Under Cambodia’s Constitution, all Khmer citizens have equal status before the law, regardless of wealth or station.1 This promotes a political principle called the rule of law,2 an ideal that all members of a society, both the people and the State, are held equally accountable ...

Cambodia’s sub-national administration consists of three tiers: capital city/province, municipality/district and sangkat/commune. Phnom Penh is the capital, and there are 24 provinces, 159 districts (including 26 municipalities and 12 khans), 1406 communes and 227 sangkats. ...

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 ...

Election ballots, Cambodia. Photo by Daniel Littlewood, taken on April 20, 2004. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0History of Cambodia’s electionsCambodia saw consecutive civil wars for more than 20 years after the coup in 1970. In 1991, parties in the conflict reached agreement to end the ...

Social land concessions (SLCs) are intended to provide to the landless or land-poor land on which to establish residences and/or generate income through agriculture. The Cambodian Government that more than 30,000 households have received land as social land concessions. Despite its pro-poor intention, the SLC ...

Cambodia’s forests have seen a significant reduction of total forest and dense forest cover in recent years, the growth of plantations, particularly rubber, and an ongoing problem with illegal logging. ...

The Royal Government of Cambodia has acknowledged the potential of the tourism industry as a source of Cambodia’s socio-economy growth, including job creation and poverty reduction. Tourism has been considered one of Cambodia’s key economic pillars, both international and domestic. In the early 2000s, the ...

Starting from 2001, work began on promoting the formation of a Cambodian Stock Exchange (CSE or CSX) as a means of supporting the economic system in Cambodia’s development. A stock exchange facilitates the buying and selling of stocks among investors. Dr. Bit Seanglim, Chairman of ...

Goal 16’s full title is “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” It has a monitoring framework of 12 targets (2 around means of implementation) and 23 indicators.  Transition ...

The Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) is initiated to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. The global SDG 5 consists of 9 targets (3 targets as means of implementation) and 14 indicators. The objectives of SDG 5 are expressed in terms ...

The launch event of a project improving the delivery of public services through ICT in Svay Rieng province, Cambodia. Photo by the ODC team, taken on 28 June 2017. Licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0.Civil society, representing the interests of ordinary citizens, is the part of ...

“Stopping corruption may start from us” (Khmer version on Clean Hand poster), in Kratie province, Cambodia. Photo by World Bank Photo Collection, taken on November 22, 2006. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0In Cambodia, the activities of buying goods, construction work, repairs, and services and consultation ...

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 Code418, Chapter III of the Law on Environmental Protection and Natural Resource Management 1996419(EPNRM Law), and the Sub-Decree no. 72 ...

Patients are registered during the outreach screening at Vien Health Center. Photo by Community Eye Health, taken in 2006. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0The Kingdom of Cambodia is an indivisible state.  The country’s administration at all levels and in all sectors falls under the same ...

A land concession is a grant of rights over an area of land for a specific purpose. In Cambodia land concessions can be granted for various purposes, including agribusiness, redistribution of land to the landless and land-poor, infrastructure development, mining and fishing. They have been ...

Community fishery refuges, Battambang, Cambodia. Photo by Alan Brooks/WorldFish, taken on 2 November 2011. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.Fishing practices in Cambodia are classified into three broad categories: small-scale or family fishing, medium-scale and large-scale or commercial fishing.In 2001, aware of the need to safeguard ...

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 ...

Industries in Cambodia (excluding extractive industries and mining) are mostly within the garment, light manufacturing, agricultural, construction and tourism sectors. The Royal Government of Cambodia has set directions to transform Cambodia into a middle-income economy by 2030 and high-income country by 2050, as mandated in ...

In terms of attractiveness, one of Cambodia’s assets is the relative absence of intense development along its coasts, in comparison with neighboring countries. The 440 kilometer-long coastline includes a large area of non-urbanized zones, where locals can make their livelihoods from coastal resources. Cambodia’s coastline ...