Ly Pisey

Ly Pisey is a 2007 graduate of the HRAP from Cambodia. She currently serves as the coordinator of Rainbow Community Kampuchea, the LGBTIQ-led organization that she co-founded and where she served as the director of board in 2009-2017.

Ly has been actively involved in grassroots and social activism for poverty reduction, human rights, women’s development and LGBTIQ rights. In 2004, she joined Women’s Agenda for Change. In 2009, she became a program facilitator with the Social Action for Change and a member of the United Sisterhood Alliance based in Cambodia. Ly has assisted a number of organizations including Women's Network for Unity and the Cambodian Cross-Sector Network for Economic and Development System Analysis. In 2012, she was a core organizing member of Grassroots People's Assembly (AGPA) of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a four-day event that brought together over 2000 Cambodian local activists during the ASEAN Summit.

Ly believes in collective voice and power that thrives for social justice and equality. She co-founded the Cambodian Women’s Movement for Social Justice (CWMSJ) among other women activists, which raises concerns about the status of women’s rights. As the core organizer members of CWMSJ, Ly was responsible for developing CWMSJ’s advocacy strategies and community mobilization efforts. This movement was sparked by Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen’s defamatory comments to Mu Sochua, a female Member of Parliament. In response to his comments, Sochua sued the Prime Minister only to be faced with possible imprisonment. Due to CWMSJ’s advocacy campaign, Sochua was only required to pay the civil compensation to the Prime Minister.

In describing CWMSJ’s landmark campaign, Ly explains: “We embarked on this campaign not because she's a Member of Parliament but she is one of the few female political leaders who took a risk to advocate for women's rights and gender equality. We decided to take action on her behalf despite the risks we faced for speaking out about the equal and fair treatment of women in all sectors, including judicial and political sectors.”

When asked about the greatest benefit of HRAP, she writes that the program helped her to develop various competencies: fundraising skills, human rights principles, and advocacy strategies, as well as support her dream of making the equal and just society.

- Article composed by Allison Tamer, Program Assistant, March 2013, updated by Chiora Taktakishvili, Fulbright Exchange Visitor, July 2019