ABSTRACT
This ethnographic study, by using the critical realist framework, examines the effectiveness of a contextualised and non-confrontational rights-based approach (RBA) by a Cambodian NGO, which is reflected in its principle of working with the government. It is widely held that politically confrontational RBA by NGOs does not work in relation to authoritarian governments in developing countries as it irritates such governments, thereby making it impossible for NGOs to operate. The sample NGO is no exception; by working with the government, it has further widened the democratic spaces made available through the decentralisation reforms. More specifically, through sensitising and capacitating both citizens and the local government, this approach has gradually brought about positive shifts in the relationship between citizens and the local government in the context of decentralisation and land grabbing. However, the principle of working with the government is a double-edged sword that has made the NGO blind to the imperative of RBA to penetrate deep-seated injustices embedded in land grabbing, namely neo-patrimonialism with a neoliberal twist. This is a pitfall of rights-based NGOs that attempt to be both contextually appropriate and politically transformational.
