Human rights

The judiciary has signed off on a new set of guidelines designed to regulate the work of prosecutors in many areas, including the rights of minors in the judicial system. Ouk Savuth, general director of the Court of Appeal, signed off on the guidelines on August ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) on Friday opened the safety ballot boxes from Siem Reap province to search for and verify any supposed election irregularities contained in documents 1102 and 1108, on Friday. The opening of ballot boxes from the 12 voting stations was held at ...

CNRP leader Sam Rainsy on Thursday publicly announced the opposition’s intention to conduct a campaign of civil disobedience in line with peaceful demonstrations organized by the charismatic leader of Indian nationalism Mahatma Gandhi, who helped win independence from Great Britain. Mr. Rainsy made the remarks at ...

A local Pursat province journalist filed a lawsuit yesterday against a group of wood traders who he alleges beat him up on Tuesday. According to [Krouch] Non [Santre commune police chief], Nhok Yern, a reporter for Prum Bayon newspaper, and another journalist confronted men trafficking wood by cart. ...

The government has informed foreign embassies in the country that the opposition’s threatened demonstrations over the election results are intended to illegally overthrow the elected CPP-led government, a ministry spokesman said Wednesday. Lieutenant General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said that letters were ...

Acting on the orders of the Constitutional Council, the National Election Committee yesterday opened the packages containing ballots and original documents used to tally votes from eight Battambang province polling stations. In contrast to a similar examination of 13 “Safety Packages A” from Kratie on Sunday ...

For the second time in as many weeks, an NGO has accused tycoon Try Pheap of facilitating illegal logging in a protected forest during the election campaign and post-election period, and with the protection of authorities. In a report set to be released today by the ...

A Cambodian provincial court today dropped charges against a military police officer and his wife accused of murdering a reporter investigating the country’s illegal timber trade, drawing protests from the journalist’s wife and from human rights and environmental advocacy groups. Hang Serei Oudom, a ...

A verdict in the brutal slaying last year of an investigative journalist in Ratanakkiri province is due to be handed down by the provincial court today following a reinvestigation into the case. Hang Serei Odom, 42, a reporter for the Virakchun Khmer Daily, was found hacked ...

Legalisation of same-sex marriage, comprehensive sex education and non-discriminatory guidelines for health workers treating LGBT people and those living with HIV/AIDS are among a handful of ways to bolster human rights in Cambodia, according to a submission delivered to the United Nations ahead of the ...

Although the Svay Rieng Provincial Court announced the ex-governor’s sentence in June and ordered his immediate arrest, he has remained elusive to the authorities. His lawyers filed an appeal in July to the Appeal Court challenging the provincial court’s verdict. Sun Bunnarith, Chhouk Bundith’s lawyer, claimed ...

Seven NGOs have raised their concerns that the government is using the law, media and Internet to further stifle freedom of expression, ahead of Cambodia submitting its first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights to the U.N. The UPR is the process through which Geneva’s ...

Seven NGOs have raised their concerns that the government is using the law, media and Internet to further stifle freedom of expression, ahead of Cambodia submitting its first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights to the U.N. The UPR is the process through which Geneva’s ...

The Bar Association of Cambodia should consider stricter standards on admission to the bar, make lawyers take regular mandatory training and set up a new disciplinary committee in order to ensure that Cambodia’s legal professionals are independent, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has said. The ...

The National Election Committee, acting on orders from the Constitutional Council, yesterday examined ballots and original documents taken from 13 polling stations in a Kratie province commune, but the opposition and observers quickly questioned the process’s validity due to apparent irregularities. Despite the fact that “Safety ...

The CPP on Tuesday threatened legal action against the CNRP if it did not cease its “defamatory rhetoric” regarding the ruling party’s relationship with the National Election Committee (NEC), which the opposition accuses of rigging July’s election in order to keep the CPP in power. The ...

Nearly all of the recommendations regarding electoral reform made by U.N. human rights envoy to Cambodia Surya Subedi were not put into place ahead of last month’s national election. In his latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, released last week, Mr. Subedi ...

Villagers in Cambodia’s capital are being coerced into signing a petition supporting preliminary results issued by the country’s electoral body declaring a victory for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party in recent elections, despite opposition claims of widespread poll irregularities, a rights group said Monday. The ...

Despite the government indicating it was open to parliamentary reform, the dismissal of opposition lawmakers in June was a disturbing shift away from a commitment to protecting human rights, UN human rights envoy Surya Subedi says in his latest report on Cambodia. Obtained on Friday, the ...

Cambodia is falling short of the full liberal democracy enshrined in its Constitution, the government is becoming increasingly intolerant to constructive criticism and judicial, parliamentary and electoral reforms have been slow to take effect, according to U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi’s latest report on ...

Locals and rights groups on Wednesday said dozens of farmers in a village in Preah Vihear province have been singled out for eviction after supporting the opposition CNRP in last month’s vote, a claim their village chief denied. Residents of Choam Ksan district’s Kom Prak village ...

When opposition leader Sam Rainsy last touched down at Phnom Penh International Airport, he was greeted by some 100,000 supporters in what was the largest opposition rally in Cambodia’s 20 years of democracy. When he returns on Friday from the U.S., where he has been at­tending ...

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights yesterday expressed concern at a recent spate of land disputes coming on the heels of last month’s vote, and questioned whether campaign promises of resolving the Kingdom’s ongoing land issues had been forgotten now that the election has passed. The ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng sat down with representatives from 10 civil society organisations on Friday for what Cambodian Center for Human Rights president Ou Virak described as a “very frank discussion” of how to handle the investigation into the multitude of alleged irregularities in last ...