Legal framework

Thirty-three Cambodian nationals were arrested for illegally logging rare rosewood trees in Thailand, where they are currently awaiting trial, officials said Wednesday. The arrests marked a long-called-for shift in tactics by Thai authorities: In the past, Thai soldiers and border police have often dealt with illegal ...

Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday agreed to postpone a meeting with the opposition party’s information department chief, Meach Sovannara, who missed a scheduled meeting in which he was to answer questions regarding his alleged role in a violent protest in July, his lawyer said. ...

Former parliamentary candidate and opposition information chief Meach Sovannara said yesterday that he would not appear in court today for questioning related to charges stemming from a violent opposition protest in July. ...

A group of 50 migrant workers on Wednesday protested outside a branch of a recruitment agency in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district that they say duped them out of $260 they paid for a guarantee of employment in Thailand. ...

Opposition party leader Sam Rainsy on Wednesday expressed disappointment after his two leading lawmakers failed in votes for the posts of chairpersons of the National Assembly’s eighth and tenth commissions. He said he would push for proper solution in accordance with July 22 agreement. “It is rights ...

Yim Sovann and Mu Sochua, both prominent lawmakers of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), failed in votes for the posts of chairpersons of the National Assembly’s commissions in confidential votes on Wednesday. The CNRP nominated male-lawmaker Yim Sovann as the head of the National ...

Even within the country’s notoriously overcrowded prison system, inmates in this northern province live in particularly harsh conditions. Approximately 120 prisoners, including 16 women and three children, are held in four cells in the Oddar Meanchey provincial police headquarters. “In one cell we keep 20 or more ...

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) over the weekend released a statement condemning an ongoing strike at a Kompong Chhnang garment factory and urging authorities to “punish the perpetrators.” About 3,000 employees of the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory have been on strike since August ...

The director of a Vietnamese company hoping to buy timber off a pair of land concessions has accused three local businessmen of cheating her out of $200,000 and asked Prime Minister Hun Sen to investigate, according to a letter published by local media. ...

The minister of labour has sent a stern warning to garment factories to take measures to end mass faintings or face the consequences. Speaking after a safety workshop yesterday, Ith Sam Heng said the government will get tougher on factories, fining those that didn’t provide safe ...

The ministries of Labor and Interior met on Thursday to outline the government’s plan to more strictly enforce measures for employers of foreign nationals to ensure that their staff has proper documentation. Seng Sakada, director-general of the Labor Ministry’s labor department, said previous efforts have not ...

The Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation, supported by The UPS Foundation, has launched a global internet campaign to collect ten thousand pledges in support of the motorcycle passenger, including child helmet law in Cambodia, according to its statement obtained Thursday by The Cambodia Herald. The campaign ...

In yet another case of Cambodian women facing abuse in China, a 19-year-old told the Post yesterday that she has taken to living on the streets after the consulate in Shanghai refused to pay for her repatriation. Kim Sophea*, who claims she has been forced into marriage in ...

In March, the Ministry of Labor for the first time began requiring union leaders to submit proof they had no previous criminal convictions before they would be allowed to register a new union or local branch. Now, the country’s leading unions say worker representatives are struggling ...

The number of people charged in land disputes across the country so far this year has already surpassed the number of charges in all of 2013 in what rights group Adhoc on Tuesday called an “alarming” increase in legal action against those wrapped up in ...

A prominent rights group on Monday wrote to Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, calling on him to remind ministries and local authorities that demonstrators do not require their permission to hold public gatherings. ...

Phnom Penh security forces on Sunday blocked activists from riding their bicycles around the city to promote their campaign against the pending construction of a hydropower dam in Koh Kong province, claiming the organizers failed to ask City Hall for permission. The NGO Mother Nature has ...

Drunk drivers could be fined $1000 under a new draft traffic law approved yesterday by The Council of Ministers. The legislation includes a raft of measures aimed at reducing the number of deaths and injuries on the roads. Among the draft law’s 92 articles are new ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a new draft traffic law aimed at improving the safety of Cambodia’s notoriously dangerous roads, with only legislative approval standing in the way of the bill being passed into law. The draft law, which includes changes to 64 articles, ...

Private-sector representatives today are to conclude a two-day consultation forum with the government over the controversial new draft telecommunications law. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications’ (MPT) yet-to-be-approved draft law includes provisions that grant the ministry judicial powers to indict telecom service-related operators and even everyday ...

Three widely condemned laws concerning the operation of the Kingdom’s judiciary were officially signed into effect by King Norodom Sihamoni last month, according to recent copies of the Royal Book. ...

The Royal Palace has granted the prestigious title of oknha to politically connected businesswoman Keat Kolney, who has been locking horns for a decade with ethnic Jarai minorities in Ratanakkiri province over hundreds of disputed hectares. Kolney – who is married to Chhan Saphann, an official ...

A Thai sugar company with major shares in Cambodian sugar cane is being investigated for human rights violations in operations along the border between the two countries. The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand recently investigated allegations that villagers were forced from their homes to make ...

The Ministry of Defense’s account that an alleged kidney trafficking ring at its Preah Ket Mealea military hospital was in fact a fully legal training program in partnership with China’s Defense Ministry was met with questions and confusion Tuesday. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in ...