Social development
Civil society
CNRP looks for quieter plan of action as labor strike looms
When a group of six unions organized nationwide strikes in December demanding a $160 minimum wage, the opposition CNRP aggressively took up the cause. Opposition leaders rallied support outside factory gates around the country and tens of thousands of garment workers flooded into Phnom Penh’s Freedom ...
Colin Meyn and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-looks-for-quieter-plan-of-action-as-labor-strike-looms-53527/
LGBT rights battle ongoing
Cambodia’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens have seen significant progress in securing legal protections in recent years, activists said yesterday, though the fight for full equality remains an ongoing battle. During a forum in the capital yesterday, participants said that codifying equality under the law ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lgbt-rights-battle-ongoing
Palm oil plantation accused of withholding workers’ pay
More than 20 families working on a controversial palm oil plantation in Ratanakkiri province owned by the Hoang Anh Lumphat company have filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc accusing the owners of improperly withholding one month’s pay. Lor Sophal said he and another 22 families, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/palm-oil-plantation-accused-of-withholding-workers-pay-53520/
Angry villagers block dusty quarry road in Takeo province
About 300 angry villagers blocked a dusty road in Takeo province’s Bati district on Friday, demanding that three quarrying firms follow through on promises to pave it, a local official said Sunday. The villagers are unhappy that the quarrying firms’ trucks kick up massive amounts of ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/angry-villagers-block-dusty-quarry-road-in-takeo-province-53403/
Daun Penh guards seize protest drum, scuffle with activists
Two political activists were injured by district security guards outside the Daun Penh district office Monday morning after a protest to free 21 protesters beaten and imprisoned during a strike in January turned into an effort to reclaim a confiscated protest drum. The protesters, dressed in ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/daun-penh-guards
Cellcard advert questioned
The Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) is calling out telecommunications firm Mobitel over a TV ad that shows a young Cambodian man who is shocked and dismayed when he meets, on a blind date, what appears to be a transgender woman. Lasting about 60 seconds, ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cellcard-advert-questioned
Three convicted over clash with police on Monivong Bridge
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday sentenced three men of six suspects to prison terms for their role in the September 15 clashes on Monivong Bridge between police and stone throwing youths, during which a man was killed and several were wounded by police ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/three-convicted-over-clash-with-police-on-monivong-bridge-53388/
Union representatives detained for distributing strike leaflets
Two union representatives said that they were detained and “educated” Thursday for distributing leaflets calling on workers to participate in a nationwide strike next month. Yin Saroeun, secretary-general of the National Trade Unions Coalition, said police detained him and his colleague, Chuob Noek, at about 11 ...
Verdict due today for Kbal Thnal six
A Phnom Penh municipal judge is expected to announce a verdict this morning for six people arrested in connection with a September clash at the Kbal Thnal overpass, a week after the verdict was originally expected. Authorities took the six men into custody at the overpass ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/verdict-due-today-kbal-thnal-six
Rare statue unearthed by Chinese developer
A Chinese-owned company in Preah Vihear’s Tbeng Meanchey district stumbled across an 8th-century sandstone carving of the Buddha while excavating land there on Wednesday, the provincial culture department said yesterday. Oug Vireak, a deputy with the culture department, said the firm Lan Feng had been bulldozing ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rare-statue-unearthed-chinese-developer
Unity appeal follows vitriol
Days after warning that his ruling party was as capable and willing to protest as the opposition, and threatening a barbed-wire fence in Freedom Park to divide the two groups, Prime Minister Hun Sen was yesterday talking multi-party reform. Speaking at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unity-appeal-follows-vitriol
Labor Ministry denies it has stopped recognizing unions
The Labor Ministry in a statement Thursday insisted that unions were still free to register as entities recognized by the government, a day after a ministry spokesman said that union registration had been effectively suspended for the foreseeable future. Free Trade Union (FTU) president Chea Mony ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-ministry-denies-it-has-stopped-recognizing-unions-53319/
Complaints against rubber company to be assessed, World Bank Office says
The World Bank’s ombudsman office says it will assess a complaint from indigenous groups in Ratanakkiri province that a bank-supported company has damaged the forest and surrounding communities. Seventeen different groups joined in the complaint, claiming the Hoang Anh Gia Lai rubber company, which receives ...
