Arn Chorn Pond

Occupation: Peace Activist
Reebok HR Award: 1988
Birthplace: Pheam Ek, Battembong, Cambodia.

When Arn Chorn Pond was only nine years old, his family was executed in a Khmer Rouge death camp. Of the 500 children forced into the camp, only 60 survived. In the Killing Fields of Cambodia, Arn was forced to undress the children and hold their hands while the Khmer Rouge murdered them with a makeshift pickax.

Long after he escaped, the horrifying memories of the ceaseless executions continued to haunt him, but they didn't immobilize him. Instead, he dedicated his life to ending the suffering of children who were victims of this horrible atrocity.

The Khmer Rouge was a communist movement that controlled the government of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Communist leader Pol Pot led the group for much of its existence. During its regime of terror, more than 1.5 million Cambodians were massacred. In the years that followed, surviving children languished in refugee camps.

In 1984, under the auspices of the Religious Task Force, Arn co-founded an organization called Children of War to help end the suffering of children held hostage by war and violence and to help them rebuild their lives. This youth program brought together young Cambodian war survivors with teenagers from the United States for the purpose of effecting change through training, education, and participation in youth empowerment activities.

The group used nationwide tours, leadership training workshops, and school visitations to revitalize grassroots youth action groups. From its inception in 1984 through 1988, Children of War trained a core leadership group of 150 young people representing twenty-one countries. More than 100,000 United States students from 480 schools participated in the program.

Arn was also one of the few surviving Cambodians to return to the border camps. While attending college in Rhode Island, Arn devoted his summers from 1986 through 1988 to teaching and assisting those still displaced by war. Additionally, he was the youngest Cambodian involved in diplomatic efforts for reconciliation.

Arn not only personally triumphed over the adversity of his youth and the period of holocaust in his troubled homeland, he became a leading voice testifying to Amnesty International groups in several cities. He also worked to persuade the United Nations to take action to prevent the recurrence of genocide and massive violations of human rights in Cambodia.

In 1991, Arn returned to Cambodia to involve youth in the rebuilding of Cambodia through community service. In recent years, he worked with at-risk youths and gang members on violence prevention in Lowell, Massachusetts. Currently, Arn is working on a project to preserve the work of the surviving masters of Cambodian traditional music.

Books

1. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung

2. Night by Eli Wiesel, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust

3. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank          

Songs

1. Please Stop Raining, by a Cambodian singer in the 1960's who was killed by Pol Pot.            

Musicians

1. Peter Gabriel

2. Michael Stipe

3. Ray Charles 'I like these musicians because I like adventure and romance in a song.'  

Movies

1. Ghandi

2. Out of Africa

3. King Kong — 'I love adventure and human rights issues.'     

Question: If you were to create a 'toolbox' of things you need to create positive change, what would go in your toolbox?

Arn's Answer: First, I would include love and compassion for everyone, including who we call our enemy, and for the earth. Second, I would include money!

   
On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).  Created with input from many nations, this document still presents a vision of a world in which the rights of all human beings are honored.  It has become the foundation for advocates of human rights around the world. 
The human rights work Arn Chorn Pond has done with YOUTH relates most to Article 2 of the UDHR:

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ARTICLE 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Learn more about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Cambodia

Unless otherwise noted, all facts and figures are taken directly from the CIA World Factbook 2006.
*POPULATION:
13,881,427 (note: estimates for this country take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected.) (July 2006 est.)

LITERACY RATES:
Total population: 73.6%
Male: 84.7%
Female: 64.1% (2004 est.)

INFANT MORTALITY:
Total: 68.78 deaths/1,000 live births
Male: 77.35 deaths/1,000 live births
Female: 59.84 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

POPULATION DENSITY:
76.7 people/sq. km (est. from CIA world factbook numbers)

ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER:
34% 'using improved drinking water sources' (58% urban and 29% rural), 2002.

**MAIN INDUSTRIES:
Tourism, garments, rice milling, fishing, wood and wood products, rubber, cement, gem mining, textiles

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE(S):
Khmer (official) 95%, French, English

RELIGION:
Theravada Buddhist 95%, other 5%

ARTS/CULTURAL:
There is a strong emphasis on the Angkor Empire that thrived from the 9th-15th centuries.  There is a mix of architectural influences from Hinduism and Buddhism; Cambodia's is the only flag to include a building (from CIA World Factbook).  Traditional arts are re-emerging after the violence of the Khmer Rouge (including basketweaving, woodworking, and silversmithing).  Ballet and theater also draw heavily from the Hindu literary traditions.***

***CLIMATE/LANDSCAPE/GENERAL GEOGRAPHY:
Climate is tropical; rainy, monsoon season (May to November); dry season (December to April); little seasonal temperature variation. 
Landscape: mostly low, flat plains; mountains in southwest and north.  Geography: a land of paddies and forests dominated by the Mekong River and Tonle Sap.

GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE: Multiparty democracy under a constitutional monarchy established in September 1993.

OTHER KEY FACTS: Independence came on November 9th, 1953 from France (which held power in Cambodia starting in 1863).

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* Cambodia'.  The CIA World Factbook.  Last Modified 29 Jun. 2006, Last Accessed 5 July 2006.  (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cb.html)
** At A Glance: Cambodia'.  UNICEF.  Figure Last Modified 2002, Last Accessed 5 July 2006. (http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/cambodia_statistics.html)
*** Country: Art and Culture'.  Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia.  Last Modified 6 July, 2006.  Last Accessed 5 July, 2006.  (http://www.cambodia.gov.kh/unisql1/egov/english/country.art&culture.html)"