Civil society

Cambodia on Tuesday defended its plan to build the 108-megawatt Chhay Areng River hydropower plant in a jungle in southwestern Koh Kong province, saying the project would greatly contribute to developing the energy sector. “An initial study found that the project has a capacity of 108 ...

The construction of Koh Kong’s Cheay Areng hydrowpower dam will cost USD 400 million and be completed by 2020, said Energy Secretary of State Ith Prang Tuesday. Speaking at a press conference, he said the study of the dam and its impact on environment has been ...

With the spectre of potential garment-sector unrest on the horizon and emboldened communities protesting land disputes, the National Police is buying what appear to be the authorities’ first water-cannon trucks designed specifically to control demonstrations. In advertisements in yesterday’s Post and Post Khmer newspapers, the ...

A new study indicated that 43. 2 percent of Cambodian garment workers suffered from anemia and 15. 7 percent of workers are underweight, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Monday. The study also found that garment workers spent approximately 1. 3 U.S. dollars per day on ...

Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem has issued a letter to the National Assembly commission on the environment, offering assurances that the planned Stung Cheay Areng Hydropower Dam will meet high environmental and social standards. Opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party member Te Chanmony on September ...

Villagers whose homes will be destroyed if the controversial Lower Sesan 2 Dam is built are to deliver today a letter to provincial authorities announcing that they refuse to be resettled. Meach Mean, coordinator of the 3S Rivers Protection Network, said the villagers, who hail from ...

About 2,000 workers from the Chinese-owned Juhui Footwear factory in Kompong Cham province began a fresh round of protests on Friday and Saturday over claims that the factory is refusing to rehire unionists who were fired during a strike earlier this month, a provincial official ...

The Cambodia’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) had received 728 corruption-related complaints in the first nine months of this year, down 16 percent from the same period last year, the agency said in a statement on Sunday. “From January to September 2014, the ACU had received a total ...

Negotiations held on Friday between garment factory owners, union leaders and government officials failed to set a new industry minimum wage for next year, but a final decision will be reached by October 10, according to Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng. The tripartite Labor Advisory Council ...

Transparency International Cambodia yesterday presented findings of a recent scathing report on corruption to the newly formed parliamentary anti-corruption commission. ...

National Assembly President Heng Samrin has given himself the power to deny access to the assembly compound, including the offices of all lawmakers, to anyone not employed by the government and has barred all private citizens from testifying before—or sitting in on—assembly commission meetings. In ...

Child rights groups Action Pour Les Enfants and International Justice Mission have said they carried out a “detailed and impartial” investigation into claims of sexual abuse before removing six young boys from their families against their parents’ wishes last week.  In a statement defending their work ...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has distanced itself from Australia’s still unsigned deal to transfer refugees from the Nauru refugee detention center for resettlement in Cambodia, one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations. First raised in February, the cash-for-refugees deal is believed to be imminent. ...

Authorities in western Cambodia have detained 11 activists after they tried to stop further studies for a planned Chinese-built dam. About 30 local villagers and environmental activists in the Areng Valley went to the area Monday to protect barricades they had erected earlier this year to ...

The National Assembly’s Human Rights Committee has laid out its plan to mediate negations to settle a more than decade-long land dispute between villagers and a powerful development company in Kompong Chhnang province’s Lor Peang village. The bipartisan committee announced early this month that it would ...

Minority villagers from Ratanakkiri’s O’Chum district climbed up a mountain to a community forest yesterday morning to challenge a company they claim is illegally felling their trees. ...

Following the detention this week of homeless children as young as 1 year old at Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Speu vocational training centre, UNICEF yesterday called for an end to street sweeps and arbitrary detentions. Three people rounded up on Sunday said in separate accounts this ...

Cambodians staged a protest Thursday to share the concerns of more than a quarter of a million people who are calling on Laos to suspend construction of the Don Sahong hydropower project on the Mekong River. At the protest Chhith Sam Ath, country director of the ...

A group of NGOs yesterday called for more detailed information on national budgets to be made public before their approval, maintaining that the public had a right to know about and comment on the expenditures that would ultimately affect their day-to-day lives. Tek Vannara, director of ...

Following reports of abuse and poor conditions at the Kingdom’s shelters, the government yesterday launched official recommendations that seek to ensure better care is offered to victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation. ...

More than 100 workers who were fired by a Taiwanese-owned garment factory this week for striking over demands for further benefits will meet with union leaders “as soon as possible” to discuss potentially launching protests, a union representative said Tuesday. The workers were fired by the ...

Om Yintieng, Chairman of Cambodia’s Anti-Corruption Unit, on Tuesday afternoon vehemently rejected an NGO report claiming that the country’s integrity system is weak and requires significant improvement. The official’s remarks came after the TI Cambodia, a branch of the Berlin-based TI, released its 233-page assessment ...

A plan floated in Thailand to cut state educational support to migrant workers’ children has drawn the ire of rights groups, which say thousands of Cambodian youths could be denied their basic right to education. According to Thai media, Kamol Rodklai, secretary-general of the Office of ...

With security footage of elephants, clouded leopards and other wildlife caught on hidden cameras in Cambodia’s Eastern Plains flashing on a TV screen, Toby Eastoe of Conservation International noted that their cameras also catch other activity. Presenters ranging from anti-corruption advocates to health service workers ...