An analysis of the global impact of a Thai court judgement, which provides a judicial forum to farmers from Cambodia, who were victims of transnational land grabbing.

A Bangkok court ruled that about 3,000 Cambodians could proceed with a class-action suit against Mitr Phol, the world’s fourth-largest sugar producer. Farmers in Oddar Meanchey province are seeking compensation after the Cambodian government allocated land to the company for sugar plantations.

Le tribunal civil de Bangkok a accordé à plus de 700 familles cambodgiennes le droit de se joindre à une action collective contre Mitr Phol, le plus grand producteur de sucre de Thaïlande, dont les activités au Cambodge ont conduit à l’expulsion forcée de familles en 2008 et 2009.

Today, Cambodian plaintiffs representing more than 700 farming families won a landmark appeal allowing them to move forward with their class action against Asia’s largest sugar producer, Mitr Phol. The transboundary class action Hoy Mai & Others vs. Mitr Phol Co. Ltd. is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.

On 17 July 2020, Amnesty International submitted a third-party legal intervention (amicus curiae brief)to Bangkok South Civil Court that grant Class Action Lawsuit (CAL) status to more than 700 Cambodian families who are suing Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol after being forcibly evicted from their homes in 2008-09.

The complaint was filed in March on behalf of more than 700 displaced Cambodian families by the U.S. organization IDI and the Cambodian organizations Equitable Cambodia and LICADHO

Cambodian villagers will appeal a Thai court decision rejecting their class action lawsuit against Thailand's biggest sugar producer, Mitr Phol. The class action lawsuit, filed in April last year on behalf of more than 3,000 Cambodian plaintiffs, accused the Thai sugar giant violently displacing them to make way for plantations.

Two Cambodian sugar farmers are bringing a case against Thai firm Mitr Phol claiming its subsidiary illegally cleared their land.

The lawsuit against Asia’s largest sugar producer, Mitr Phol, filed on behalf of about 3,000 people, is the first class-action lawsuit filed in a Thai court by plaintiffs from another country against a Thai company operating outside Thailand.

Representatives of more than 700 Cambodian families who were violently displaced to make way for a sugar plantation have filed a formal complaint against Bonsucro, the sugar industry’s sustainability certification body, for breaches of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

Unless these organizations are firmly held accountable to international human rights standards, they will not only fail to push their industries towards more responsible behavior, but they will become little more than window dressing for corporate misconduct.

Nestle response to the Cambodian farmers lawsuit against sugar producer, Mitr Pohl over alleged land grabbing. The Thai company, Mitr Pohl is direct supplier to Nestlé and tier 2 supplier in other supply chains, mostly via traders.