Civil society

Amid a lawsuit and a chorus of dissent, developers of the first lower Mekong mainstream hydropower project, the massive Xayaburi dam, have quietly submitted a long-anticipated, multimillion-dollar redesign plan, the Post has learned. What exactly has been changed about the 1,260-megawatt dam, which environmentalists contend will ...

Sok Hieng* is concerned about a government census of foreigners that some observers believe will focus primarily on those of Vietnamese descent. “I am afraid that I will be forced to leave Cambodia because I do not have ID yet,” said Hieng, a 33-year-old construction worker ...

An international agriculture NGO is preparing to roll out a nationwide project in partnership with computer-chip maker Intel whereby more than 25,000 farmers will be able to receive real-time advice on farming methods via a smartphone app. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) piloted the ...

Even within the country’s notoriously overcrowded prison system, inmates in this northern province live in particularly harsh conditions. Approximately 120 prisoners, including 16 women and three children, are held in four cells in the Oddar Meanchey provincial police headquarters. “In one cell we keep 20 or more ...

After the development company 7NG completed the violent eviction of more than 1,400 families from Phnom Penh’s Dey Krahorm community in 2009, it set its sights on the adjacent White Building. The historic apartment block, which was built as a low-cost housing project under then Prince ...

Two NGOs on Monday launched an online campaign to galvanize public support for providing students with free textbooks after a survey found that 85 percent of high-school pupils lack the necessary books for their studies. The Khmer Institute for National Development (KIND) and the Affiliated Network ...

The facilities at O’Chrey Primary School in Battambang province are allegedly so basic that it’s difficult to conceive of it as an actual school. The 219 grade one to four students get their lessons crowded in a wall-less storage hut at the edge of a cornfield, ...

Experts say that Cambodia’s economic growth remains fragile and unsustainable, bringing environmental degradation, social inequality and, at times, unrest to the country. Cambodia has maintained a high economic growth rate in recent years, up to 8 percent, “but that high growth comes with high costs,” said ...

The Ministry of Labour plans to delay signing off on a controversial agreement to reopen a pipeline of Cambodian maids to Malaysia until a deal is reached on a second agreement regarding other migrant workers, a ministry official said yesterday. Labour Ministry spokesman Heng Sour told ...

To get his teenage daughter and niece on a plane yesterday after 10 months of alleged abuse and forced marriages in China, Kim Vicheat* said he had to bury his family in debt because the Cambodian consulate refused to fund their repatriation. The two 19-year-olds told The ...

At least 2,800 bears in Asia were traded for their parts over the past decade, according to a report issued Thursday by an anti-wildlife trafficking group. The figure was arrived at after analysing nearly 700 bear-related seizures, and it likely represents a fraction of the overall ...

The Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation, supported by The UPS Foundation, has launched a global internet campaign to collect ten thousand pledges in support of the motorcycle passenger, including child helmet law in Cambodia, according to its statement obtained Thursday by The Cambodia Herald. The campaign ...

In yet another case of Cambodian women facing abuse in China, a 19-year-old told the Post yesterday that she has taken to living on the streets after the consulate in Shanghai refused to pay for her repatriation. Kim Sophea*, who claims she has been forced into marriage in ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday lashed out at the rights group Adhoc, angered by comments rights workers have made about land grabs in recent years. During a speech in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen called a rights worker from the group “insolent and an idiot.” ...

Rights groups are calling for the release of three opposition activists who have been held in detention since violent clashes with security forces in July. The activists have been held despite a political deal last month between the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the opposition Cambodia ...

Around 80 citizen journalists from around Cambodia held a meeting in Phnom Penh Wednesday, in a first-ever networking event for a new kind of reporter in the country. Professional journalists and other media professionals joined the event, sponsored by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media and ...

Local NGOs are urging the new National Assembly to pass term limits for the prime minister, to prevent a “dictatorship” in Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia in some capacity for 30 years, but following discussions in Phnom Penh, rights groups and development NGOs ...

The number of people charged in land disputes across the country so far this year has already surpassed the number of charges in all of 2013 in what rights group Adhoc on Tuesday called an “alarming” increase in legal action against those wrapped up in ...

A prominent rights group on Monday wrote to Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, calling on him to remind ministries and local authorities that demonstrators do not require their permission to hold public gatherings. ...

Hundreds of housing rights protesters and evictees clashed with security forces outside Phnom Penh on Monday, leaving at least nine people with minor injuries. The clash was one of the first since major violence over Freedom Park in the capital in July. Protesters gathered outside the National ...

Phnom Penh security forces on Sunday blocked activists from riding their bicycles around the city to promote their campaign against the pending construction of a hydropower dam in Koh Kong province, claiming the organizers failed to ask City Hall for permission. The NGO Mother Nature has ...

Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison has been buying truckloads of water for inmates since a road construction crew broke the water pipe leading to the jail last week, officials said Sunday. ...

The UN Children’s Fund in Australia has warned volunteers and tourists to avoid visiting Cambodian orphanages following critical reports from the press in recent weeks. In a post on its website, UNICEF Australia said “these types of tours exploit children and their families for the financial ...

Recent flooding has claimed another victim, a child in Kratie province who drowned, bringing the total death toll to 30, Keo Vy, cabinet director at the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), said yesterday. While water levels are declining across the 12 provinces affected by flooding, ...