Civil society

Environment Minister Say Sam Al and a group of NGOs on Monday agreed to cooperate to resolve a years long dispute between hundreds of families in Koh Kong province and a Chinese company they accuse of stealing their land. ...

The protest for the release of three activists from the environmental NGO Mother Nature entered its sixth day yesterday, with another rally in front of Koh Kong provincial court – where some members of the youthful NGO have been camping out. ...

An increasing number of women who are victims of violence are looking for solutions outside the country’s dysfunctional court system, the president of rights group Licadho, Pung Chhiv Kek, said yesterday. ...

Police in Koh Kong province yesterday raided a house rented by local environmental NGO Mother Nature in what its members have described as an ongoing campaign of intimidation against the group amid the detention of three of its activists. ...

Not long ago, Sim Pov, a representative of 69 families from Kratie province, came to Phnom Penh to meet with urban housing rights protesters. He wanted to learn from them how he could organize his own community, which is locked in a land dispute with ...

An NGO umbrella group will start holding workshops around the country next month to help independent organizations prepare for the implementation of the new NGO law, which has been viewed as an attempt by the government to clamp down on dissent. ...

With the end of its four-year program to fight human trafficking approaching, USAID, partner organization Winrock International and the government’s National Committee to Combat Trafficking are taking stock of their progress. ...

Activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature caused more than $100,000 in damages to a company that was legally dredging for sand in Koh Kong province, Khem Sameth, CEO of the company Direct Access, said yesterday. ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court on Monday imprisoned three activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature after a prosecutor charged them with threatening to cause damage during their ongoing campaign against a company accused of illegally dredging at a local estuary, according to rights group Licadho. ...

Disgraced former Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealaktei was sent to the Kandal Provincial Prison on Sunday after he was charged with embezzlement for allegedly confiscating an SUV from a drug dealer and giving it to his son, a prison official said Monday. ...

Officials in Kratie province are insisting that a small group of families involved in a local land dispute register with the Interior Ministry or be “punished.” ...

Three activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature were summoned to appear at the Botum Sakor district police station in Koh Kong province on Friday to answer for their involvement in a campaign to chase off a sand-dredging company accused of destroying the environment, officials said. ...

King Norodom Sihamoni signed the NGO law on Wednesday, according to a government official, bringing into effect a piece of legislation that has been internationally rebuked as a serious threat to free speech and association. ...

As about 100 fishermen in Koh Kong province on Wednesday resumed their monthslong campaign against a company they accuse of illegal sand dredging, an environmental NGO claimed the firm was now hiring locals as security guards in an attempt to divide the community. ...

The Constitutional Council has officially accepted the contentious Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations, which would tighten regulations on thousands of organizations in the country in what critics fear could mean a major crackdown on basic freedoms and government criticism. ...

The Constitutional Council will meet with a group of opposition lawmakers on Wednesday over a controversial draft law to regulate NGOs, as it prepares to review the bill and send it to the king to be signed into law. ...

The Constitutional Council of Cambodia will meet on Wednesday to decide on the legality of a controversial draft NGO law that was passed by the National Assembly and Senate last month, according to the council’s spokesman. ...

The Constitutional Council of Cambodia (CCC) held a meeting today on the “constitutionality” of a newly-approved law on the Association and Non-governmental Organization. ...

Rights group Adhoc recorded 131 rape cases in the first six months of the year, compared to 80 cases in 2014—a nearly 64 percent increase—due to the influence of “uncontrolled foreign cultures” such as pornography, according to a report released by the NGO on Wednesday. ...

Police in Koh Kong province on Tuesday prevented about 50 locals from joining a public forum on a controversial sand-dredging operation on the grounds that the group did not live close enough to where the firm is operating to participate. ...

As an environmental NGO held a press conference in Phnom Penh on Monday to present evidence against a company it accuses of illegally extracting sand from an estuary in Koh Kong province, opposition lawmaker Son Chhay called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to order an ...

The Ministry of Land Management has again accused rights group Licadho of spreading false data that shows that the number of families embroiled in new or intensifying land disputes jumped threefold last year. ...

A group of 26 local NGOs submitted a letter to King Norodom Sihamoni on Thursday calling on him to refuse to sign off on a controversial law regulating non-governmental groups in the country. ...

A group of opposition lawmakers has urged the Constitutional Council to amend a contentious law on regulating NGOs in the country. Prum Nhean Vicheth, a spokesman for the Constitutional Council, confirmed receipt of the petition and said the Council will be considering the draft law ...