Social development

Nine more Montagnard asylum seekers crossed into Ratanakkiri on Tuesday, bringing the total number hiding in the province’s O’Yadaw district to 32, a police official said Wednesday. ...

Montagnards seeking asylum in Cambodia and who are found to be fleeing persecution in Vietnam will not be allowed to stay in the Kingdom if a third country does not accept them, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday. Speaking after opening a workshop on violence against ...

Cambodia, a common source, transit and destination country for human trafficking, yesterday launched a far-reaching plan to combat the exploitative practice. The 2014 to 2018 National Plan of Action (NPA), which was launched yesterday afternoon at the Interior Ministry, was devised by the National Committee for ...

Pharmacists in Cambodia have a particular affinity for prescribing antibiotics, so much so that resistance to the drugs has become a public health problem worthy of a national response. ...

Deputy Phnom Penh governor Khuong Sreng on Tuesday reversed course on a City Hall announcement that it was investigating Wat Samakki Raingsey over alleged anti-government behavior and secessionist designs, comments that sparked fears among its monks that the independent-minded pagoda would be shut down. During a ...

Rights group Adhoc is investigating the death of an opposition party activist this weekend in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town. ...

As violence against women remains pervasive throughout the country, the government on Tuesday launched a second action plan that it hopes will help give women greater protection. The National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women 2014-2018 focuses on preventing gender-based violence and aims to provide ...

Motorcycle fatalities are claiming the lives of a third of people in Asia–but governments don’t seem to notice. In Cambodia, HIV/AIDS-related deaths equate to 2,300 per year, and the government allocates $58 million to combat the disease—but 2,000 deaths are caused by highway fatalities, with ...

Phnom Penh’s Wat Samakki Raingsey, under scrutiny by City Hall for alleged “anti-government acts,” on Friday requested three commissions of the National Assembly to accompany municipal officials to a planned inspection of the pagoda on Tuesday afternoon. “I sent the letters to request the first commission ...

Phat Sreytouch, a former beer promoter, recalls being the constant subject of harassment from the men she served in beer gardens, many who felt they were within their rights to touch her and her colleagues. In a new initiative aimed at ending such attitudes and ...

The Kampot Museum opened on January 28 at 8​ a.m. with a ribbon cutting and Buddhist blessing for the new venture. It was a hastily planned inauguration – the entrance fee was yet to be decided, and several guests misinterpreted the email invitation and turned ...

In Cambodia, three women have been recognized for work that combines technology with efforts to combat violence against women, a major problem in the Southeast Asian country. Winning the inaugural VXW Award means the women will get assistance to further promote their efforts on smartphones ...

Cambodia has improved overall in protecting children from abuse and exploitation, the United Nations’ first Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) found in a report released yesterday, but the Kingdom has to take greater strides to further safeguard children’s rights. ...

Members of Cambodia’s Muslim community say they fear increased animosity across the Middle East, with the recent murder of a Jordanian pilot by militants and Jordan’s announcement it will execute two members of the group currently in prison. ...

Cambodia’s Supreme Court has upheld eight-year prison sentences for three foreigners convicted more than four years ago of threatening to bomb the US, UK and Australian embassies. ...

Representatives of communities across the country who have had their lives upturned by development projects yesterday called on the government to rescind the economic land concessions at the centre of their disputes. ...

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the eight-year prison sentences of three foreign men convicted in 2011 on tenuous evidence of threatening to bomb the US, UK and Australian embassies. ...

A family of Montagnard asylum seekers, including two young children and a 9-month-old baby, has been deported to Vietnam, where the father was reportedly beaten by authorities for attempting to escape. But Moeng Sineath, spokesman for Ratanakkiri Provincial Hall, confirmed for the first time yesterday ...

Representatives of communities across the country who have had their lives upturned by development projects yesterday called on the government to rescind the economic land concessions at the centre of their disputes. ...

Villagers in remote western Cambodia who were infected with HIV/AIDS by an unauthorized medical worker have been hit by a wave of thefts of cows and other property, and some local residents say they police have been indifferent to their plight. ...

Government spokesman and four-star General Khieu Sopheak has threatened to sue an NGO worker over his “false allegations” about Montagnard asylum seekers. Sopheak said authorities had only arrested “illegal Vietnamese immigrants”, and called on Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc and the ...

A draft telecommunications law is causing concern from rights groups, who say it threatens freedom of speech online, one of the few spaces open to political discussion. ...

A district education official in Preah Vihear may be hoarding state textbooks to sell at the market rather than distributing them to perennially book-strapped schools, according to the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA). ...

The ministries of health and interior introduced a joint strategy yesterday to curb illegal medical practices and the use of fraudulent health products. ...