Ethnic minorities and indigenous people policy and rights

While indigenous communities in the Kingdom have largely obtained equal rights, they need to step up their advocacy when facing abuses and threats to their traditions, conservation NGO Save Cambodia’s Wildlife (SCW) said. ...

Behind the traffic police station in Kampong Chhnang town, set against the picturesque backdrop of the Tonle Sap, immigration officials gathered thousands of ethnic Vietnamese to begin a nationwide process of revoking “improperly” issued documents this week. The plan to review birth certificates, identity cards, passports ...

The chairman of the National Assembly’s Commission on Legislation and Justice has called for a united effort to safeguard the rights and interests of indigenous peoples. Pen Panha said Cambodia paid attention to indigenous peoples in areas such as tradition, identity, land ownership, and rights to ...

The NGO Forum on Cambodia yesterday demanded government funding for higher education for indigenous students to mark World Indigenous Peoples’ Day.   ...

Villagers in Mondulkiri province are protesting the construction of a Ministry of Mines vocational training centre on a piece of land they say is sacred with cultural significance to people across the province.   ...

More than 220 ethnic Tompuon families in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district yesterday filed a complaint to rights group Adhoc over a 2,000-hectare land dispute against an economic land concession.   ...

More Montagnard asylum seekers are planning to return to home amid cuts in United Nations-provided food rations.Vivian Tan, regional spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said more than 10 indigenous Christian Montagnards had requested assistance in returning to Vietnam. ...

The Interior Ministry on Friday released a letter that it sent to Mondolkiri provincial governor Eng Bunheang asking him to respond to a petition—filed last month and thumbprinted by 900 members of 17 ethnic minority Bunong communities—requesting his removal. ...

Representatives of 14 ethnic mi­nority communities in Ratana­kkiri province on Friday accepted $1,700 each from Vietnamese rubber company Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) to buy a buffalo and hold a ceremony to appease the spirits that had been disturbed by the firm’s plantations. ...

The move toward modernity and development is often represented in numbers: growth in GDP, wellness indicators and many other kinds of statistics. ...

A group of 900 Bunong villagers are seeking the removal of the governor of Mondolkiri, complaining in a petition that was submitted to the government Monday that he does not respect the rights of ethnic minorities in the province. ...

Indigenous villagers in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province on Monday called for an investigation into a saw mill they say has polluted their local waterway and caused residents to contract a skin disease. ...