Social development

The Justice and Soul Foundation has opened its first cosmetology school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Kate Korpi Salon has been built to teach sustainable cosmetology skills to survivors of the sex trafficking industry. What started as an idea discussed over a cup of coffee five ...

City Hall has lifted the ban on public assembly at Freedom Park, which was at the center of opposition protests over the last year and the ignition point for violent clashes that led to the arrests of a handful of opposition lawmakers. Shortly after the clashes, ...

About 90 villagers continued to demonstrate outside the Kompong Chhnang provincial court Wednesday, calling for the release of two men from prison and protesting the summoning of another eight over clashes last month with workers from the powerful KDC company. The rally came after about 200 ...

Seven union leaders protesting against being sacked from the Vantage River Textile factory in Preah Sihanouk province each agreed yesterday to accept $300 compensation. Worker representative and sacked employee Keo Srey Pich, 22, said three hours of negotiations between the union, workers and the company, in ...

An NGO partnered with Phnom Penh’s municipal government in a scheme to help poor children get off the street Wednesday blasted the city’s ongoing catch-and-release strategy. In June, City Hall partnered up with two NGOs in a campaign to remove beggars from Phnom Penh’s streets. The ...

While one of the two Phnom Penh families embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the Khun Sear Import Export Company this week accepted a compensation offer, the other says it has no plans to back down. ...

The razor-wire was removed, riot police departed and Freedom Park was opened to the public for the first time in seven months Wednesday morning as City Hall declared that Phnom Penh had “returned to normal” following the swearing-in Tuesday of the CNRP’s 55 lawmakers. “Because security, ...

The Mekong River Commission issued flood warnings on Wednesday for Kratie, Kampong Cham and Stung Treng as well as the southern Lao city of Pakse. After surpassing alarm levels in recent days, the Mekong is expected to reach the flood stage in Kratie on Saturday, according ...

About 200 villagers and monks marched to the Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court on Tuesday to call for the release from jail of two villagers and protest the summoning of eight more to appear before the provincial court. The villagers are embroiled in a long-running land dispute ...

Rin Ren thought that her grandchildren had gone to study English with NGO Mith Samlanh and would return to their home along the railroad in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak II commune by nightfall, just as they had done many times before. Instead, friends of the children ...

About 100 villagers locked in a land dispute with an agribusiness firm from Kratie province were blocked from marching to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house Tuesday by hundreds of military police and municipal security guards after walking from Phnom Penh’s Samakki Raingsey pagoda. The villagers, who ...

One of two Phnom Penh families involved in a long-running land dispute with a powerful real estate tycoon accepted the businessman’s latest compensation offer during negotiations Tuesday brokered by the Housing Rights Task Force, though the other family has continued to hold out. The two families, ...

A survey has found that while only 12 per cent of young Cambodians smoke cigarettes, more than four times that number are exposed to passive smoke every day, and a broad majority back tougher regulation of tobacco products. Mom Kong, executive director at the Cambodian Movement ...

Nine Prey Lang forest activists received suspended one-year prison sentences at Kampong Thom Provincial Court yesterday and were ordered to pay $1,250 to a businesswoman whose hectare of cassava they were accused of uprooting, the defendants’ lawyer said. Yong Panith – who represents Mao Thea, 37; ...

Cambodia has not seen any case related to the West Africa-hit Ebola virus disease and called for its citizens to take precautionary measures against the virus, said a joint statement released by the Health Ministry and the World Health Organization on Tuesday. ...

Seventy-five Cambodian workers and six children marooned for 10 days after being lured to build a resort on Koh Mook in Trang’s Kantang district were rescued on Sunday evening. Meanwhile, Employment Department chief Sumet Mahosot yesterday said 444,097 migrant workers and 48,541 accompanying persons had ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen warned yesterday that people who instigate and commit acts of violence will face the full force of the law. In characteristically cryptic language, he told thousands of students on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich that his government would not tolerate violence. ...

Amid a dour assessment of the current geopolitical landscape, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday warned that only bad things follow when long-ruling strongmen are overthrown. In the lead-up to last year’s national elections, which Mr. Hun Sen’s ruling CPP officially won amid reports of widespread ...

Cambodia’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur has played a key role in pressuring domestic workers to stay in the country despite fears for their welfare, rights groups have said. While a moratorium was placed on sending domestic workers to Malaysia in 2011 amid mounting concerns over abuses, ...

A small group of evictees from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood protested in front of the Singapore Embassy Monday morning against a Singaporean company’s plan to buy a plot of land inside the neighborhood, from which they say they were pushed out illegally. ...

The Education Ministry’s bid to rid the grade 12 national exam of cheating and bribery was hailed a success after the first day of testing Monday, with officials reporting only a few attempted cheats and no corrupted proctors. Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron, who spent ...

Deposite not coming close to achieving their goal of a $160 monthly minimum garment wage, unions announced yesterday that they will raise their demands to $177 for 2015. Ken Chhenglang, acting pres­ident of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia (NIFTUC), said about 10 union ...

A group of unions in the U.K. is urging its government to make sure British brands sourcing clothes from Cambodian factories respect their workers’ rights, and to ask the European Union to negotiate a deal with the Cambodian government to improve factory conditions. In a July ...

Dozens of workers in Preah Sihanouk province marched on the local labour department yesterday after three days of protests against the sacking of seven employees. ...