Social development
Civil society
Orphanage director in court
American national and orphanage director Daniel Stephen Johnson was tried on Friday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on charges that he sexually abused five boys last year. The court heard that Johnson, 36, the director of the Hope Transitions Christian orphanage in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
https://cambodia.opendevelopmentmekong.net/wp-admin/post.php?post=51030&action=edit
NGOs begin to stop the rot of Cambodian teeth
Every day for weeks on end, 6-year-old Srey Nuch was tormented by severe pain caused by several of her teeth rotting away. Her mother, Lay Vicheka, despaired when she heard her daughter’s cries, knowing the family was far too poor to pay a dentist to fix ...
Holly Robertson and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/ngos-starting-to-stop-the-rot-of-cambodian-teeth-59490/
City Hall offers final warning to displaced farmers
A group of about 200 farmers from Kratie province refused on Thursday to leave a pagoda in Phnom Penh—their home base for protests against their eviction at the hands of a Vietnamese rubber company—as the city’s deputy governor warned them that the municipal government would ...
Aun Pheap and George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-offers-final-warning-to-displaced-kratie-farmers-59436/
Union leaders evade arrest, co-workers say
Two union leaders narrowly escaped arrest yesterday morning when employees on strike at a Phnom Penh garment factory forced their release from police and security guards, fellow union officials said. Seang Sambath, president of the Worker Friendship Union Federation, said WFUF vice president Mao Vannak and ...
Mom Kunthear and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-leaders-evade-arrest-co-workers-say-0
Rights worker summonsed over land fight
A rights group worker has earned a court summons for monitoring villagers who were embroiled in a Preah Vihear land dispute with a Chinese company. Lut Sang, the Khmer Ponlok employee scheduled to appear in provincial court today, said that he was only a passive observer ...
Phak Seangly and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rights-worker-summonsed-over-land-fight
Pupils blamed for illegal books
Education officials yesterday shifted the onus of pirated and illegally sold state textbooks onto students, faulting the teenage pupils for fuelling demand. “If there are no buyers, there will be no sellers,” Lim Sotharith, director of the Education Ministry’s textbook department, said during a forum on ...
Laignee Barron and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pupils-blamed-illegal-books
Journalists in CPP firing line over ‘1-party’ tag
The single-party National Assembly sat for the third day of its third plenary session Thursday, with a senior ruling party lawmaker calling on Information Minister Khieu Kanharith to examine whether journalists who call the Assembly “single party” can be punished under law. Sixty-four of the 68 ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/journalists-in-cpp-firing-line-over-1-party-tag-59430/
Farmers urged to go green
Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture have called on farmers to cease using chemical pesticides and adopt environmentally friendly methods in an effort to increase yields and reduce damage to produce. At an agriculture workshop on biological control agents hosted yesterday by the Ministry of Agriculture, ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/farmers-urged-go-green
For gay and transgender, a struggle for equality
In the past, Chhoeurng Rachana had a boyfriend, but now she loves a woman instead. The 27-year-old says she just realized who she really loved, after trying to figure out her own feelings toward men four years ago. “Back in 2010, I tried having a boyfriend ...
Say Mony
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/for-gay-and-transgender-a-struggle-for-equality/1920328.html
Union leader rejects video, photo evidence
During his second day under questioning on charges of inciting violence and property damage at a January 2 protest, union leader Vorn Pao was presented with photographs showing his tuk-tuk packed with rocks, and a video of him calling on low-ranking police to turn their ...
Eang Mengleng and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-rejects-video-photo-evidence-59326/
Farmers blocked from petitioning Red Cross
Municipal and military police on Wednesday blocked a group of about 100 displaced farmers from Kratie province who were attempting to deliver a petition to the Cambodian Red Cross’ Phnom Penh headquarters calling on the group to help them in their land dispute with a ...
