Social development

The United Nations has expressed admiration to Cambodia for having responded successfully to the spread of HIV/AIDS, reported the state news agency-AKP. According to an official report, Cambodia has currently over 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and some 500,000 of them are receiving antiretroviral treatment. ...

Legal restrictions on funding for civil-society – like Cambodia’s much-maligned NGO Law – are on the rise globally, a report by the Carnegie International Endowment for Peace has warned, putting international donors in the position of having to adapt to a backlash against democracy promotion. ...

In the market for lower to middle income housing, the line between ‘public’ and ‘affordable’ has been blurred.Post Property AnalysisLocal property developer, WorldBridge Land, Co. Ltd., and Singapore-based construction company, Strait Construction Group Pte, Ltd, last week announced a $100 million Memorandum of Understanding on ...

Living in a compact space is just a part of university life, especially for students who come from the provinces to study in Phnom Penh. While the city keeps building an abundance of international-standard complexes, almost none of these are realistic choices for students, many ...

A global index on English language proficiency has cast Cambodia against the international trend of improving standards, with the Kingdom ranking 69th of 70 countries and territories surveyed and the lowest among 16 Asian participants.Released this week, the annual English Proficiency Index, the world’s largest ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for stronger enforcement of regulations on the promotion and sale of baby formula, linking a decrease in the number of women who breast-feed to an increase in un­lawful and misleading advertising that misrepresents milk substitutes and deceives new mothers. ...

Government ministries bound by sexist traditions and a lack of support are keeping women officials across Asia from implementing their ideas, female leaders gathered for a four-day seminar in Phnom Penh said yesterday. ...

Almost 75 percent of kids in the country’s orphanages are there because their families can’t afford to keep them at home. In 2011, UNICEF released a study saying that the number of orphanages in Cambodia had increased by 75 percent in the previous six years, ...

Two people detained at Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Speu social affairs centre died last month after being rounded up from the streets as part of the city’s preparations for the Pchum Ben festival, a local rights groups has said, prompting renewed calls for the facility’s ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday questioned 17 villagers locked in a land dispute with the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) over a pair of competing lawsuits filed in the wake of a clash between locals and company security guards in January. ...

Som Saron has not worked since testing positive for HIV late last year. Taking care of her young niece at her parents’ home in Roka commune last week, the 37-year-old said that a fear of being stigmatized kept her from walking the community’s gravel roads selling ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), in collaboration with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, is holding a second Asia Women Leadership Program (AWLP) event starting today to help senior women government officials develop their potential to become future leaders. ...

A man in Kampong Speu’s Oral district was briefly placed under house arrest yesterday, following his public criticism of the government and prime minister at a town hall meeting.Ung Ny, Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) Oral district executive director, said that 45-year-old Hay Hoeun, a ...

As students filed back into schools yesterday to kick off the 2015-2016 academic year, Prime Minister Hun Sen broadcasted some televised tough love, telling students to take their studies seriously for the good of the nation. ...

The government this week agreed to partner with an NGO to create a new national physical edu­cation curriculum for junior high schools, the education minister said on Friday. ...

The United Nations human rights office expressed concern today over a worsening climate for opposition politicians and activists in Cambodia, and stressed that the right to peaceful assembly and to freedom of expression belongs to all. ...

Three weeks after the Health Ministry announced that measles had reappeared in Cambodia, a ministry official said Thursday that the highly contagious disease had in fact not been found. ...

Baby formula companies are pushing their products in clinics and on health care professionals—some with great effect—despite a government ban on such acts and extensive research showing that formula is an inferior alternative to mother’s milk. ...

Cambodia has been named among states accused of using counter-terrorism measures to clamp down on human rights and civil society in a report released this week by the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism.Speaking in New York on Monday, the British rapporteur ...

The percentage of smokers over the age of 15 has dropped from 19.5 percent in 2011 to 16.9 percent last year, according to the National Adult Tobacco Survey which was released yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics. ...

Defense Minister Tea Banh says Cambodia’s soldiers should have the right to support demonstrations.Speaking at the airport as he waited for Prime Minister Hun Sen to arrive from an official visit to France, Tea Banh said his troops have a right to “express their opinion.” ...

Young Cambodians will be urged to consider a career in the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), through a joint initiative launched yesterday by the Ministry of Education, the British Embassy and the international employment and training organisation IDP Education.​ ...

UNICEF yesterday awarded $400,000 to six NGOs to work with disabled people around the country through a series of community based programs. ...

A doctor who had been accused of causing a woman to die in labour because he abandoned her during childbirth to go to a party had charges against him dropped by the Court of Appeal on Monday. ...