The Ministry of Environment is the main authority mandated to oversee environmental issues, including protected areas, environmental impact assessments, and management of natural resources. ...

Forest view. Photo by Open Development Cambodia, taken on 05 December 2021. Under license CC BY-SA 4.0.Cambodia is covered with forest, accounting for around 13.1 million hectares in 1973, and it is had fallen to 8.7 million hectares in 2014.1 However, based on the Ministry ...

The primary legal requirements for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) in Cambodia are set out in Content II, Book V of the Environment and Natural Resource Code43, Chapter III of the Law on Environmental Protection and Natural Resource Management 199644(EPNRM Law), and the Sub-Decree no. 72 ...

Criminal litigation refers to the judicial procedure held before a criminal court to resolve accusations brought against a person accused of a criminal offense. As defined in the law, “The purpose of a criminal action is to examine the existence of an offense, to prove ...

Respect for strong values is the key to citizens’ trust in their courts.139 The international values recognized for judges are independence and impartiality, integrity, equality of treatment, diligence and competence. A judge cannot both decide a case and have a personal interest in its resolution. ...

Construction on a Phnom Penh tower block. Photo by Axel Drainville, taken on 4 May 2011. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0The construction industry has boomed in Cambodia. From 2000 to November 2018, Cambodia’s Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction approved 43,136 construction projects representing ...

Overview of​ an industrial gold mine and refinery in Okvau. Photo taken from the Ministry of Mines and Energy’s Facebook Page, taken on 11 June 2021.Mineral resources are defined as “any substance, whether in solid, liquid or gaseous form, naturally originated by a geological process ...

Since 1993, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has been working to reform the country’s legal framework, and in particular the application of justice, to provide a clear and fixed procedural system to ensure respect for individual rights and equality before the courts.271 In theory, ...

Anti-Corruption Unit, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Photo by Michael Coghlan, taken on 9 January 2014. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0In the 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International, released in January 2017, Cambodia ranked 156th out of 176 countries.307 Cambodia has the lowest score of all ...

Logging truck in Mondulkiri protected forest , Cambodia. Photo by Global Water Forum, taken on 23 February 2014. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0Cambodia is deeply concerned about deforestation. While the country seeks fast economic development, forests represent a tremendous national treasure. In order to help ...

The 7th National Consultation Workshop on the Draft of the Environment and Natural Resource Code of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Photo by Open Development Cambodia, taken on 22 March 2018. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.With 76% of its people living in rural areas,358 Cambodia holds ...

As Cambodia emerged from years of conflict, pressures grew on natural resources and sensitive areas. In response, a number of protected areas were created by royal decree in 1993 to protect ecologically and culturally important places. More detailed guidelines on managing the country’s protected areas ...

Under Cambodia’s Constitution, all Khmer citizens have equal status before the law, regardless of wealth or station.390 This promotes a political principle called the rule of law,391 an ideal that all members of a society, both the people and the State, are held equally accountable ...

Cambodia relies heavily on its groundwater resources to overcome water shortages during the dry season. More than half of the population depends on it when enough surface water is not available. At a certain depth, the ground is saturated with water, and the upper surface ...

The rights to freedom of association are protected under Cambodia’s laws. Article 36 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia provides that ‘Khmer citizens of both sexes shall have the rights to create unions and participate as its members’. Thus, under the 1997 Labor ...

Young man fishing with a cast net on Siem Reap river, Cambodia. Photo by Brian Hoffman, taken on 12 January 2015. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.Fisheries management in Cambodia is divided between central and local governments. At the central level, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry ...

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Land Law of 2001 both guarantee an individual’s right to property protection. Though part of the Government’s policy framework since 2002, not until 2010 did a legal framework exist to govern the process by which the ...

Public policies are a system of laws, regulatory measures, and plans of action implemented by the government to ensure that its functions are performed predictably and consistently.518 Policies typically outline the guiding principles of an operation; meanwhile, regulations set procedural expectations. Currently, there are no ...

UNTAC soldiers from India patrolling the streets in Prey Veng province, Cambodia, on the second day of voting. Photo by United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia (UNTAC), taken on May 24 1993. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Cambodia inherited legal and political systems and a state ...

The judiciary is one of the three powers, together with the executive (the Government) and legislative (the National Assembly and the Senate), that constitute the state. 562 Its role is to monitor the application of the law and punish its violation. This power is vested ...