Legal framework
Laws and regulations
Cambodia Factories Grapple With Issue of Underage Workers
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia—In this quiet beach town, Lim Loeung says she spends up to 80 hours a week gluing soles onto shoes at a factory that does work for companies including Japanese sneaker-maker Asics Corp. 7936.TO +0.95% The factory believes Ms. Lim is at least 18 ...
Kate O' Keeffe
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303799404579287353595133592
Defense Minister Warns Protesters Against Blocking Streets
Striking garment factory workers and protesting CNRP supporters should respect people of other nationalities and make sure they act within the boundaries of the law, Defense Minister Tea Banh said Thursday. Speaking at an opening ceremony for three new Royal Cambodian Armed Force science laboratory buildings, ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/defense-minister-warns-protesters-against-blocking-streets-49733/
Indigenous woes probed
Ethnic minority groups in Ratanakkiri province are facing widespread human rights violations, land loss and the exploitation of their natural resources, an indigenous peoples conference was told yesterday. More than 300 villagers from the province’s Tum Poun, Kreng, Prov, Kavet, Jarai, Kachok and Lun communities hosted ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/indigenous-woes-probed
US Government Clothes Producer Denies Abuses
A representative of the Zongtex Garment Manufacturing company in Phnom Penh on Tuesday denied employing workers as young as 15 to make U.S. government clothing, following an exposé by The New York Times on poor standards in factories producing U.S. government attire. On Sunday, The Times ...
Khy Sovuthy and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/us-government-clothes-producer-denies-abuses-49654/
Courts Resurrect Land Disputes After Election
The Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has summoned for questioning three villagers accused of torching in May a shed on disputed land granted to the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem. The case is another example of courts resurrecting longstanding land disputes that had gone ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/courts-resurrect-land-disputes-after-election-49671/
Rice Trader Claims Being Wrongly Fined Bad Scale to Measure Her Truck
A rice trader on Monday filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet and three ministries alleging that officials in Kompong Cham province had wrongly fined her for an overweight truck after using improperly weighted scales. Saing Darlin had her truck impounded ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/rice-trader-claims-being-wrongly-fined-bad-scale-to-measure-her-truck-49631/
Barges Impounded for Breaking Sand Dredging Ban in Kandal
The Ministry of Water Resources impounded five barges in Kandal province on Saturday for flouting a government ban on sand dredging on the Mekong River, an official said Sunday. Chan Youttha, cabinet chief for Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor, said the minister personally led a ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/barges-impounded-for-breaking-sand-dredging-ban-in-kandal-49567/
Council of Ministers Nullifies Telecom Law
The Council of Ministers has nullified a 2009 law that set minimum prices on telephone calls, paving the way for regulators to reset the country’s telecommunications prices, which industry executives say are too high. The law, Prakas 232, which has been widely flouted, set a minimum ...
Hul Reaksmey and Joshua Wilwohl -
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/council-of-ministers-nullifies-telecom-law-49573/
Rights Group Calls for Investigation of Thai Casino Torture Case
Local human rights group Adhoc has called on the government to investigate the alleged detention and torture of a Cambodian woman at a Bangkok casino where she was employed. In a statement released Friday, Adhoc said the government must push for a “full investigation” into the ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-group-calls-for-investigation-of-thai-casino-torture-case-49552/
Cambodia’s Deportation of Uighurs to China Remembered
Four years after the forcible deportation of 20 Uighur asylum seekers from Cambodia to China, an advocacy group has said it remains “deeply concerned” about their fate and has called on China to lift a veil of secrecy surrounding their treatment. In a statement, the World ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodias-deportation-of-uighurs-to-china-remembered-49549/
Slipping through the cracks
US national Daniel Stephen Johnson was transferred to Prey Sar prison yesterday after being charged on Saturday over the alleged rape of five underage boys – residents of the orphanage he ran without interference from authorities for several months. According to Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor ...
Stuart White and Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/slipping-through-cracks
Court Charges Missionary With Child Abuse
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday charged Daniel Johnson, an American missionary, with committing indecent acts against five boys under the age of 15 at an orphanage he operated in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, police said. Johnson, 35, was sent to the court on Wednesday ...
