Social development

Defendants in a mass trial of 25 men and teenagers accused of joining a string of violent garment worker protests continued to profess their innocence during the second day of hearings at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday. Twenty-three of the men were arrested in ...

A court in Phnom Penh put off for the second time Tuesday the trial of 23 Cambodians arrested during a deadly worker strike crackdown, drawing criticism from rights groups who said the move was politically motivated. After a five-hour hearing, with hundreds of riot police manning ...

Four parents in Kampong Cham province have filed complaints with provincial police alleging that their daughters are being sexually abused by their husbands in China, officers said yesterday. Thol Meng, deputy bureau chief of the provincial anti-human trafficking department, said a total of 10 concerned mothers ...

Police on Sunday detained a CNRP activist and confiscated 347 political video-CDs that he was transporting to the party’s headquarters in Phnom Penh, police and opposition party officials said Monday. The VCDs showed violent police and military repressions of land and labor activists and last ...

Some 500 supporters of union leader Vorn Pao and 24 others arrested during a string of garment worker protests since November will rally in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday on the second day of their trials, a union official said. All 25 ...

The Phnong ethnic minority in Mondulkiri province have heard the promises of development before. With increasing investment and the selling off of the region’s forests will come new roads and schools, they are told. But people in this ancient community, tired of seeing their sacred forests handed ...

Condemnation has grown following Friday’s attack on a journalist near Freedom Park as the Ministry of Information joined the U.N. Human Rights Office in denouncing the attacks. On Saturday, the U.N.’s human rights representative in Cambodia, Wan-Hea Lee, called for an investigation into the beating of ...

Familes living near Phnom Penh’s airport yesterday again called on civil aviation officials to drop an expansion plan that would cut into their property. Following a press conference in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Chao commune, community leader Kao Sovann said members of 63 families will ...

Observers expect the trial of 23 people arrested during early January strike demonstrations will not be completed today, due to the number of witnesses who may testify. “I think the trial would take more than the time [available today],” Ham Samrith, senior lawyer for the Community ...

Thousands of striking factory workers in Kampong Speu province blocked National Road 3 yesterday, an action they say is in response to managers not living up to their end of a deal struck in March. Workers at the Wing Star Shoe factory – which employs about ...

About 80 activists from Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila and Boeng Kak communities protested outside City Hall on Monday morning, but were confronted by municipal security guards who prevented them from delivering a petition to the governor. Sar Soun, a representative of families from the Borei Keila ...

About 40 residents from Kratie province rallied on Monday in front of Wat Botum pagoda in order to present a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen over land disputes in their community. ...

Nearly all workers in two special economic zones in Svay Rieng province ended their strikes and returned to work on Monday after failing to demand a US$50 bonus from employers, Xinhua news agency reports. Kat Lot, vice president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, ...

Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Temasek Foundation are launching a new training programme to train senior Cambodian government officials in public administration and governance. ...

Days after authorities repeatedly cracked down on demonstrations, opposition party supporters staged a rolling rally across Phnom Penh yesterday, filling up roads for hours and blocking major intersections. About 500 people with tuk-tuks and motorbikes gathered at the Cambodia National Rescue Party headquarters in the ...

A meeting at the Ministry of Mines and Energy on Friday about plans for a controversial hydropower dam in Koh Kong province failed to assuage fears among those trying to stop the project that construction had already been approved. During Friday’s meeting, officials from the ministry ...

Human Rights Watch says three draft laws on the verge of approval by the National Assembly, intended to assure the independence of Cambodia’s courts, would do just the opposite, and has called on the government to withdraw them. The Council of Ministers approved the trio of ...

Soldiers used force on Friday to end a strike at a garment factory on Veng Sreng Boulevard, where demands included a lunch bonus of 2,000 riel and an end to forced overtime, workers and union officials said yesterday. ...

A monk, an opposition lawmaker-elect and a journalist, all assaulted by Daun Penh district security guards near Freedom Park on Friday, said they are in the process of filing legal complaints against the district forces as they recover from their injuries. “I am planning on filing ...

Dozens of villagers in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district are facing eviction after the National Cadastral Commission announced last week that a number of areas in Tuol Sangke commune are earmarked for future redevelopment. The commission’s plans for new projects, including a road widening, were posted ...

For months now, Daun Penh district security forces, identifiable by their dark blue uniforms, black motorbike helmets and merciless truncheon swinging, have been unleashed on protesters, opposition and otherwise, as the all-too-willing enforcers of government-approved crackdowns. But as district forces have begun targeting more journalists during ...

The freedom of the press and expression in Cambodia becomes worse this year, according the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC). ...

U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri on Friday wrapped up a five-day mission to Cambodia, saying that she was concerned and “deeply saddened” by the violent beating of bystanders and journalists after a May Day gathering near a cordoned-off Freedom Park. In prepared ...

Amnesty International on Friday lambasted a pending deal that would see people seeking asylum in Australia to be resettled in Cambodia. “Australia should be ending its offshore processing and detention of asylum seekers, not looking to outsource its refugee responsibilities to another, much poorer country,” ...