Social development
Cambodian rights worker faces death threats over land dispute
A worker with the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) has been intimidated and received death threats while trying to document the plight of three families involved in a bitter land dispute with a developer in the country’s capital, according to the center. The worker, Vann ...
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/threats-05122014162650.html
HRW says trial of Stung Meanchey pair ‘flawed’
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has labeled the trial of two teenagers arrested during the lethal suppression of a garment sector strike in November 12 as “deeply flawed” and said that the pair should be spared prison sentences. In a statement Sunday, the rights organization claims that ...
George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hrw-says-trial-of-stung-meanchey-pair-flawed-58483/
Farming’s primacy ‘hinders’
Cambodia’s economic productivity is in trouble, struggling with an inability to turn a youthful population into a skilled workforce and stunted by an over-reliance on agriculture, according to a new World Bank report. In Cambodia and Vietnam, diversification of labour from the farming sector contributed to ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/farming%E2%80%99s-primacy-%E2%80%98hinders%E2%80%99
Government says 3.4 million land titles issued
The government has issued a total of 3.4 million land titles across the country, 500,000 of them since a renewed push personally orchestrated by Prime Minister Hun Sen, according to new figures released by the Land Management Ministry. In a notice posted to its website Friday, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-says-3-4-million-land-titles-issued-58477/
Angkor brewery agrees to strikers’ demands
More than 200 striking workers at Cambodia’s largest brewer, Cambrew Ltd., resumed work on Saturday after the company agreed to lift their monthly salary from $120 to $150 as they had been demanding. The workers at the company, which produces Angkor beer and Black Panther stout, ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/angkor-brewery-agrees-to-strikers-demands-58466/
‘Gangsters’ target rights worker
A land dispute in the capital’s Tuol Kork district escalated further on Friday when a group of “gangsters” allegedly threatened the life of a human rights worker taking video footage for a documentary on the conflict. “Six men pushed me off the site. One screamed: ‘I ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98gangsters%E2%80%99-target-rights-worker
No clubs near schools, Council of Ministers says
The Council of Ministers on Friday passed a sub-decree on the management of adult entertainment clubs and a draft of a new national housing policy to promote home ownership, a cabinet official said. The new Sub-Decree on Management of Adult Entertainment Places, consisting of 25 articles, ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-clubs-near-schools-council-of-ministers-says-58464/
Ivory haul investigation kept under wraps
Customs officials over the weekend said they will shed no further light on Friday’s massive haul of three tons of illegal elephant ivory at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port—Cambodia’s biggest-ever ivory seizure—until investigations are complete and a case can be sent to court. A scan on containers that ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ivory-haul-investigation-kept-under-wraps-58470/
Villagers in Svay Rieng angry over planned canal
More than 200 villagers from three communes in Svay Rieng province on Saturday protested against a proposal to build a huge irrigation canal through their land, a local official said Sunday. The planned canal would stretch across Kraol Kor, Svay Yea and Chhoeuteal communes in Svay ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-in-svay-rieng-angry-over-planned-canal-58480/
Another three textile union reps arrested
Police arrested another three union representatives on Friday for allegedly inciting garment workers to strike and protest in front of their factory over the past few weeks, this time in Kandal province. It follows the arrest last week of six representatives of another union ahead of ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/another-three-textile-union-reps-arrested-58456/
For Union Leader on Run, Militant Attitude Prevails
Tax revenue increased 9.5 percent to $353.46 million in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same period last year, according to a statement released Friday by the Ministry of Finance’s general department of taxation. Kong Vibol, general director of the taxation department, said ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/tax-revenue-up-9-5-percent-in-first-quarter-58489/
Government spokesman summons student over Facebook post
Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan has summoned a student from the country’s top state journalism school for a meeting at his office after she used a post on her Facebook page to question the sense of a guest lecture he delivered last week. Mr. Siphan ...
