Restore Free Assembly, UN Rights Council Says
Cambodia’s human rights record was assessed Tuesday by the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 47 member states in Geneva, many of which cited concerns about the recent violent suppression of protests by the government, and a judiciary beholden to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling CPP. The U.N. ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/restore-free-assembly-un-rights-council-says-51097/
Wrangling over wage may spur new unrest
Unions representing garment workers have pledged to reignite protests if the minimum wage for the industry is raised to only $115 next year, a sum they say was offered by the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia during a meeting on Friday. The Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wrangling-over-wage-may-spur-new-unrest
South Korea leads Asia’s big three as Cambodia’s leading investor
South Korea replaced the UK as the largest investor in Cambodia last year, with about $287 million injected, 12.5 per cent of the total foreign direct investment, according to data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC). This represents 33 per cent ...
World's largest freshwater fish threatened
The 16th Conference of Parties of the Convention on International Trade In Endangered Species (Cites) has brought thousands of delegates from over 150 countries to Bangkok to discuss cross-border cooperation, sustaInable use of biodiversity and transnational endangered species issues. Construction has already begun on the ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/340170/mekong-dams-threaten-world-largest-freshwater-fish
Workers not allowed to march on Labor Day
Around 20,000 workers from the garment, construction, tourism, banking, service and agriculture sectors want to march to present a petition to the National Assembly on international Labor Day, May 1, but Phnom Penh City Hall did not approve the rally. City hall asked them to wait ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YWNjNWUyNzMwYmE
Villagers claim CPP arm-twisting
About 40 families of ex-Khmer Rouge and government soldiers in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district complained to rights group Adhoc yesterday, accusing officials of forcing them to thumbprint a contract saying they would vote CPP so the party could resolve an ongoing land dispute, an ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-claim-cpp-arm-twisting
Fear Remains as Factory Reopens
More than 20 people fainted yesterday at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province, where two workers were crushed to death in a ceiling collapse last Thursday. Workers and union officials said an electrical short-circuit scared workers returning for the first time since the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165744/National/fear-remains-as-factory-reopens.html
Boeng Kak Women March for Activist’s Release
More than 50 supporters of jailed anti-eviction activist Yorm Bopha marched through central Phnom Penh on Tuesday to demand her speedy retrial, acquittal and release, visiting the Supreme Court, the Royal Palace and the European Union and World Bank offices. Ms. Bopha has consistently professed ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kak-women-march-for-activists-release-42147/
Women targeted at protests, Rapporteur says
The U.N.’s special rapporteur on freedom of assembly and association, Maina Kiai, has sent his third thematic report to the U.N. Human Rights Council following trips to various countries, including a three-day visit to Cambodia in February. The report focuses on groups that Mr. Kiai, a ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/women-targeted-at-protests-rapporteur-says-58735/
Cambodia unveils regulation to protect entertainment workers
Cambodia’s Ministries of Labour and Tourism on Wednesday jointly launched a new regulation for protecting the occupational safety, health and labour rights of entertainment workers. “The regulation aims to improve working conditions, occupational safety and health rules of entertainment service enterprises, establishments and companies,”said a ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-10/08/c_133699392.htm
GMAC head sets clothing export goal
Cambodia is set for a 30 per cent increase in garment exports this year, according to Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) president Van Sou Ieng. The sector was heavily dependent on foreign buyers, which were increasing their orders as the global economy recovered, he ...
Leave Minimum Wage Be, Manufacturers Say
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has said that there should be no discussions on raising the minimum wage until 2014, in response to a request from three garment industry unions for talks on a living wage for workers. The response, sent on Wednesday ...
Beer girl exploitation revealed
The exploitation of women who work as beer promoters is soon to be exposed in a report that is going to be released by Care Cambodia and the Solidarity Association of Beer Promoters in Cambodia. The report will include first had accounts and interviews of ...
Major bank downgrade
Moody’s Investors Service announced yesterday it had downgraded the credit ratIng of ACLEDA Bank, citIng the departure of two of the bank’s major Investors In as many years. The loss of a second big sharehol-der In the first half of this year had led to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011090251414/Business/major-bank-downgrade.html
Unions cry foul on temp contracts
Union leaders gathered in the capital yesterday to discuss strategies to curb the garment industry’s widespread use of temporary contracts for hiring workers, saying employers were using them to discourage unions and ensure their workforce remained docile and easy to exploit. They also accused employers of ...
Dams, climate plague Mekong
Villagers in Kratie province have long feared the proposed Sambor hydroelectric dam and the impact it could have on their subsistence fishing and riverbank agriculture. According to Resilience on the Mekong: A Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment in North-East Cambodia, a report released by the World Wildlife ...
http://www.eco-business.com/news/dams-climate-plague-mekong/
Slight fall in food price index
Global food prices fell 1 per cent or two points in the October 2012 Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Food Price index released on October 7, 2012. The index averaged 213 points, compared to September’s revised level of 215 points. According to the FAO, the decrease ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012110959664/Business/slight-fall-in-food-price-index.html
Ministry Questions Unions Over Role in Kandal Garment Protest
The Interior MInistry has summoned six union representatives for questionIng followIng a complaInt from Jack Liu, director-general of TaInan Enterprises (Cambodia) Co., Ltd., allegIng that they Incited violence at his Kandal provInce garment factory In late December. A letter dated Thursday, signed by the Interior MInistry’s ...
ASEAN not take sides in South China Sea disputes: Cambodian official
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) did not take any sides in South China Sea disputes, but supported the settlement of the disputes based on international law and agreed documents, a senior Cambodian official said in Phnom Penh on Sunday. “ASEAN made the statement based on a principle that ...
Impoverished Cambodians for sale
Many Cambodian women arrive in South Korea or China for marriage, only to find themselves being chosen as mistresses, say labour rights activists. While young Cambodian men, who travel to Thailand to work on fishing boats, often fall prey to drug abuse. Loss of land, debt, ...
Michelle Tolson
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/01/impoverished-cambodians-sale/