Leng Ouch, Cambodia
From 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2016, Front Line Defenders has provided 252 security grants, totaling more than €615,000, to human rights defenders at risk around the world.
Leng Ouch is the Chairman of the Cambodia Human Rights Task Forces (CHRTF). He is a dedicated environmentalist working to protect Cambodia's forests by documenting and reporting on illegal logging in Cambodia and exposing corruption robbing rural communities of their land, which led the government to cancel large land concessions. In recognition of his work, he was named a 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize winner.
Leng Ouch, Cambodian human rights defender.
Along with the Prize came an unprecedented amount of media attention, for which Leng and his family were concerned about possible repercussions. They applied for a temporary relocation grant, including for the time when Leng was in the United States to receive the Prize. In addition to this attention, at approximately the same time, the environmental campaigning organization, Global Witness, published a report on the Hun Sen business that is linked to documentation by CHRTF.
Leng applied for a family support grant from Front Line Defenders, before he received the Prize from Goldman, to relocate his family to a safe place while he was in the United States attending the award ceremony and other meetings.
As a result of the grant, Leng and his family found safety during that period of time.
