Human rights

Soldiers used force on Friday to end a strike at a garment factory on Veng Sreng Boulevard, where demands included a lunch bonus of 2,000 riel and an end to forced overtime, workers and union officials said yesterday. ...

A monk, an opposition lawmaker-elect and a journalist, all assaulted by Daun Penh district security guards near Freedom Park on Friday, said they are in the process of filing legal complaints against the district forces as they recover from their injuries. “I am planning on filing ...

For months now, Daun Penh district security forces, identifiable by their dark blue uniforms, black motorbike helmets and merciless truncheon swinging, have been unleashed on protesters, opposition and otherwise, as the all-too-willing enforcers of government-approved crackdowns. But as district forces have begun targeting more journalists during ...

The freedom of the press and expression in Cambodia becomes worse this year, according the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC). ...

U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri on Friday wrapped up a five-day mission to Cambodia, saying that she was concerned and “deeply saddened” by the violent beating of bystanders and journalists after a May Day gathering near a cordoned-off Freedom Park. In prepared ...

Amnesty International on Friday lambasted a pending deal that would see people seeking asylum in Australia to be resettled in Cambodia. “Australia should be ending its offshore processing and detention of asylum seekers, not looking to outsource its refugee responsibilities to another, much poorer country,” ...

While workers and opposition supporters marched to mark Labour Day yesterday, and baton-wielding district security guards enforced a ban on gatherings, a very different, uninterrupted rally took place at the capital’s Koh Pich Exhibition Center. About 2,000 workers from pro-government unions and government officials heard Labour ...

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 ...

Several people were injured Thursday when Cambodian authorities broke up a Labour Day rally involving hundreds of garment workers and opposition party supporters in central Phnom Penh. Am Sam Ath, senior monitor of local human rights group Licadho, told Kyodo News he saw at least five ...

Cambodian reporter for the Voice of Democracy Radio has been awarded by Reporters Without Borders as an “Information Hero.” Oudam Tat was awarded along with 100 other journalists from around the world, as part of celebrations for World Press Freedom Day. Voice of Democracy, originally founded ...

The opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Thursday announced to hold demonstration again to demand the release of 23 detained protesters who have been arrested in violent clashes earlier this year. Sam Rainsy renewed the opposition protest plan while he as well as Kem Sokha led supporters ...

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 ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday insisted that the Cambodian government has not turned down any of its recommendations for helping thousands of families hurt by a bank-funded project, claiming that talks over how to compensate and support the families were still underway. Last week, ...

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 ...

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 ...

A Senior Cambodian official has said his country has tentatively agreed to accept asylum-seekers who had been seeking to settle in Australia. Foreign Ministry Secretary of State Ouch Borith told reporters there was an agreement in principle to take the asylum-seekers, who are being held in ...

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 ...

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 ...

Cambodian deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Tuesday met with two United Nations senior officials to discuss relations and cooperation between Cambodia and UN on social and economic development and human rights.     The two officials are Haoliang Xu, assistant to the UN secretary ...

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 ...