Social development

Em Chan Makara, president of the Disability Action Council (DAC), told reporters that his group will issue drivers licenses for people with disabilities in conjunction with the government. The council will also discuss appropriate vehicles for disabled people with other stakeholders. ...

A new government initiative to warn Cambodians about the dangers of smoking tobacco was launched yesterday by the Ministry of Health and World Health Organization. ...

Nine out of 10 LGBT students have experienced bullying in Cambodia’s schools, which hurts their future educational attainment and makes their lives harder, according to a report released yesterday by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. ...

In Cambodia almost anyone who sees a doctor or goes to hospital, is given an injection or put on an intravenous drip. This is what patients want, and what medical staff give them – it has become part of the healthcare routine. But it has ...

In what it says is a bid to fight graft in the Kingdom from the bottom up, the Ministry of Education announced yesterday the expansion of its anti-corruption curriculum to junior high school students. ...

The environmental NGO at the center of an extortion scandal in Siem Reap province has a track record of using its employees as racketeers in order to enrich itself, according to officials who have previously dealt with the organization. ...

The United Nations yesterday called on the government to do more to protect its homeless after years of so-called street sweeps and a lack of social care have left destitute Cambodians vulnerable to health risks and violence. ...

The Ministry of Information has written to media outlets imploring presenters and artists alike to stop mocking members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community just to gain popularity. ...

A new set of standards for orphanages that the Ministry of Social Affairs plans to enforce over the coming months, combined with a global move toward community-based care, has at least one organization worried it will be forced to close down. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday took aim at the police chiefs of Battambang, Kandal and Pursat provinces, warning that they should be prepared to lose their titles if they fail to crack down on a recent crime wave.Kheng said the three police chiefs needed to ...

A small group of human rights advocates and other Cambodian-Americans met recently in Virginia to discuss Cambodia’s ongoing problems with human rights abuse.Participants discussed the difficulty in promoting human rights and democracy in Cambodia, where political pressure and powerful individuals often intervene. ...

China’s Huawei and Cambodia’s National Institute of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Communication Technology (NIPTICT) have opened a Huawei Authorized Information and Network Academy (HAINA) in the country. Huawei has now extended its HAINA program to more than 130 universities worldwide. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday called for people to be more careful with what they ingest, as the death toll from rice wine poisoning in the past week rose to 20 with another death in Kratie province and two others reported dead in remote ...

More Montagnard asylum seekers are planning to return to home amid cuts in United Nations-provided food rations.Vivian Tan, regional spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said more than 10 indigenous Christian Montagnards had requested assistance in returning to Vietnam. ...

LGBT Cambodians face a formidable level of prejudice and discrimination, which for many means a life lived in secrecy and isolation, a major new study of attitudes has revealed.The survey of almost 1,600 people, straight and LGBT, across seven provinces, published yesterday, found that a ...

New targets have been set to boost the number of women in positions of influence, according to an initiative launched yesterday by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday told the Ministry of Justice to re-check pardon applications from convicted robbers and drug dealers, saying that recidivism is a big problem in the Kingdom.The premier’s statement, made in a speech on Koh Pich, follows a turbulent weekend rife with ...

The Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday issued a new sub-decree ordering all orphanages to get a permit, submit to inspections and limit the conditions under which children can be admitted.According to many experts, including Social Affairs Minister Vong Soth, orphanage care does more harm than ...

Cambodian health officials have been sent to a northeastern district where 10 people died and more than 100 were sickened in two separate incidents linked to the consumption of dog meat and rice wine, a medical officer said Friday. ...

In spite of gains, gender inequality in Cambodia remains significant, particularly in education and political empowerment, according to the World Economic Forum’s recently released 2015 Global Gender Gap Report. ...

Minister of Health Mam Bunheng yesterday asked the public to stop drinking rice wine and eating sick animals after 19 people died and 170 fell ill in Kratie province over the past month. ...

Authorities in Kratie province have ordered an emergency ban on the production of rice wine as the death toll from methanol poisoning in the province over the past five days rose to 17 with the deaths on Sunday of five people in Chet Borei district. ...

Rice wine brewed with a toxic level of alcohol has killed at least 19 people and left 172 more in hospital in northeast Cambodia, the health ministry said Sunday.“Laboratory tests found the deaths were caused by the high methanol level in the wine,” Ly Sovann, ...

With Asean integration fast approaching, analysts say Cambodia has more to do to strengthen its human resources and be competitive in the region’s open markets. ...