Social development

The postponement of two US internet piracy bills last week was met with relief by human rights and media experts in Cambodia, who say the overreaching grasp of the proposed legislation would hinder the internet’s progress and growth in the Kingdom. The US House of Representative’s ...

Women from Borei Keila who escaped Prey Speu social affairs centre last Wednesday made another impassioned plea for housing and compensation at rights group Licadho’s Phnom Penh headquarters on Friday. Armed with copies of a Borei Keila construction agreement from 2004 and in tears, they spoke ...

With a focus on the NGO draft law and allegations of government interference in the Khmer Rouge tribunal, international rights group Human Rights Watch blasted Cambodia’s rights record in its annual report yesterday. The government was quick to hit back at the criticism, saying that HRW ...

Workers will begin clearing forestland in Stung Treng province as early as next week in preparation for the controversial 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam, district officials and villagers said yesterday. The hydropower project, funded by Vietnam Electricity (EVN), will flood tens of thousands of hectares of ...

The number of criminal charges meted out to villagers embroiled in land disputes rose by more than 50 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year, according to figures released by the rights group Adhoc yesterday. The rights group found that the courts charged 475 villagers ...

Violence erupted yesterday in Kratie province’s Snuol district where six people were shot and injured when RCAF soldiers working for a rubber company opened fire on a crowd of villagers who were trying to stop the company from clearing land in the area, police and ...

Amnesty International yesterday called on authorities to immediately release the 30 women and children from the Borei Keila community being detained against their will at Phnom Penh’s Prey Speu Social Affairs Center. “Those people never should have been arrested in the first place,” said Amnesty’s Deputy ...

A PROTEST on the fifth storey of a residential high-rise in Borei Keila ended with authorities fleeing the scene and incensed villagers breaking down a door yesterday. About 50 villagers converged on the site to protest against Phan Imex and authorities evicting a man from his ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday outlined the government’s plans to spur economic growth in the northeast of the country through implementing a wide range of projects in sectors such as agriculture and the extractive industries. Rights workers have warned that little information on the plans for ...

A woman summonsed to Kampong Speu provincial court over a land dispute yesterday returned home without being arrested after about 150 protesting villagers turned out to support her. Rath Thavy, provincial monitor for human rights group Adhoc, speculated that the court decided not to arrest Khem ...

Human rights groups are warning that Cambodia’s new Prison Law will create financial incentives for violations of human rights within the Kingdom’s prisons and tarnish the image of the country’s most lucrative export industry: footwear and garments. They point to Article 71 of the new law, ...

Marking another milestone in the years-long struggle between the government and the families of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake community, Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema handed out 254 land titles to lakeside residents at City Hall on Saturday. But with the government shrouding the titling process ...

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia has for the first time agreed to open an inquiry into the death of a Cambodian maid, opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua said yesterday, calling the investigation “a positive sign.” Ms Sochua said that while she had in the past sent ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen will officially open the Chinese-made Kamchay dam in Kampot province today, the largest hydropower dam to date to operate in Cambodia and capable of supplying an extra 193.2 megawatts of energy. Environmental and human rights groups yesterday criticized the dam’s builder and ...

The water and environment ministers of the four Mekong River Commission (MRC) countries are scheduled to meet in Siem Reap today and tomorrow to reach a key decision on the future – some say the survival – of the Mekong River. The ministers – from Cambodia, ...

Hundreds of people whose land has been swallowed by a giant Chinese tourism project on the coast of Koh Kong province will attempt to demonstrate their grievances today by blocking national roads 4 and 48, villagers and human rights workers said Protesters have been resisting China’s ...

At least 20 Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand have had their passports confiscated by a Thai recruitment agency, while another 10 have gone missing after they fled the same agency fearing they would be trafficked to work on Thai fishing vessels, Human Rights Watch and ...

Rounding off a week that included two violent clashes with police and the charging and release of four protesters, Boeng Kak lake villagers yesterday daubed paper sheets with their blood in a symbolic call to end what they consider judicial intimidation. About 50 villagers gathered at ...

The Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies (ACRA) plans to propose a set of measures to the government that would put the association in charge of improving protection for Cambodian maids working in Malaysia. A human rights worker, however, disapproved of the plan because it only involved ...

Prison directors across the country said yesterday they were eager to launch for-profit manufacturing programs following the expected passage of a controversial prison law that legalizes such schemes. Human rights groups, however, called on the government to strike the provision, saying that it would violate ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged four female Boeng Kak lake residents with insulting police and obstructing public officials during a protest that turned violent on Monday. Earlier in the day, dozens of residents were blocked by riot police from leaving the lake area, ...

Cambodia’s 2012 budget passed through the National Assembly yesterday unopposed, without a single question asked and no parliamentary debate in a situation the government, opposition and observers all said was unfortunate. It took just over three hours for the law to be passed, 86 to 0, ...

The Ministry of Land Management and Urban Planning announced yesterday that it will soon complete a new draft sub-decree that aims to guide and regulate urban development in towns and cities. Land and human rights groups, however, criticized the ministry for failing to consult them on ...

Amnesty International yesterday launched a report on land evictions in Cambodia that details the impact that government-bestowed economic land concessions have had on women, and sets out recommendations for the government in light of those findings. The new report, titled ‘Eviction and Resistance in Cambodia: Five ...