Social development

U.N. human rights expert Maina Kiai on Thursday urged Cambodia’s Senate not to pass a controversial NGO law that the National Assembly approved this week, warning that the legislation could have “disastrous” effects. ...

The Ministry of Education plans to spend less than its allocated $3 million budget for the upcoming high school exit exam due to a decrease in this year’s exam registrants, an education official confirmed yesterday. ...

Opposition lawmakers in Cambodia’s Senate said Thursday that they would boycott an upcoming vote in the upper house of parliament on a draft law that regulates nongovernmental organizations working in the country if senators failed to amend the legislation. ...

United Nations human rights expert Maina Kiai on Wednesday urged Cambodia to reject a draft law that would allow authorities to shut down and criminalize any group advocating for human rights, basic freedoms and good governance, saying it is not too late to reverse the ...

The Commerce Ministry on Wednesday released a draft of the country’s first food law, which establishes a Food Safety Authority charged with protecting domestic consumers and ensuring that exports meet international standards. ...

The International Committee of Jurists has given its backing to human rights activist Ny Chakrya, calling for the Cambodian government to end legal proceedings against him. ...

Young Cambodians are becoming increasingly engaged in social issues, with many university students volunteering for causes they consider important for national development, student leaders and youth organizers say. ...

Chinese police began installing surveillance cameras on the streets of Phnom Penh on Tuesday, following a donation from Beijing to assist authorities in monitoring crime and traffic in the capital, an official said Wednesday. ...

Hean Chanthorn, 20, a grade 12 student from Chea Sim Santhor Mok High School in Phnom Penh, says he wakes at 4 a.m. every morning to revise. He heads to school at 6 a.m. and stays there until 7:30 in the evening. After dinner, Chanthorn ...

About one in 25 Cambodians have speech and swallowing disorders, with tens of thousands dying each year due to related complications, according to experts. ...

A draft of Cambodia’s first alcohol law—which if passed would introduce a drinking age of 21 and ban the sale of alcohol between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m.—will be sent to the Council of Ministers by the end of the week, Health Minister Mam Bunheng ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday began questioning a leading human rights campaigner who stands accused of defaming and attempting to coerce two judicial officials over a land dispute in Siem Reap province. ...

Police are searching for a 26-year-old unlicensed dentist in Tbong Khmum province who is believed to have used a rope to strangle a patient to death at his clinic in order to steal her jewelry and motorbike, along with about $3,000 in cash, an official ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday convicted a Chinese man and three Cambodians of human trafficking over an attempt to send three Cambodian women to China as brides. ...

A visit to the temples of Angkor Wat, followed by a stop at an orphanage, are part of the travel experience for many of the more than four million tourists who come to Cambodia every year. ...

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is increasing funding to support a rehabilitation and prosthetics project for people with disabilities in Cambodia. ...

The CPP’s 68 lawmakers pushed a controversial NGO law through the National Assembly on Monday morning without debate and without the opposition CNRP, whose 55 members boycotted the session in protest over legislation they say the government could use to stifle dissent. ...

A group of NGOs on Monday told the World Bank to fix the land-rights problems surrounding its past projects in Cambodia before lifting a freeze on new lending to the country it imposed in 2011 to protest the mass eviction of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak ...

The National Assembly of Cambodia on Monday adopted a draft law on Associations and Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) despite a boycott from the opposition lawmakers and protests.​ ...

A British national and convicted pedophile, who served about three quarters of his two-year sentence for child sex abuse, will be deported to the U.K. by the end of the week, an immigration official said Sunday. ...

With CPP lawmakers expected to pass a highly controversial law regulating NGOs and associations Monday, City Hall said Sunday that it would use “many measures” to ensure that protesters are not able to rally outside the National Assembly. ...

Capping a week in which footage emerged of a tycoon viciously beating a female entertainer and a man entering a Phnom Penh school to slap a teenage girl, some 160 security personnel marched down the riverside here on Friday chanting slogans to conclude the “Good ...

Up to 1,500 new educators, almost all exclusively Muslims from the Cham Community in Cambodia, will be recruited to join the country’s teaching force. ...

Facing an opposition boycott and a European Union threat over foreign aid, the government plans to vote into law today a controversial draft law restricting NGOs. ...