Alex Willemyns and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-spokesman-summons-student-over-facebook-post-58460/
CPP to debate draft judicial laws this month
The National Assembly has scheduled a plenary session on May 20 to discuss three controversial draft laws on judicial reform, a senior ruling party lawmaker confirmed Sunday. The parliamentary meeting will be the third plenary session since last year’s disputed national election, each of which have ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cpp-to-debate-draft-judicial-laws-this-month-58487/
Rights group slams SL case
A trial for two teens charged with intentional violence from a Stung Meanchey riot in November was unfair to the defendants, a statement released yesterday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. Calling the trial “deeply flawed”, HRW said the judge in the case showed open hostility ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rights-group-slams-sl-case
Union leader ready to pay bulk of bail
Independent union leader Ath Thorn said Sunday he had collected enough money from supporters to pay most of his $25,000 bail to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, and would deliver it to the court Monday. The court has charged Mr. Thorn, president of the Coalition of ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-ready-to-pay-bulk-of-bail-58474/
Hospital after school
A rowdy 8-year-old boy has accused his teacher of hitting him over the head with a small whiteboard during class on Thursday, leaving him with a bloody head wound. Sok Kim Heng said yesterday that he spat on another student and, in return, his teacher whacked ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hospital-after-school
Kratie families march in Phnom Penh to protest evictions
Nearly 200 villagers from Kratie province gathered in Phnom Penh Monday, hoping to deliver a petition to the Cambodian Senate and other government agencies in protest of a rubber company’s development there. The villagers, from Snoul district, say a Vietnamese rubber company began developing in ...
Suy Heimkhemra,
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/kratie-families-march-in-phnom-penh-to-protest-evictions/1912760.html
Cambodia’s top court denies bail to 21 jailed protesters
Cambodia’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld a decision refusing bail to 21 people arrested during a deadly worker strike crackdown, a defense lawyer said, as dozens of supporters protested outside, calling the charges against them politically motivated and demanding their release. The top court upheld the ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/bail-05092014170039.html
Groups want US help in improving transparency in extractive industries
Anti-corruption advocates say they want the US government to help them push for transparency in the extractive industries, as ongoing mining continues to disrupt the lives of many Cambodians. At least 120 companies, most of them Chinese, have obtained mining licenses in the last decade, as ...
Xu Qiliang visits Chinese doctors working in Cambodian military hospital
Xu Qiliang, visiting vice- chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, on Thursday visited a group of 10 Chinese doctors working at the Preah Ketomelea Hospital, known as the Military Hospital, in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Xu was accompanied by Chay Saing Yun, secretary ...
Asean-China-Center News Staff
http://www.asean-china-center.org/english/2014-05/09/c_133322029.htm
Cambodia seizes 3 tons trafficked ivory tusks at sea port
Cambodian customs officers on Friday morning confiscated around three tons of elephant tusks at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in Southwestern Preah Sihanouk province. In February, customs officers nabbed two Vietnamese men at the Siem Reap International Airport for smuggling 79.5 kg of illegal elephant tusks ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-05/09/c_133321744.htm
Media experts fear online restrictions in Vietnam, Cambodia
Media experts warn that Vietnam continues to restrict social media, and Cambodia could be following suit. At a forum in Washington to mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3, panelists said online and traditional media activities have been restricted by Vietnamese authorities. The forum, ...
Sok Khemara,
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/media-experts-fear-online-restrictions-in-vietnam-cambodia/1910603.html
Lead-up to poll saw SLCs spike
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 ban on the allocation of economic land concessions was supposed to halt the unpopular practice of turning over large swaths of property to developers. And going by the numbers last year, it worked. But in the vacuum, according to local rights ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lead-poll-saw-slcs-spike
Report shows workforce still lacks skills
Cambodia lacks the skilled labor force necessary to advance the economy and the government must find ways to create more valuable work as it faces fierce regional and international competition, according to a new report released Thursday by the World Bank. The report, “East Asia Pacific ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/report-shows-workforce-still-lacks-skills-58432/