Social development

Thousands of Cambodians, including Buddhist monks and garment workers, on Wednesday (Dec 10) rallied across the capital calling for respect for human rights and the release of a group of jailed land activists. On Wednesday around 3,000 people massed outside the parliament building in Phnom ...

Chan Soveth, a longtime human rights defender, died of a heart attack on Wednesday. Colleagues say he was returning from celebrations to mark International Human Rights Day. He was 51. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng said Tuesday that he would try to find a solution for moto-taxi drivers who have complained about a stipulation in the newly adopted traffic law that says motorbikes can carry a maximum of two adults and one child. Mr. Kheng said that ...

Staff at the Phnom Penh Municipal Referral Hospital said Tuesday that they had no record of a recent visit from a man who died late last month at the Prey Speu social affairs center, contradicting claims made by a city official. Both a file search by ...

A conference on youth cooperation among Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia opened in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi on Monday, drawing participation of representatives from the three neighboring countries. ...

Human rights group (LICADHO) has called for the release of 18 activists who have been wrongfully imprisoned following a recent spate of arrests as Cambodia will celebrate International Human Rights Day on December 10th. In a statement issued today [Monday], the right group also condemns the ...

Hundreds of monks are marching to Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh to mark International Human Rights Day, defying the orders of their own leaders and police and military roadblocks, local media reported Monday. Accompanied by rights campaigners, some of the monks have been walking towards the city ...

The Cambodian government should promptly close all centers arbitrarily detaining people outside the criminal justice system, Licadho and Human Rights Watch said today. The abusive nature of these centers was highlighted by the death on November 26, 2014, of a man who was arbitrarily detained ...

Approximately 1,500 young Cambodian people on Saturday performed the “Madison,” a popular dance during Khmer wedding receptions and New Year celebrations, here in order to call for an end of violence against women and girls, an organizer said. Inala Fathimath, a gender program specialist at the ...

More than a hundred monks and rights activists marching to Phnom Penh for International Human Rights Day were blocked by soldiers and police at their starting point in Takeo province’s Kirivong district yesterday. ...

A UN delegation met with Ratanakkiri province’s deputy police chief yesterday afternoon to discuss the fate of 13 Montagnard asylum seekers who have been hiding in the province in recent weeks. The provincial administration, however, has continued to call for the group’s deportation. Deputy police chief ...

Ignoring objections and even vague threats made by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Cambodian activists in South Korea plan to stage a protest on Sunday ahead of a five-day summit Prime Minister Hun Sen is scheduled to attend on December 10. Around 1,500 opposition supporters intend to ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Thursday that his government has mainly focused on retaining a sustainable economic growth and setting out strategies to ensure the gradual alleviation of poverty, according to a spokesman. Poverty rate in Cambodia has declined to 19.8 percent in 2011, ...

Cambodian police said Wednesday they were scouring remote northeastern jungles for a group of Vietnamese Montagnards who crossed the border in an apparent attempt to seek asylum. Rights groups say 13 of the hill tribe people, including one woman, fled persecution in Vietnam late last month ...

A Ministry of Social Affairs official yesterday announced that, starting next year, the government would offer regular payments of 20,000 riel (about $5) to all disabled Cambodians, a benefit that so far has only been available to retired disabled soldiers. In an announcement that coincided with ...

Cambodian authorities are hunting more than a dozen ethnic minority hill people from Vietnam, drawing international criticism and raising further doubts about Australia’s controversial agreement to send refugees to Phnom Penh. Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), warned ...

A team from the United Nations refugee agency traveled to northeast Cambodia Wednesday to meet with 13 ethnic Montagnards seeking asylum in the country after fleeing alleged persecution in Vietnam, according to an agency spokesperson and a member of a local rights group. United Nations High ...

Cambodia has performed better than last year in its effort to fight corruption, but it is still slow, an international anti-corruption watchdog said Wednesday.   The index ranks Cambodia 156 out of 175 countries this year, up from a 160 ranking last year. ...

Four more goods made in Cambodia have been linked to exploitative child labour, adding to a mounting list of items the United States considers to be produced in violation of international rights laws. The mounting number of Cambodian goods found to use child labour runs ...

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights said that it would deliver Tuesday a giant photo petition to the Ministry of Justice as part of its annual Campaign to End Impunity. A statement on Monday said that CCHR has collected 263 photos of people holding signs that ...

As Cambodia braces for a cold snap expected to last through early January, the Ministry of Health on Sunday evening urged citizens to take precautions against common winter maladies. In a joint statement with the World Health Organization (WHO), the ministry warned that the Kingdom is ...

A UN special rapporteur will take the cause of Cambodia’s land-eviction battles and the abuses faced by those waging them to the UN Human Rights Council, according to a report released today. Michel Forst, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, will file ...

Eight land activists put in prison last month after a swift trial say they will hold a hunger strike if they are not released. The eight activists were part of a roundup in November for street protests against city officials and a development project at ...

Two ethnic Jarai Montagnards claiming to have fled religious persecution in Vietnam may have been arrested by local police in Ratanakkiri province, a rights worker has said. The UN is seeking to intervene in the case and has requested government cooperation while several more Christian Montagnards ...