Social development

Police yesterday morning blocked more than 1,000 garment workers as they tried to march from their Por Sen Chey district factory to the Ministry of Labour to plead for intervention. Management at the Ocean Garment factory informed staff on May 24 that it would close for ...

When Pang Vunny walks around his rented room just off of Veng Sreng Boulevard, he waves his hand from side to side in front of him, like a man feeling his way in the dark. Ever since he was arrested and badly beaten on January 2 ...

Human rights groups and other members of civil society on Tuesday submitted a letter to Senate President Chea Sim, requesting a meeting over their concerns for three draft judicial reform laws passed last month in the National Assembly. The three drafts must be approved by ...

Housing rights activist Yorm Bopha, who spent nearly a year in jail for leading demonstrations, will receive a reward and recognition for her work. The James Lawson Award, named for an American activist and given for nonviolent achievements, will grant her $6,000 in Boston later ...

Indigenous villagers in Mondolkiri province say relevant authorities that are supposed to crack down on forestry crimes instead collude with logging companies and powerful businessmen, allowing them cut down trees. That has put their forest tribal traditions and livelihoods, which are dependent on forests, in ...

Anti-trafficking groups in Cambodia are urging donors to maintain support for their cause, following claims a well-known activist fabricated her life story, to raise funds. Somaly Mam resigned from the charity she co-founded, after a news investigation cast doubt on her story, including being sold into ...

In three years’ time, Cambodia will have legislation clearly outlining what government information is available to the general public, according to a recently signed memorandum of understanding. Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith and Anne Lemaistre, UNESCO’s representative to Cambodia, signed the memorandum on Friday. The MoU ...

Villagers who claim a development project in Russey Keo district has already taken a bite out of their land said yesterday that they fear the plan will swallow the rest of their property, as they filed petitions and met with local authorities. Members of 80 families ...

The Ministry of Education is drafting two sub-decrees on private educational institutions aimed at improving regulation of the nation’s vast body of private schools. The sub-decree on Organization and Management of Private Schools and sub-decree on Categorization of Private Schools have been sent to a range ...

Hidden at the end of a pathway that breaks off from Mao Tse Tung Boulevard in Phnom Penh is a temple of a different kind, where seances are sacrosant and French writer Victor Hugo – author of Les Miserables – is considered a saint. Worshippers there practise Caodaism, ...

When Ros Srey Pich was 19, she signed a contract with a recruitment agency that would send her to work as a maid in Malaysia. The recruitment agency, Job Asia, had sourced the teenager from what is now Tbong Khmum province, telling her poor family that ...

Two Vietnamese men appeared in Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court on Monday for allegedly selling bottles of fake shower lotion. Nguyen Yang Nhik, 24, and Lam Thai Chou, 36, were arrested with 31 boxes of fake shower lotion at the Kompong Tralach district market on Saturday, police ...

Nine of the group of 23 workers and labour activists who were released from custody and given suspended sentences on Friday over January’s garment employee protests will receive medical care in Thailand, rights group Licadho said yesterday. A number of the men were beaten by security ...

Phnom Penh City Hall on Monday banned Wat Samakki Raingsey from hosting a public forum on Wednesday to mark the 65th anniversary of the official granting of Kampuchea Krom to the State of Vietnam. The Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community (KKKC), which advocates for the ethnic minority ...

About 30 workers at Ghin Yi factory fainted on Monday noon after learning that their colleague fainted at the factory in Chamkar Svay commune of Samaki Meanchey district of Kampong Chhnang province. ...

Prey Lang is one of Cambodia’s few remaining large forests, covering approximately 3,600 square kilometers across four northern provinces. The forest is home to about 200,000 mostly indigenous people, who depend on it for their livelihoods, according to the Prey Lang Community Network. But, the ...

South Korea on Monday signed up to provide a grant aid of 21 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia to support four projects for rural development, waterway improvement, health and the stock market. Speaking after the signing ceremony, Hor Namhong said 8 million U.S. dollars of ...

Cambodia and Iran are looking for possibilities to strengthen and expand bilateral ties and cooperation for the mutual benefits of the two countries and peoples. Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong held a talk on Monday with the Hanoi-based Iranian Ambassador to Cambodia ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a new five-year National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) – the guiding policy document used by the government – requiring an estimated $26.58 billion in spending and investment, or more than $5.3 billion a year, until 2018. The plan ...

With some people eating lunch off a tablecloth on the ground as children played in the distance, the scene in a small village in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district yesterday afternoon looked somewhat like a picnic. But villagers had gathered there, a few metres from a ...

Members of the Kuoy ethnic group captured two loggers and seized two chainsaws on Saturday, accusing the alleged loggers of felling resin trees illegally at Prey Preah Rokar community forest in Preah Vihear. ...

Cambodia celebrated the International Children’s Day on Sunday with calls for an end to violence against children. The celebration, themed “Together to eliminate violence against children”, brought together some 2,500 participants including officials, diplomats, development partners, teachers and students. Currently, the country has about 5.48 million ...

Twenty-five unionists, garment workers and bystanders were found guilty by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday for their involvement in three separate garment protest-related cases, but were handed down suspended sentences. The 22 men who had not been bailed ahead of trial were ordered ...

Mam Somaly, one of the world’s renowned anti-sex slavery activists, has resigned from her name- bearing foundation after a private investigation into allegations concerning her fabrications of sex slavery tales to raise public awareness and millions of U.S. dollars in funds. The Somaly Mam Foundation said ...