Saing Soenthrith and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-charges-missionary-with-child-abuse-49356/
Monks and Cash Rewards Save Softshell Turtles
SAMBOR DISTRICT, Kratie Province – A sharply dressed usher in a crisp black shirt, black pants and a shiny black tie escorted guests to one of several bungalow-style, private booths at the Mloub Dong restaurant on a recent evening. While the privacy the restaurant offers is ...
Khy Sovuthy and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/monks-and-cash-rewards-save-softshell-turtles-49329/
Land-title program ‘Ineffective’
Land certificates handed out by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s youth volunteers have been seized by local authorities in some parts of the country and sold on to companies, a forum on land rights was told yesterday, amid reports of rising numbers of land conflicts. Speaking at ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-title-program-%E2%80%98ineffective%E2%80%99
Forest Falls in Ratanakkiri to the Tune of Chainsaws, Trucks
LUMPHAT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, Ratanakkiri Province – From behind the corrugated metal walls of Daun Penh Agrico’s wood depot, the raspy buzz of a chainsaw rattled through the surrounding forest on Monday afternoon. As the chainsaw revved and cut, a heavy-duty truck packed full of long, sawn ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/forest-falls-in-ratanakkiri-to-the-tune-of-chainsaws-and-trucks-49134/
Undercover underused: NGO
Cambodia hopes to legalise undercover investigative techniques – like covert surveillance and officers posing as criminals, which until now have fallen into a murky legal grey area – by next year. At a workshop in the capital yesterday, law enforcement officials and representatives of human rights ...
Laignee Barron and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/undercover-underused-ngo
ACU Partners With Coca-Cola in Anti-Graft Agreement
During a four-hour pop concert in Phnom Penh to mark International Anti-Corruption Day on Monday, the Coca-Cola Company and the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) signed an agreement that commits the international soft drinks company to avoid committing bribery in Cambodia. “Corruption is the barrier to development ...
Khy Sovuthy and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/acu-partners-with-coca-cola-in-anti-graft-agreement-48957/
City Hall Bans Monks From Marching to National Assembly
Phnom Penh City Hall issued a letter Monday banning a group of monks who have marched cross-country to mark International Human Rights Day from completing the final leg of their journey, in which they had hoped to hand petitions to lawmakers at the National Assembly ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-bans-monks-from-marching-to-national-assembly-48959/
Armed Security Doubled for Human Rights Day Rallies
The government will deploy double the usual number of armed security personnel on the streets of Phnom Penh on Tuesday to keep control of the large number of rallies planned in the city to celebrate International Human Rights Day, a military police official said Monday. “We ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/armed-security-doubled-for-human-rights-day-rallies-48954/
Complaint Filed With UN Over Police Shooting of Civilians
A law student who filed a complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against the city’s police and military police chiefs over the fatal shooting of a bystander by authorities during a protest last month took his complaint to the U.N.’s human rights office on ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/complaint-filed-with-un-over-police-shooting-of-civilians-48961/
Minister Says Set Phone Call Prices ‘Temporary’
The minister of posts and telecommunications on Monday insisted an edict ordering the country’s seven mobile phone operators to abide by a law that sets minimum prices for calls is only temporary. Prak Sokhon, the newly-appointed posts and telecommunications minister, said the order was necessary because ...
Joshua Wilwohl and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/minister-says-set-phone-call-prices-temporary-48975/
Cambodia’s telecom agency firm on fees
Cambodia’s telecommunications ministry yesterday defended intervening in the market by fixing minimum prices for mobile phone calls, rationalising the base charges as necessary to stem the loss of tax revenue and avert a monopolised industry. The floor price was introduced in 2009 to prevent the demise ...
Chan Muy Hong and Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodia%E2%80%99s-telecom-agency-firm-fees
Ezecom CEO made ‘oknha’
Paul Blanche-Horgan, the CEO of internet service provider Ezecom, will now be known as Oknha Paul Blanche-Horgan, making him one of the few Westerners to receive the prestigious and sought-after Cambodian title. Awarded by King Norodom Sihanomi in mid-November, the new status brings Blanche-Horgan, who has ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ezecom-ceo-made-%E2%80%98oknha%E2%80%99
Hun Sen Orders Anticorruption Education for Students
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday issued a statement ordering that anti-graft education be incorporated into the national schooling system as part of a wider effort to stamp out corruption in the country. The statement, released in the lead-up to International Anti-Corruption Day, which falls today, ...
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-orders-anticorruption-education-for-students-48830/