Aun Pheap and George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/farmers-blocked-from-petitioning-red-cross-59339/
ADB plan falls short: families
Families forced to leave their homes to make way for a railway rehabilitation project funded by the Asian Development Bank and the Australian government have told the bank that a draft compensation plan it has drawn up to remedy their situation is inadequate. On Monday, Inclusive ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/adb-plan-falls-short-families
Reporter, ‘witnesses’ tell different stories
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said that radio journalist Lay Samean, who was badly beaten by district security guards on May 2 while covering a planned opposition rally, may have provoked the violence by calling the guards “yuon’s dogs”, among other insults. The minister added, however, that ...
Kevin Ponniah and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/reporter-%E2%80%98witnesses%E2%80%99-tell-different-stories
Ratanakkiri homes razed as authorities move in
More than 400 people clashed with police and military police in Ratanakkiri province on Wednesday as authorities attempted to bulldoze their houses to make way for a rubber company plantation, villagers said. Authorities managed to bulldoze the houses of about 200 families, who they said had ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ratanakkiri-homes-razed-as-authorities-move-in-59341/
TVK boss’ departure draws further concern
Media watchdogs on Wednesday expressed concern that the resignation on Saturday of Kem Gunawadh, long-serving director-general of state broadcaster TVK, was due to the station’s airing of an opposition campaign spot showing violent government protest repressions. In a statement, the Cambodian Center for Independent Media and ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tvk-boss-departure-draws-further-concern-59348/
Ruling party lawmakers begin debate on judicial reform laws
CPP lawmakers on Wednesday began debating the first of three judicial reform laws, ignoring an opposition boycott of the National Assembly and calls from outside legal experts for outside review of drafts they say are substandard. Critics say the draft laws will not improve the widely ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/ruling-party-lawmakers-begin-debate-on-judicial-reform-laws/1919419.html
Gov’t called on to save forests
Villagers from forest communities in nine provinces called on the government yesterday to take action after alleging that “the rich and powerful” are causing the “serious destruction” of their livelihoods. The villagers, with the support of two NGOs – the Children’s Development Association and Community Peace-Building ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-called-save-forests
Rights group says US military support breaches Congress bill
U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday released a report claiming that Washington’s ongoing support for Cambodian security forces is inconsistent with U.S. Congress directives regarding aid to Cambodia. HRW charges that last month’s 10-day Angkor Sentinel military exercise, undertaken by members of the ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-group-says-us-military-support-breaches-congress-bill-59227/
Union leader details beating by soldiers
Taking the stand for the first time since his arrest at a garment worker protest that turned violent in early January, union leader Vorn Pao told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday that he went to the protest only to make peace and was ...
Eang Mengleng and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-details-beating-by-soldiers-59221/
Defendants cut off as 23’s trial goes on
When union leader Vorn Pov was finally allowed to give testimony yesterday on the third day of the trial of 23 men arrested during a garment strike in January, he found himself cut off by an attorney ordering him to answer only the exact question ...
May Titthara, Buth Reaksmey Kongkea and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/defendants-cut-23%E2%80%99s-trial-goes
Transparency group to launch anti-graft app
Transparency International Cambodia (T.I.) will next week launch an app for smartphones that allows users to log instances of bribery with the advocacy group. Bribespot, the work of a team of German computer programmers, will encourage users to share details of corrupt activity in real time, ...
Matt Blomberg and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/transparency-group-to-launch-anti-graft-app-59242/
Greens will try to force Senate vote on plans to settle refugees in Cambodia
The Greens will attempt to force a vote in the Senate on plans to resettle in Cambodia refugees whose claims for protection are recognised on Nauru and is challenging Labor to block any deal. The party’s immigration spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, is confident any deal with the ...
Cambodia's PM Hun Sen confirms controversial agreement to resettle refugees from Australia
Cambodia’s strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen has confirmed his impoverished country will accept refugees from Australia in a controversial agreement condemned by human rights and refugee advocates. In his first public comments on the agreement, Mr Hun Sen said Cambodia will be “heart-felt and generous towards ...
Rubber firm destroys homes
The Swift Rubber Company demolished three homes in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Chum district last week without compensation, telling about 120 families to leave immediately or face the destruction of more houses, according to villagers and rights group Adhoc. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rubber-firm-destroys-homes