Law and judiciary

Authorities in Kompong Thom province yesterday forced a pagoda to withdraw its invitation to host a workshop about forest protection, continuing their pressure on two NGOs that provide community legal education in the province, a monk and NGO worker said. Chin Neth, chief monk at ...

The government has dropped controversial criminal penalties targeting unionists in its latest draft of the union law, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said yesterday. Addressing a meeting of representatives of international apparel brands, including Nike, Adidas and PUMA, unions, government officials and the International Labour Organisation, ...

Road accidents claimed the lives of 1,816 people in 2010, a slight increase from the 1,717 killed in 2009, according to a report by the Cambodia Road Crash and Victim Information System. The total number of casualties from road accidents reached 18,287 in 2010, according ...

Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has summoned for questioning two rights group activists and a journalist over charges that they incited ethnic minority villagers in Lumphat district to violence in 2009, a court official said yesterday. The case against the three men – Adhoc provincial coordinator Pen ...

Kompong Thom provincial authorities have threatened to shut down two NGOs who have been providing free legal education to poor villagers in the province, accusing the groups of fomenting rural unrest against private investors. The NGOs, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and the Natural ...

Weak enforcement of mining laws excludes local communities from the decision-making process and smudges the revenue transparency, said George Boden, a campaigner at watchdog group Global Witness. Weak enforcement of mining laws excludes local communities from the decision-making process and smudges the revenue transparency, said ...

Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has extended a deadline for 52 villagers embroiled in a long-standing land dispute with a development company owned by the wife of Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem to pay court fees, a court official and rights workers said ...

The government is drafting a new law that will aim at improving auditing standards and management practices at all of Cambodia’s ports on the coast and rivers and at dry ports inland, officials said yesterday. Speaking at a workshop on port regulation in Phnom Penh, ...

Agriculture Ministry officials said yesterday that they would soon complete a new law to regulate and support the creation of farmers’ cooperatives. They said the law would allow farmers to organize cooperatives, which could improve their market position and allow access to financial and technical ...

As the creation of Cambodia’s first law on trade unions enters a final phase this week, labor activists and unions said the draft law as it stands is in urgent need of revision, as it would cripple unions and severely undermine collective bargaining rights. They ...

Ten international organizations including Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, and Global Witness have urged dozens of foreign ministers to consider freezing aid to Cambodia if the government passes the current draft of its proposed NGO law. In a letter sent Wednesday to 36 foreign ministers ...

Officials in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district said yesterday that all transportation of sand across the old and new Preah Monivong bridges has been banned for the duration of the rainy season to protect the road surface and avoid accidents. According to a City Hall announcement ...

Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has ordered 40 families embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the wife of Minister of Industry Suy Sem to pay court fees of up to $155 each, or have their complaints dropped. The villagers, however, say they are too poor ...

The government has brought into force a new law that makes all illegal payments to officials punishable by up to 15 years in jail for those who accept such payments and up to 10 years for those who make payments. Im Oudom, a member of ...

Further development of Bassac Garden City is to be halted after a court order was issued. This means that no more “construction, selling, renting, pawning, giving as donation, bequeathment or transference of ownership of the 3,000 square meters of land,” can happen. There is currently ...

Three villagers who were part of a protest over a land dispute with the Meng Keth Company have been summoned to court for questioning over alleged violence during the protest. The land dispute is over 65 contested hectares of land that was granted to the ...

Three villagers have been summoned as a result of  bloody clash last year stemming from a land dispute and eviction by the Kompong Speu Provincial Court. The 65 hectares of land have been awarded to Kuo Sheng a Taiwanese businessman by the Supreme court. Licadho, ...

The last of the Chi Kraeng villagers has been freed by the Appeal Court after it upheld their acquittal. The villagers had originally been convicted of forcibly detaining two businessmen over a land dispute involving 475 hectares of rice paddies in Siem Reap in 2009. ...

Battambang provincial court has issued an injunction halting the sale of any part of Loran Import Export Company in a dispute over ownership of the prominent rice milling firm, according to a statement. The plaintiffs, including prominent media personality Soy Sopheap as well as Uy Ang ...

Disputes between owners at prominent rice miller Loran Import Export Company have been resolved, with Chief Executive Officer Lim Bunheng set to buy the stake held by prominent media personality Soy Sopheap and his associates, company officials said yesterday. “We have agreed to end all disputes ...

Describing a 5,000-hectare land dispute between Koh Kong villagers and a sugar company owned by CPP Senator Ly Yong Pgat as “a complicated case,” Koh Kong Provincial Court has decided to try it before a three-judge panel, a lawyer for the villagers said yesterday. The ...

A development company owned by the wife of the Minister of Industry, Mine and Energy Suy Sem has been the target of 40 civil complaints received by the provincial court of Kompong Chhnang province. Chea Kheng claims she owns the 214-hectare plot of which 69 ...

KDC International, which is owned by Chea Kheng the wife of Industry Minister Suy Sem has been accused of grabbing 145 hectares of land in the Kampong Chhnang province. The villagers who claim the land have filed objects individually, after having been told to do ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for the current law only allowing Cambodians to own property from the ground floor up to be scrapped. Currently foreigners can only buy apartments from the second floor and above. The purpose of the move is to increase foreign ...