Human rights

Civil society organizations and indigenous peoples’ representatives call on the government to disclose information to the public and include additional elements in the “Right to Information Law” to reduce corruption while they still face some challenges in obtaining sensitive information from government. ...

Hundreds of foreign nationals have been removed from Phnom Penh compounds as police acknowledged detention, torture, extortion and human trafficking in several arrests. ...

The Cambodian Independent Teacher’s Association (CITA) plans to celebrate this year’s Teachers’ Day on October 5 with a public display, with Phnom Penh authorities saying that permission may be granted depending on the circumstances. ...

Nearly half of Cambodian children aged 1 to 14 years old are disciplined in their homes using physical violence, a new government study says, with social norms remaining a key factor in why adults hit their kids. ...

Press freedom groups and foreign donors on Friday discussed the potential benefits and goals of establishing a national press council, including developing a standardized code of ethics for journalists nationwide and promoting public trust and self-regulation in the industry. ...

The August report from Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) was released yesterday and revealed that social media rights for women in six poor communities in Phnom Penh were restricted by threats and intimidation from local authorities after they shared information on the challenges they face in ...

Communities from different provinces claim that they are often threatened under various guises by local authorities when they report community land disputes on social media to find the solution from relevant authorities. ...

From the start of 2020 through the end of the first semester of this year, the Ministry of Information has documented the publication of 4,657 fake news articles online and 170 of those cases were serious enough to merit being brought to the attention of ...

 A journalist in Preah Vihear province says he was beaten up by an army commander after he accidentally witnessed what he suspected to be the illegal transportation of timber. ...

The military personnel — primarily in charge of protecting the Cambodian prime minister — were seen to be managing the outflow of trees being transported by workers but also blocking access to the cleared forest. They detained five VOD journalists and four activists in the ...

Journalists in Cambodia are facing increasing threats and being prevented from doing their jobs amid growing restrictions on press freedom and civic and political rights, the U.N human rights office there said this week. The U.N. agency’s report, issued August 3, describes press freedom in ...

A group of 33 civil society organisations (CSOs) urged the intervention of Prime Minister Hun Sen to expedite the draft law on “access to information”. ...

The Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC) yesterday met Roeuida El Hage, Representative of Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to Cambodia to assess the human rights condition in Cambodia and to strengthen the cooperation between the two human rights organisations. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to promoting child rights, urging all state institutions and relevant authorities to make every effort to increase the power of children, especially girls. ...

The media will remain a vital source of “accurate and timely” news on developments concerning the world’s largest trade pact for policymakers, think-tanks, businesspeople, investors and the general public. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court of Appeal on May 23 delivered a ruling in the cases of four ADHOC officials and one former official of the local rights group, upholding the lower court’s guilty verdict in all of their cases. ...

The Candlelight Party has decided to adopt a seven-point policy plan in the run-up to the June 5 commune council elections. The decision came at the May 15 extraordinary congress of the party in Khmuonh commune’s Anlong Kgan village of the capital’s Sen Sok district. ...

The likely prime ministerial successor Hun Manet has downplayed worsening restrictions on press freedoms, as civil society groups continue to warn of a deteriorating space for civil rights. ...

Despite the implementation of provisions to defend abused women and girls in 2021, the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC) noted some challenges due to the lack of cooperation by relevant specialised state institutions. ...

News media is considered the “fourth power”, but this power has to be respected, not to be feared, in order to ensure its sustainability. ...