increasing percentage of the General Inspectorate's caseload, making the Inspectorate's ability to effectively investigate and mediate land disputes increasingly essential.

USAID's Reed Aeschliman welcomes deputies from MoI's General Inspectorate to a training course on witness interviewing skills

Under PRAJ, EWMI has provided multi-day trainings on witness interviewing techniques to both senior and junior General Inspectorate staff. Training courses on case analysis and case memorandum writing will also soon be given to the Inspectorate staff, and training to provincial inspection officials is expected to commence soon afterwards.

PRAJ has also begun to provide limited mentoring assistance on specific investigations, working to insure that complaints to the Ministry of Interior are promptly and properly resolved. As part of that effort, PRAJ's legal team has already accompanied members of the General Inspectorate on investigation trips to five provinces, and provided in-office guidance on a variety of other cases.