ការអភិវឌ្ឍសង្គម
សិទ្ធិមនុស្ស
Myanmar’s siren song
Unions and labour rights groups have spent recent months unashamedly drilling home a stark reminder: Cambodia’s minimum garment wage, at $61 per month, compares poorly with those in Thailand – where workers earn more than $200 a month – and Vietnam, which has a base ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031861998/National/myanmar-s-siren-song.html
Still No Donor to Take Over Communal Land Titling From Canada
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) said yesterday that it had still found no replacement donor to commit long-term to carrying on its work helping indigenous ethnic minority groups secure communal land titles once it pulls out in May. Kan Vibol, project field manager for CIDA’s ...
EU fund of over $4.5 mln in Cambodia
The European Union in efforts to reduce the poverty rate and secure a free society has awarded $4.5 mln to four projects. These projects will work to improve justice, natural resources, land rights, and build the capabilities of local authorities. Four projects were selected among ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=ODhhZmVjNmU1OTd
World Bank’s Boeng Kak Failure Cited in UN Report
The U.N.’s expert on housing rights has cited the World Bank’s failure to help thousands of families evicted from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood as a prime example of why the bank needs to make human rights a focus of its land sector programs worldwide. At ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/world-banks-boeng-kak-failure-cited-in-un-report-14120/
Prosecutor Wants Change To Sonando Charges
In a bizarre twist at the Appeal Court hearing of radio station owner Man Sonando, the prosecution yesterday asked that judges drop the charge against Mr. Sonando of inciting antigovernment violence, but then asked the court to uphold another charge leading to an insurrection. Mr. ...
Shots fired as families evicted
Police, military police and forestry officials evicted 100 families in Koh Kong province’s Smach Meanchey district yesterday, shooting into the air during the forcible removal to disperse villagers with the threat of violence. It was the second day of evictions in an area authorities say ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030761809/National/shots-fired-as-families-evicted.html
CNRP Proposes Minimum Wage Law for Garment, State Workers
The Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) has submitted a new law to the National Assembly for consideration that would institute a minimum monthly wage of $150 for garment workers and $250 for civil servants, the newly formed opposition party announced at a press conference yesterday. The ...
Need for more transparency
GREATER transparency along the garment supply chain, from producers to buyers, is required in order to strengthen the accountability of retailers, factories and governments in protecting the rights of workers, Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said yesterday. Speaking in Phnom ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022861656/Business/need-for-more-transparency.html
Villagers File Complaint Against Vietnamese Rubber Firm
Twelve ethnic Tampuon families living in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district yesterday filed a complaint with the provincial land management department, accusing the owners of a Vietnamese rubber plantation of clearing their farmland, local official said. Tun Vantham, chief of Samuth Loeu village in Seda commune, said ...
Hun Sen Shares Vision of Rubber Plantation Boom
Reporting that the country had achieved better than expected economic growth last year, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday targeted a rapid expansion of the country’s rubber industry and predicted that almost 1 in 10 Cambodians would soon be working in rubber. “Agriculture continues to play ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-shares-vision-of-rubber-plantation-boom-11253/
Hun Sen and EU Ambassador Talk Elections, Land Reform
The European Union’s ambassador to Cambodia raised issues of judicial reform, land reform and the upcoming national elections in a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday morning. The European Commission’s directorate-general for trade is currently reviewing a report by the U.N.’s human rights envoy ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-and-eu-ambassador-talk-elections-land-reform-11009/
Sesan Dam Law Approved
Cambodia’s parliament on Friday approved a law providing financial guarantees for the developers of a planned hydropower dam on a Mekong River tributary, despite opposition from civil society groups seeking to delay the project. Villagers campaigning against the Lower Sesan 2 dam in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung ...
Land dispute arrests soar 144 pct in 2012
The number of people arrested over land disputes jumped 144 percent from a year earlier to 232 in 2012, the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (Adhoc) said Thursday. Speaking at a news conference, he [Adhoc president Thun Saray] said Adhoc last year received 70 ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=Mjk2OWQyMTBhNWE
Civil society seeks to delay new dam on Sesan River
Civil society groups urged the National Assembly Thursday to delay the adoption of a bill on the construction of a $780 million dam on the Sesan River in northeast Cambodia. Chhit Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum, told a news conference that estimates of ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=OTNhN2RjN2M1ZTA
Rights Group Denounces Gag Order on Lawyers Before Election
New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Cambodian Bar Association of trying to silence potential government critics ahead of July’s national elections by imposing restrictions on lawyers making public statements. The Bar Association and the Information Ministry have both issued edicts that ...
Officials to Map Bunong Land for Communal Titles This Month
Efforts to map the ancestral land of five ethnic Bunong communities that have long sought collective property titles in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Chreada district will finally begin later this month, with funding for the project coming from the U.N., officials said yesterday. “We are working in ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-to-map-bunong-land-for-communal-titles-this-month-9644/
National Land Program Dropped Communal Titles
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling scheme announced in June originally included a directive for granting collective property titles to indigenous communities, but this part of the program was scrapped weeks later as it was deemed too costly and time-consuming, documents obtained yesterday show. For “indigenous ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/national-land-program-dropped-communal-titles-9480/
Two Banong Groups to Get Communal Titles
Two ethnic Banong communities in Mondolkiri province’s Keo Seima district have completed the final stage in the process to receive rare collective property titles, and are set to receive ownership documents early next month, an official at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) said. Kan Vibol, ...
Boeng Kak Families Pitch a New Solution to Land Dispute
A group of Phnom Penh residents locked in a long-running land dispute with a real estate project owned by CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin are pitching City Hall a plan they hope will prevent them from being evicted and keep them close to home. “We ...
Land laws not properly implimented
Laws protecting ethnic minorities’ communal land rights are good, but their implementation has a long way to go, said participants in a forum of minorities from Mondulkiri and Kratie provinces yesterday. After July’s parliamentary elections, legislators should take the opportunity of a newly constituted government to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013013061073/National/land-laws-not-properly-implimented.html
Bunong Say They Don't Want Private Land Titles
Ethnic Bunong villagers living in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Chreada district have sent a petition to the Ministry of Land Management, urging the government to refrain from issuing them private land titles, local officials said yesterday. This way they may instead to eligible for a communal title ...
Jarai Accuse Firm of Planning to Drain Lake
Ethnic Jarai families living in Ratanakkiri province’s Borkeo district have accused a Vietnamese rubber company of digging a channel to drain a lake the indigenous villagers use for fishing and irrigation, a local official and rights worker said yesterday. Rochom Vin, Yeak Som village chief, said ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/jarai-accuse-firm-of-planning-to-drain-lake-8470/
Cambodia's 'worst year’ for land disputes
More than 200 people were arrested while defending their land in 2012 – a year human rights groups described yesterday as Cambodia’s “worst” for land disputes. Of the 201 people arrested – a figure that more than doubled the 2011 total – 29 were imprisoned, mostly ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013012460955/National/cambodia-s-worst-year-for-land-disputes.html
Prosecutors tell court to drop charge in land dispute case
Prosecutors yesterday recommended that the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court drop charges against two human rights activists and a radio reporter accused in 2009 of inciting villagers involved in a land dispute against agro-business firm DM Group. Deputy prosecutor Ros Saram told the Post that because he ...