Social development

Three environmentalists and a rights worker were detained yesterday for more than two hours and blocked from delivering a petition to the National Assembly calling on the government to order sand-dredging operations in Koh Kong province to cease. ...

Authorities in Cambodia on Thursday briefly detained three activists who protested in front of parliament, and a local rights group official who monitored the demonstration, calling on the government to stop a Vietnamese sand dredging company from polluting the environment in Koh Kong province. ...

As Cambodia seeks greater integration with regional and global economies, a language expert warns against overreliance on foreign identity and language. Chan Virak, a doctorate student in culture, literacy and language at the University of Texas at San Antonio, says Cambodia should invest in its own ...

Suy Channe, at 34 years of age, is becoming a familiar face in Cambodia’s IT sector as a female coder and regional leader at Innovation Lab SEA (InSTEDD). ...

Thailand will give its full cooperation to ASEAN nations to prevent the spread of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus in the region, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday. ...

Four children were removed yesterday from Bethel Children’s Home of Cambodia and the centre’s director was arrested in Chhbar Ampov following a complaint alleging child abuse and neglect, including forced labour and sexually inappropriate conduct.​ ...

In an effort to demonstrate government measures to prevent the potentially fatal Middle East respiratory syndrome from entering Cambodia—days after the disease was found in Thailand—the health minister showcased machines that detect people’s body temperature at Phnom Penh International Airport on Tuesday. ...

A group of 300 pro-democracy and rights organizations and their supporters delivered a petition to the National Assembly on Tuesday, calling for lawmakers to reject a draft law to regulate NGOs. ...

More than 100 men, women and children rounded up from Phnom Penh’s streets last week remained in detention yesterday at the notorious Prey Speu Social Affairs Centre, with orders from City Hall to keep them there indefinitely. The detainees – who authorities say are either homeless, ...

Three Chinese nationals were jailed by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday for attempting to smuggle four teenage Cambodian girls to China, while the sentences of two Cambodians involved in the trafficking operation were reduced to time served. ...

Human Rights Watch says the World Bank is not doing enough to help people in Cambodia and elsewhere who are facing government harassment for speaking out against Bank-funded projects gone bad. ...

Authorities in Ratanakkiri province are struggling to find a plot of land that could safely house an accused sorcerer who has been held in protective custody at a district police station for the past two months. Forty-eight-year-old ethnic Jarai Rocham Kin fled his home in the ...

Sixteen international human rights groups on Monday urged Cambodia to withdraw a proposed law they fear will muzzle government critics and severely restrict the activities of non-governmental organisations. The law would require Cambodia’s 5,000 domestic and international NGOs to report their activities and finances to the ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy says his party will do its best to prevent the passage of a controversial draft law to regulate NGOs. Chheang Von, a lawmaker for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the National Assembly’s spokesman, said Sam Rainsy was only making promises ...

Following the first case of the potentially deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome being confirmed in Thailand on Thursday, government officials in Cambodia said entry points into the country were already equipped to prevent the disease from spreading here. ...

More than a dozen international advocacy groups wrote to National Assembly President Heng Samrin asking him to withdraw a controversial draft law on NGOs and associations. ...

After spending five days hiding out in the forest in Ratanakkiri province, two teenage Montagnard asylum seekers made their way to Phnom Penh on Friday where they joined more than 100 others waiting to be registered. ...

Cambodia National Rescue Party president Sam Rainsy told representatives of NGOs today that lawmakers from his party will vote against the controversial draft law on associations and NGOs if it is not amended. ...

Children taking their cows out to pasture in Kampong Chhnang town last week stumbled upon what appear to be the remains of a long-buried 10th-century temple, local authorities said yesterday. ...

Thousands of students and fresh graduates gathered on Diamond Island this weekend for the 11th edition of the annual Career Forum. ...

The Public Health Ministry has put Thailand on a nationwide alert for MERS after one foreigner tested positive for the virus at a Bangkok hospital on Thursday, with various measures being implemented to ensure it does not spread. ...

Cambodian health authorities are on high alert, following the first confirmed case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, in Thailand, Thursday. Diagnosis systems have been installed at major border checkpoints and at the airports of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. ...

A Cambodian man who sold his license to operate a medical clinic in Stung Treng City faces up to 10 years in prison after a woman died following an abortion conducted illegally on the premises, a court official said. ...

The director of the Stung Treng Provincial Health Department and owner of the Stung Treng Sekong Clinic was arrested and sent to court yesterday after a doctor under his charge performed a botched abortion that resulted in a woman’s death.​ ...