Civil society

On the sidelines of a government event marking International Labor Day, Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng on Thursday blamed recent strikes in Bavet City on unnamed provocateurs, but said efforts were underway to resolve the dispute. He also said that a government-ordered shutdown of the 30-plus ...

Security forces in the Cambodian capital violently dispersed Labor Day demonstrators gathered near the city’s Freedom Park Thursday, injuring at least five people, including bystanders, according to eyewitnesses and rights groups. They took the action after opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leaders finished speaking to ...

Three people have filed separate complaints against a Phnom Penh district official, accusing him of ordering violence in a clash between security forces and bystanders near Freedom Park last week. At least 10 people were injured in clashes last Monday, as opposition member Mu Sochua staged ...

Police in Svay Rieng province on Tuesday arrested a garment worker for allegedly breaking a car window during a strike that turned violent in Bavet City the day before, and have filed complaints to the provincial court against two union representatives accused of defamation. The arrest ...

Four hundred Kandal villagers locked in a land dispute in Ponhea Leu district with development company Phanimex submitted a petition Wednesday to district authorities and rights group Adhoc calling for a solution. The petition came a day after villagers blocked National Road 5 for more than ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy invited the head of an NGO battling to stop construction of a highly criticized dam in a remote area of Koh Kong province to meet with ministry officials Friday. Signed by Mines Minister Suy Sem and dated April 25, the ...

Refugees who are resettled in Cambodia by the Australian government will be unlikely to gain employment rights, get an education or be given permanent residency, according to a peak international development body. The Australian Council for International Development said Australia had entered “uncharted territory” by resettling ...

A peaceful Labor Day demonstration of workers calling for better living conditions and independent courts was violently dispersed Thursday morning by district security guards, municipal police and men in plain clothes, who beat protesters, journalists and bystanders with batons, wooden sticks and crude metal poles. Shortly ...

Telecommunications companies say they are being left in the dark on the controversial draft law on cybercrime, despite provisions in the proposed law allowing prosecutors to order internet service providers to preserve data for them as part of criminal investigations. Three large telecom firms providing internet ...

The Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Hong said that Cambodia is committed and willing to improve the country’s human rights and democracy record. Namhong said during a meeting yesterday with Ms. Flavia Pansieri, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...

Cambodian authorities on Wednesday refused permission for the 18 opposition-aligned trade unions and associations to celebrate an International Labor Day event on May 1 at the capital’s Freedom Park. “The Phnom Penh Municipality does not allow the trade unions and associations to organize this event at ...

The government has agreed to review its resettlement agreement with families relocated from railways as part of an Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded rehabilitation project, but has refused a recommendation to set up a debt-relief scheme for the evictees, according to an action plan released by ...

The manager of Giant Ocean International, a now-defunct recruitment firm notorious for abuse scandals, was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in jail for trafficking hundreds of Cambodian fishermen to work in slave-like conditions overseas. Taiwanese national Lin Yu-shin, who ran the firm, was arrested in May ...

Chea Mony, president of the opposition-aligned Free Trade Union (FTU), said Tuesday that his union, one of the largest in the country, will not be joining other labor groups planning to rally on International Workers’ Day because he has been sick and traveling in the ...

In the wake of a speech by Prime Minister Hun Sen denouncing civil society’s criticism of the way that three judiciary laws sailed through the Council of Ministers without outside input or transparency, NGOs released an open letter yesterday calling for the Kingdom’s renewed commitment ...

At least three Cambodians who have travelled to work as maids in Singapore since August last year as part of a pilot scheme have complained to worker welfare groups there about employer abuse and poor working conditions, including molestation and the slapping of a worker. In ...

ANZ’s financing of ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat’s controversial sugar plantation has come under fire once again, this time in an investigation by NGO Oxfam into Australia’s big four banks and their links to rights abuses in developing countries. In a report titled “Banking on ...

Nearly 200 people from 25 different communities converged on the Mondolkiri Provincial Hall Monday to file complaints and petitions calling for an end to illegal logging and environmental degradation. The action comes two days after armed commune police blocked 16 rights workers and journalists from visiting ...

A family locked in a longstanding land dispute with a powerful real estate tycoon claims company guards late on Sunday night once again attempted to burn down their Tuol Kok home. The alleged attempted arson is the latest in a slew of bizarre at­tacks on the ...

Five men in Koh Kong province could be prosecuted for stealing from a construction crew after the group allegedly seized tools in January, preventing the construction team from building fences in their village. Police summonsed the villagers from Kiri Sakor district’s Prek Khsach commune for questioning ...

The U.N.’s deputy high commissioner for human rights, Flavia Pansieri—who is on a week­long mission in Cambodia —has been asked to address an arbitrarily enforced ban on public assemblies, which has been in place since January. In a letter dated Monday, Muth Chantha, secretary-general of the ...

The government is refusing to compensate up to 1,000 families forced to wait for income restoration measures after being relocated from their homes for an Asian Development Bank-funded railway rehabilitation project, a previously unreleased action plan from the ADB reveals. The ADB Management Action Plan, released ...

About 50 residents evicted from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood in 2008 and 2009 to make way for a senator’s real estate project once again protested in front of City Hall Monday to demand better compensation. They are among some 3,000 families who were forced ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen used a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh Monday to denounce criticism from civil society groups who say that his government is rushing judicial reforms into law without ap­­propriate public consultation. Speaking at the ceremony for about 1,800 students from the Asia Euro ...