Civil society

Among the exotic wildlife that prowls Cambodia’s forests are large furry creatures that may be far more familiar to European and North American visitors than the ever-dwindling populations of large cats and beastly elephants. The Kingdom’s bears climb trees and devour honey just like their ...

Maina Kiai, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the freedom of assembly and association, met with a Foreign Affairs Ministry official Thursday and raised concerns about the government’s blanket ban on gatherings in Phnom Penh. His visit wraps up today, and a thematic report he will issue ...

Representatives of nine unions met together have made seven resolutions to seek better conditions and wages for workers in Cambodia’s factories. The unions are calling for the release of those workers, the restart of wage negotiations and the “unmasking” of police personnel who did the ...

The father of a 16-year-old boy who went missing during last month’s labor protest crackdowns says he now presumes his son dead. The boy, Khim Sophat, was caught up in demonstrations at the Canadia Industrial Zone in early January. He was not listed among the four ...

A dozen tuk-tuk and motorcycle-taxi drivers who say their vehicles were confiscated after police suppressed a demonstration in Phnom Penh last week gathered outside City Hall on Wednedsay to demand the return of their property. The drivers waited from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. hoping to ...

The U.N. special rapporteur on the freedom of peaceful assembly and association, Maina Kiai, began a three-day unofficial visit to Cambodia on Wednesday, just one month after military police shot dead five protesters in Phnom Penh and the government imposed a ban on public gatherings. Mr. ...

Khmer Krom people fleeing persecution in Vietnam and denied refuge in Thailand are being sent to Cambodia, where the government does not ensure that their rights are protected, the Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) has said in a new report. The report—“Abandoned People Khmer Krom Seeking Refuge ...

The government’s investigation into the bloody crackdown on unruly protesters on Veng Sreng Boulevard one month ago wrapped up yesterday, officials said, though those familiar with the investigation remained tight-lipped about its findings. National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith said yesterday that the three-week investigation had cooperated ...

Piles of garbage festered on the streets of Phnom Penh on Tuesday as hundreds of workers employed by the city’s refuse collection company, Cintri, continued to strike for higher wages and better working conditions. At the company’s truck depot in Dangkao district Tuesday morning, more than ...

Meeting for a minimum wage workshop on Tuesday, the country’s independent and government-aligned unions argued over reforms to the Labor Advisory Committee (LAC), the body in charge of setting the minimum wage in the garment sector, which employs some 600,000 workers. The LAC, which is composed ...

Fewer cases of abuse of migrants were recorded last year than in 2012, but that doesn’t mean the issue is any less serious, a forum held by rights group Adhoc was told yesterday. Torture, a lack of food, and physical and sexual abuse are just some ...

Police in Kompong Chhnang province on Tuesday said they were looking for three suspects in the murder of a local journalist on Friday night and may soon add more names to the list, but still had no motive for the attack. However, the provincial coordinator for ...

Discussions about salaries on the factory floor led worker Channa, 22, to begin feeling jealous of her male counterparts. She learned, through talking with a number of co-workers, that the men working around her were doing the same amount of work as she was, but being ...

U.S. Ambassador William Todd on Tuesday used his weekly newspaper column to urge Cambodia’s government to immediately conduct reforms that would even the country’s economic playing field, curb corruption, restore democratic freedoms and generally address the concerns of citizens who want change. “Corruption and nepotism contribute ...

Riot police and security forces prevented an opposition delegation from meeting with 23 protest detainees in Kampong Cham province on Tuesday, for second day in a row. No violence was reported, as the delegation from the Cambodia National Rescue Party met with more than 100 police ...

International labour organisations Industrial Global Union, UNI Global Union and ITUC are seeking international support for a day of action in support of garment workers arrested during recent strikes in Cambodia. The groups are calling on people to demonstrate outside Cambodian embassies and deliver protest letters ...

In a new report highlighting abuse in Cambodia’s garment industry, Human Rights Watch has called on the Cambodian government to cease “intimidation and threats” against workers. The group interviewed nearly 200 factory workers from 55 different factories, and found that anti-union discrimination and poor workers conditions ...

The government reforested 80,693 hectares of land between 2008 and 2012 as part of its efforts to combat deforestation, a recent agriculture ministry report says, but these seemingly impressive statistics were reached by counting rubber trees and other agricultural crops as adequate replacements for forests. The ...

Two years after Cambodia’s Acid Law took effect, and one year after a subsequent sub-decree further regulated the dangerous substance, significant hurdles remain in securing justice for victims of acid attacks, according to a paper published in the Cambodian Law and Policy Journalon Sunday. In her paper, ...

Though the Ministry of Information has repeatedly rejected independent radio station owner Mam Sonando’s requests to obtain a television station license and a radio relay station, saying that there was “no space” for him, the government has approved at least three new TV licenses and ...

At 10 a.m. on January 3, about 2,000 members of the security forces, mostly military police, advanced down Phnom Penh’s factory-lined Veng Sreng Street, spraying AK-47 assault rifle fire into a crowd of about 100 protesters who had been throwing stones and crude Molotov cocktails. ...

Mak Sambath, deputy chairman of the government’s Human Rights Committee, came under fire Monday from activists who accused him of lying to the U.N. in Geneva regarding land issues and the displacement of affected people. The criticism of Mr. Sambath’s report to the U.N.’s Human Rights ...

Opposition CNRP leader Sam Rainsy is to meet with Cambodian migrant workers during a two-day trip to South Korea later this week, at the end of a European tour that has included stops in Geneva, Brussels and Paris. “He will be visiting [South] Korea to meet ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has for the first time admitted to major flaws in its efforts to protect the roughly 4,000 families losing land to a $143 million project it is funding to rehabilitate Cambodia’s dilapidated railway system. On Friday, the ADB said it would ...