Constitution and rights

Judges in Cambodia’s Court of Appeal fail to inform defendants of their rights and a high number of hearings do not even have the defendants or their lawyers present, according to a study by a local rights group. In addition, the quality of evidence presented at ...

U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi met with representatives of the country’s businesses and employers Thursday for talks that focused on the protection of workers’ rights and measures that can be taken to ensure that strained industrial relations do not once again erupt into violence. In ...

The government must make more of an effort to not only eradicate child labor, but also its underlying causes, and ensure that children attend school, local rights group Licadho said Thursday. In a statement released ahead of World Day Against Child Labor, the group said the ...

With all 11 senators from the opposition boycotting their seats, the Senate on Thursday passed three controversial judiciary laws which critics say will tighten government control of the courts. The ruling CPP’s 44 senators passed the laws without change, said CPP senator and Senate spokesman Mam ...

A journalist who filed a complaint with the Pursat Provincial Court alleging that a soldier threatened to kill him over an illegal logging report withdrew his complaint after the soldier was internally disciplined, court officials and military police said Monday. Sak Rom, a reporter with Kapit ...

Phnom Penh City Hall on Monday banned Wat Samakki Raingsey from hosting a public forum on Wednesday to mark the 65th anniversary of the official granting of Kampuchea Krom to the State of Vietnam. The Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community (KKKC), which advocates for the ethnic minority ...

Twenty-five unionists, garment workers and bystanders were found guilty by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday for their involvement in three separate garment protest-related cases, but were handed down suspended sentences. The 22 men who had not been bailed ahead of trial were ordered ...

More than 1,500 villagers plan to march to the Anti-Corruption Unit and National Assembly in Phnom Penh on Thursday in defiance of a fresh ban issued by City Hall prohibiting them from doing so. The villagers form a group known as the Land Communities for Peace ...

The lack of consultative process on three draft laws has set a worrying precedent for future key legislation, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, Surya P. Subedi. “For many years in my capacity as the Special RapporteurI ...

Cambodia’s ruling party- controlled National Assembly has unanimously passed three laws, designed to strengthen the country’s judicial system, despite ongoing boycott of parliament by the main opposition party. The Law on the Organization of the Judiciary was adopted on Thursday, and the Laws on the Organization ...

Approximately 2,000 Chinese businesspeople and tourists have crossed the Vietnamese border into Cambodia these days to escape anti-China riots in Vietnam, a senior Cambodian official said Tuesday. “Some 2,000 Chinese nationals have fled Vietnam to Cambodia,” Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng told reporters. ...

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 ...

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 ...

About 50 Cambodian youths were prevented by city security personnel from performing a peace march in the capital on Tuesday. The youth, from the Working Group for Peace, had hoped to hold a non-violent march near Wat Phnom, a city landmark, to the Royal Palace, ...

A journalist with Voice of Democracy (VOD) who was badly beaten by security forces at the site of a planned demonstration in the capital earlier this month left for Thailand yesterday for an operation, and plans to file suit against his attackers next week, he ...

A worker with the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) has been intimidated and received death threats while trying to document the plight of three families involved in a bitter land dispute with a developer in the country’s capital, according to the center. The worker, Vann ...

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has labeled the trial of two teenagers arrested during the lethal suppression of a garment sector strike in November 12 as “deeply flawed” and said that the pair should be spared prison sentences. In a statement Sunday, the rights organization claims that ...

A rowdy 8-year-old boy has accused his teacher of hitting him over the head with a small whiteboard during class on Thursday, leaving him with a bloody head wound. Sok Kim Heng said yesterday that he spat on another student and, in return, his teacher whacked ...

A government spokesman warned yesterday that legal action may be taken against the opposition leaders if their “unlawful” campaign rhetoric incites unrest. Tith Sothea, spokesman for the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit, said that the government will consider filing complaints against Cambodia National ...

The Kompong Speu Provincial Court on Tuesday charged six union representatives with incitement over a protest near the Wing Star Shoes factory earlier that day, in a move unions say was unjustified and meant to intimidate. Court prosecutor Keo Sothea said all six were charged with ...

At least three workers were arrested Tuesday morning outside the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kompong Speu province, where the Free Trade Union (FTU) has been leading a strike calling for benefits and back pay, according to police and a union representative. An FTU representative said ...

Police on Sunday detained a CNRP activist and confiscated 347 political video-CDs that he was transporting to the party’s headquarters in Phnom Penh, police and opposition party officials said Monday. The VCDs showed violent police and military repressions of land and labor activists and last ...

Condemnation has grown following Friday’s attack on a journalist near Freedom Park as the Ministry of Information joined the U.N. Human Rights Office in denouncing the attacks. On Saturday, the U.N.’s human rights representative in Cambodia, Wan-Hea Lee, called for an investigation into the beating of ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) said that it arrested and sent to two members of hacking group Anonymous Cambodia to Phnom Penh Municipal Court for questioning. “The ACU sent the two hackers on Sunday to the court for questioning,” said Om Yingtieng, the ACU president. Yingtieng, however, hasn’t ...