Social development

The government will deploy double the usual number of armed security personnel on the streets of Phnom Penh on Tuesday to keep control of the large number of rallies planned in the city to celebrate International Human Rights Day, a military police official said Monday. “We ...

A local minority-rights advocacy group has called on the government to end the mistreatment of Khmer Krom people and recognize their rights as citizens of Cambodia as the world marks International Human Rights Day on Tuesday. The Khmer Krom, or “lower Khmer,” refers to ethnic Khmer ...

A law student who filed a complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against the city’s police and military police chiefs over the fatal shooting of a bystander by authorities during a protest last month took his complaint to the U.N.’s human rights office on ...

Stronger disaster planning is needed to avoid future devastation and loss of life caused by flooding, according to a report published by World Vision yesterday. The report, titled Cities Prepare, recommends that the Cambodian government and civil society work to place “a stronger emphasis on disaster risk ...

Cambodia ranked third worst in “global suffering” last year—behind Bulgaria and Armenia—a significant increase from 2011, when it ranked 14th worst, ac-cording to the worldwide polling group Gallup. A poll released last week on Gallup’s website says 34 percent of Cambodian respondents rated their lives as ...

Taking strides to curb Cambodia’s high maternal and child mortality rates, health officials yesterday launched a $14 million initiative to improve women’s limited access to reproductive health care. During the three-year Partnering to Save Lives campaign, funded by AusAid, NGOs Care Cambodia, Marie Stopes and Save ...

Cambodian authorities unlawfully detain hundreds of drug users and others deemed “undesirable” in centers where they face torture, sexual violence, and forced labor, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch called for the immediate closure of the country’s eight detention ...

Researchers at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases have isolated a new class of drugs that could be used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis, a disease that affects thousands of Cambodians, according to a report published in the journal Science Translational Medicine last week. The drugs, called indolcarboxamides, work ...

The offices of Herbalife, a so-called multilevel marketing company that has moved into the protein powder market in Cambodia, stand like a beacon of promise in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district: Six stories of glass and white paneling, crisp lime-green signage and a four-story-high banner ...

An expatriate living in Phnom Penh has set up a fund to raise $3,000 over the next month to help pay the medical expenses of a student shot in the spine by a police officer at the SL Garment Factory workers’ protest last month. Hoeurn Chann, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday issued a statement ordering that anti-graft education be incorporated into the national schooling system as part of a wider effort to stamp out corruption in the country. The statement, released in the lead-up to International Anti-Corruption Day, which falls today, ...

More than 500 students and teachers from two high schools in Banteay Meanchey province’s Sisophon district took to the streets on Friday demanding better safety around schools after a truck crashed into a rice mill near one of the schools, injuring a man. The students and ...

A pilot scheme sending 400 Cambodian maids to Singapore has made a spluttering start, according to local media reports, with agencies in Singapore reportedly growing frustrated at the slow pace of maid arrivals and “sceptical” about the reliability of Cambodia as a source. Only about 100 ...

Harassment of monks and their supporters, who are marching to Phnom Penh to participate in International Human Rights Day rallies in the capital, continued Friday when three suburban utility vehicles were used to block the entrance to a pagoda in Kompong Speu province where marchers ...

In a lush, gated compound 12 kilometres south of central Phnom Penh, the young minds that will one day lead Cambodia are being shaped – or at least that’s what one philanthropic foundation, which is investing millions of dollars in a unique, long-term project, hopes. “When ...

Injecting methamphetamines is on the rise in Cambodia, particularly among younger addicts, as recreational users have begun to switch from smoking and pill-popping to mainlining, a report by the Australian National Council on Drugs suggests. The report, released yesterday, details how amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) and their ...

Monks marching toward Phnom Penh to mark International Human Rights Day on Tuesday in front of the National Assembly have continued to receive a cold reception from some pagodas along their way and blocked a national road Thursday afternoon in protest. About 100 marchers, including several ...

More than 80 monks and activists marching to Phnom Penh for International Human Rights Day blocked National Road 5 in Kampong Chhnang town yesterday evening after local authorities allegedly pressured a pagoda to deny them permission to rest there. Independent Monks Network head But Buntenh claimed ...

Prisons across the country will soon be referred to only as “correctional centres” to change a public perception that they are places where people are simply locked up, the Ministry of Interior announced yesterday. Nuth Sa An, secretary of state at the ministry, said the change ...

The Ministry of Interior’s general department of prisons has been advised to address prison overcrowding and transportation issues between prisons and courts as it begins to tackle its 2013 to 2018 strategic plan for the country’s jails. The advice was given at the start of a ...

An indigenous Bunong minority community in Mondolkiri province’s Keo Seima district on Wednesday filed a complaint claiming that authorities had destroyed their homes, but authorities allege that the villagers are living on land owned by a private company. Villagers claim that since November, 37 homes in ...

Anti-human trafficking NGO SISHA announced the results of its internal audit yesterday, attempting to clear financial misconduct allegations made earlier this year. Retired police detective and founder of the NGO Steve Morrish came under fire in August after two of the charity’s former employees leaked information ...

As temperatures drop during the cool season, children, infants and the elderly should take extra measures to ward off common seasonal illnesses, officials from the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday. In a press release issued by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization’s ...

The Ministry of Health said Thursday it would shut down a Phnom Penh health center that claims to cure diseases such as cancer and diabetes with the help of detoxifying machines, according to officials. Immanuel Bicom True Healing Center in Chamkar Mon district did not have ...