Gov’t suspends freedom of association for unions
Following a complaint from the Free Trade Union (FTU) over the Ministry of Labor’s refusal to register 10 local branches of its organization, a ministry official said Wednesday that the constitutional right to freedom of association has been suspended until a new trade union law ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-suspends-freedom-of-association-for-unions-53271/
Environment minister visits UDG; Villagers disappointed
Environment Minister Say Sam Al failed to meet the villagers locked in a long-running land dispute with the Chinese-owned company Union Development Group (UDG) on Wednesday, despite visiting company officials in Koh Kong province, according to a rights worker and a provincial official. Mr. Sam Al ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/environment-minister-visits-udg-villagers-disappointed-53277/
Kanharith reiterates no TV Station for broadcaster Sonando
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith on Wednesday revealed plans to split state-run TVK into three separate television stations but reiterated that no frequencies are available for independent radio broadcaster Mom Sonando. Mr. Sonando, who owns Beehive radio station, has over the past several years repeatedly requested a ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kanharith-reiterates-no-tv-station-for-broadcaster-sonando-53279/
Coca-Cola auditors visit sugar suppliers
Third-party auditors hired by The Coca-Cola Company are conducting an audit of Cambodian sugar suppliers, NGO and community representatives said yesterday. “Coke has commissioned them to conduct an assessment on their suppliers. They will talk to all parties, the community, NGOs and the company,” said Eang ...
Kevin Ponniah and May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/coca-cola-auditors-visit-sugar-suppliers
Not only Vietnamese threatened by racism, rights worker says
The beating death of a Vietnamese-Cambodian earlier this month was the first incident in several years that some are calling a hate crime. Leaders of the Vietnamese community in Cambodia, as well as the Vietnamese Embassy, say they want the Cambodian authorities to pay more attention ...
Men Kimseng
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/not-only-vietnamese-threatened-by-racism-rights-worker-says/1858791.html
Forest promises ‘unfulfilled’
As illegal logging continues to take a toll on the country’s woodlands, civil society groups yesterday called on the government to stay true to its commitment of providing an extra two million hectares of community forest by 2029. During a two-day conference in the capital, participants ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forest-promises-%E2%80%98unfulfilled%E2%80%99
Strike justified, suppression not, experts say
Garment workers’ calls for a $160 minimum wage are justified and should be honored, a new report by an international team of academics and labor experts has found. The authors—including a team from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, South Korean and ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/strike-justified-suppression-not-experts-say-53255/
Grave sites cleared by rubber firms: NGOs
Four Vietnamese rubber firms are responsible for destroying an estimated 1,000 hectares of community forest, including an indigenous graveyard, in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district, a group of NGOs have claimed. The land dispute involving 196 families living in Talav commune dates back to 2011, Chhay Thy, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/grave-sites-cleared-rubber-firms-ngos
Gender gains lacking: report
Cambodian women are bumping up against a steadfast glass ceiling, according to an annual report by the Cambodian National Council for Women. The report, released yesterday, tracks what the government has done to execute the prime minister’s 16 recommendations regarding women’s access to and engagement in ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gender-gains-lacking-report
CNRP to gauge land dispute
Lawmakers-elect from the Cambodia National Rescue Party are scheduled today to visit families in Koh Kong province affected by a long-running land dispute with Union Development Group, just weeks after the company destroyed dozens of homes there. Rights groups say that Chinese-owned Union Development has burned ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-gauge-land-dispute
Unions set to begin first phase of nationwide strike
A coalition of 18 labor unions and associations is today set to begin the first phase of a nationwide labor strike in the garment sector by calling on workers in about 100 factories to boycott working overtime, according to union leaders. Despite efforts by the government ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-set-to-begin-first-phase-of-nationwide-strike-52989/