Civil society

The Free Trade Union (FTU) on Monday reported an overall increase in industrial action by its local branches last year with 136 total strikes in the first 11 months of 2013, up 35 percent from all of 2012, when there were 101 strikes by its ...

Defying a new ban on public gatherings, more than 50 activists and monks gathered outside the local U.N. human rights office Monday morning to demand the immediate release of 23 men who were arrested earlier this month during violent clashes between police and garment workers. The ...

Three rights monitors were called in for questioning by Mondulkiri provincial police after they filed an attempted murder lawsuit against a land concessionaire employee last week, claiming they were violently denied access to an area under investigation for forest crimes, Adhoc said yesterday. Adhoc provincial coordinator ...

The U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia, Surya Subedi, who began his 10th fact-finding mission to Cambodia on Sunday, has been asked to investigate issues faced by ethnic Khmer Krom people after five monks were arrested for participating in garment worker protests earlier this month. In ...

Opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha are due to appear before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court as scheduled this morning after retaining the services of a new lawyer, a CNRP spokesman said Monday. Mr. Rainsy and Mr. Sokha, as well as union leaders Rong Chhun ...

Civil society groups yesterday urged the international community to put more pressure on the government to ensure the safety of prisoners arrested in recent crackdowns and to prevent further police and military violence against civilians. At a press conference yesterday morning, images of soldiers beating and ...

Visiting representatives from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) on Monday urged the Labor Ministry to withdraw its threat to revoke the licenses of six unions behind recent strikes, and to drop legal proceedings against union leader Rong Chhun. His visit follows garment worker protests ...

The U.N. special envoy for human rights in Cambodia on Monday met with about 100 activists in the capital Phnom Penh who sought his help to gain the release of nearly two dozen people arrested during recent violent government crackdowns on striking factory workers. Envoy Surya ...

Relatives and human rights activists on Sunday called on the government to release 23 men beaten and arrested during clashes between police and garment workers just more than a week ago, and said they would defy a ban on public gatherings if they were not. The ...

The government announced on Friday it would set up two commissions headed by Interior Minister Sar Kheng to investigate clashes between police and protesters early this month that left at least four dead, more than 20 injured and 23 arrested, a move criticised by rights ...

United Nations envoy is expected to arrived in Cambodia today, a week after the deadly crackdown by government forces against protesting workers on Veng Sreng street, which left five people dead. This is the first visit of Surya P. Subedi, UN Special Rapporteur on human ...

About 100 people, including 20 monks, held a ceremony in Phnom Penh on Friday in memory of the five people killed a week beforehand when military police opened fire on protesting garment workers, and demanded that the government introduce a mandatory, sector-wide standard minimum wage. In ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday assigned former Finance Minister Keat Chhon as the head of a newly formed committee tasked with researching the government’s capacity to introduce wage increases for civil servants and factory workers. The statement said that Mr. Hun Sen also spoke ...

A juvenile accused of destroying a police car during a violent strike by SL Garment factory workers in November remained in Prey Sar prison yesterday, despite the Court of Appeal having granted him bail. Sary Bothchakrya, a lawyer from the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) representing ...

In keeping with authorities’ indefinite ban on assembly, security forces yesterday morning dispersed a small gathering of nine youth activists who had planned to call for new elections and justice on behalf of recently slain protesters while singing songs about nonviolence in Freedom Park. Hoping to ...

Lawyers and human rights workers were prevented from entering Kompong Cham province’s Correctional Center 3 (CC3) prison on Thursday when they attempted to meet with some of the 23 protesters, union leaders and garment workers detained last week after protests were lethally suppressed by government ...

A coalition of international human rights groups on Wednesday issued a petition to press opposition CNRP leader Sam Rainsy and senior members of the government to publicly condemn and investigate the death threats against local rights group leader Ou Virak, following his criticism of comments ...

A provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc claimed Thursday that a representative of a company the group was investigating attempted to crash his car into him and two of his colleagues in Mondolkiri province. Sok Ratha said he had received a complaint in December about a ...

Dozens of soldiers from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) in Banteay Meanchey province have filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc accusing their superiors of serious corruption, stealing veterans’ pensions, nepotism and illegal logging. For three years, a representative of the soldiers said, they had ...

A group of eight opposition CNRP youth supporters sang a single song near Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park before police deployed nearby had a chance to break up their concert on Thursday, a musical test of the new ban on public gatherings in the wake of ...

Family members of striking garment factory workers killed, wounded and missing after military police violently suppressed last Friday’s Veng Sreng Street protests have begun preparing complaints to file with authorities and rights NGOs. At least five people were shot dead, and more than 40 were in­jured, ...

Major labels that have clothing manufactured in Cambodian factories have written an open letter expressing concern for the recent shootings of workers demonstrating for higher wages. Adidas, Gap, H&M, Levi’s and Puma were among those that signed the January 7 letter to the Phnom Penh government, ...

The UN human rights agency urged Cambodia to launch an investigation into the “disproportionate” use of force by security forces last week against garment factory workers striking over pay. Military police opened fire on workers protesting outside a factory in Phnom Penh on January 3 and ...

Authorities in Phnom Penh and at least three provinces have begun to clamp down on teachers conducting piecemeal strikes for higher wages, with one union representative being asked to sign an anti-strike agreement and another called in for police questioning. In Kandal province’s Kien Svay district, ...