Social development
Civil society
Activists sentenced
Nine Prey Lang forest activists received suspended one-year prison sentences at Kampong Thom Provincial Court yesterday and were ordered to pay $1,250 to a businesswoman whose hectare of cassava they were accused of uprooting, the defendants’ lawyer said. Yong Panith – who represents Mao Thea, 37; ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activists-sentenced
‘Acts of violence’ won’t be tolerated: premier
Prime Minister Hun Sen warned yesterday that people who instigate and commit acts of violence will face the full force of the law. In characteristically cryptic language, he told thousands of students on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich that his government would not tolerate violence. ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98acts-violence%E2%80%99-won%E2%80%99t-be-tolerated-premier
Visa ‘loophole’ no friend to maids: NGOs
Cambodia’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur has played a key role in pressuring domestic workers to stay in the country despite fears for their welfare, rights groups have said. While a moratorium was placed on sending domestic workers to Malaysia in 2011 amid mounting concerns over abuses, ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/visa-%E2%80%98loophole%E2%80%99-no-friend-maids-ngos
Unions up wage demands
Deposite not coming close to achieving their goal of a $160 monthly minimum garment wage, unions announced yesterday that they will raise their demands to $177 for 2015. Ken Chhenglang, acting president of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia (NIFTUC), said about 10 union ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-wage-demands
Cambodia Urges China Visa Restrictions
Cambodia says it has asked China to restrict the number of visas it issues to single Cambodian women, to prevent the brokering of marriages to Chinese men. The appeal comes as an increasing number of Cambodian women are finding their way into Chinese marriages and becoming ...
Thida Win
http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodia-urges-china-visa-restrictions/1971535.html
Deposit for brides in China called into question
Human rights groups on Sunday criticized as inadequate a government proposal, announced on Friday, to require single women to deposit $10,000 into a Chinese bank before they are allowed to visit China as tourists, a move meant to curb the trafficking of Cambodian woman to ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/deposit-for-brides-in-china-called-into-question-65605/
Ministry says it is making efforts to stop abuse
The Foreign Affairs Ministry on Friday defended the Cambodian Embassy and consulates in China, which have been accused of ignoring female citizens in peril there, and said it has made efforts to cut off the flow off women being sold into brothels or forced marriages. In ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-says-it-is-making-efforts-to-stop-abuse-65563/
Assessing the welfare value of Cambodia's fisheries
Fish and rice are staple foods for all Cambodians. Historical records show that Cambodia’s fisheries have been of major importance for centuries. Fish is a major source of nutritious food in the daily diet, a primary source of employment and income and has strong cultural ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/opinion/detail/3?token=OWQyMTFiNzI4OWI5ZGRmZjI2NDY4NzBmNzM4OGY4
Migrants in ‘hurry’ to get back to work
A survey of 10 Cambodian provinces is studying the whereabouts and plans of migrant workers who were recently repatriated from Thailand, fearing crackdowns on foreign workers there after the coup. During a workshop hosted by Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM) yesterday, Ministry ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/migrants-%E2%80%98hurry%E2%80%99-get-back-work
Cracking down 101
A deal to end the political deadlock may reduce demonstrations in the streets, but the authorities are leaving nothing to chance – Daun Penh’s notorious district security guards are finally receiving proper government training. City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche, who has previously said the baton-wielding district ...
Daniel Pye and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cracking-down-101
Group urges political parties to focus on reform details
A group of NGOs is urging Cambodia’s two main political parties not to rush the election reform process. Instead, the Electoral Reform Alliance says the ruling party and opposition should ensure they have completed the reform process before they open a National Assembly session, which would ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/group-urges-political-parties-to-focus-on-reform-details/1968845.html
Rights group slams Cambodian government over land dispute death
Try Chamroeun, a 19-year-old student, was planting soybeans on Sunday along with fellow villagers on a two-hectare (half-acre) plot in Preah Vihear province, when soldier Poeun Tash demanded that he stop, claiming the land belonged to his military boss, according to London-based environmental advocacy group ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/death-07312014185132.html
Crops pulled: Locals and NGO staffer questioned
About 150 ethnic Kuoy villagers gathered outside Preah Vihear Provincial Court yesterday to protest the questioning of eight villagers and an NGO staff member for allegedly inciting villagers in Tbeng Meanchey district to destroy 36 tonnes of sugarcane. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/crops-pulled-locals-and-ngo-staffer-questioned
Cambodian capital sees 445 protests during year-long standoff
Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, recorded 445 demonstrations during a year-long political crisis following disputed election results in July last year, municipal police chief Chuon Sovann said Wednesday. “About 445 protests had occurred in the past 12 months, including more than 80 protests led by the ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-07/30/c_133520567.htm
Cambodia sees 55 pct rise in landmine casualties in half year
Cambodia on Wednesday reported 101 landmine casualties in the first six months of 2014, an increase of 55 percent from 65 casualties over the same period last year. The report from the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority showed that from January to June this ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-07/30/c_133520217.htm
Wages do not compute: ILO
NGOs say the Ministry of Labour’s use of its own method for determining the garment industry’s minimum wage is risking a repeat of the tensions that exploded in violent protests in January, when authorities killed at least five people. More than six months after the Labour ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wages-do-not-compute-ilo
Tougher ELC oversight pledged
In what is the government’s latest pledge to hold tycoons and foreign investors to account for their business practices, the Ministry of Environment will begin assessing existing and proposed economic land concessions (ELCs), cancelling or rejecting those that have negative social or environment impacts, a ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tougher-elc-oversight-pledged
Cambodia looks to put its rice on the world’s plate
For as long as Cambodian rice farmers can remember, their product has had an unsavory reputation. Tough, dirty and unmilled, it was impossible to cook evenly, and even farmers traded it as pig feed in exchange for cash or better-quality rice from Vietnam or Thailand. Even ...
Cambodia’s ongoing human trafficking problem
Svay Pak is an internationally known district for child sex in Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh, where foreign men come to seek sex with young girls. According to a 2011 study by ECPAT Cambodia, around 75 percent of the victims of sex trafficking within Cambodia were children. The study also ...
Kyla Ryan
http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/cambodias-ongoing-human-trafficking-problem/
Planned dams threaten Cambodia’s food security
The planned construction of 88 hydroelectric dams in the lower Mekong basin by 2030 will cause food security challenges in Cambodia, experts say. “Cambodia is going to pay the highest price for dam development basin-wide, to the point of affecting the food security of its 80 ...
Gant Daily News Staff
http://gantdaily.com/2014/07/28/planned-dams-threaten-cambodias-food-security/
‘A threat to Cambodia’s sacred forests’
In southwest Cambodia, at the foot of the Cardamom Mountains, is a single dirt road that meanders through the heart of the pristine Areng valley. Ten miles down this road, villagers have set up an encampment to stop a hydroelectric dam project that they fear ...
New York Times News Staff
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/opinion/a-threat-to-cambodias-sacred-forests.html
Anglers ‘invading’: Villagers say rivals taking over fish lot
More than 200 residents from seven villages in Ratanakkiri province’s Taveng district have filed a complaint to the local Administrative Fisheries Department and two right groups over claims that rival anglers in the area are collecting fish in their protected lot by poisoning the catch. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/anglers-%E2%80%98invading%E2%80%99-villagers-say-rivals-taking-over-fish-lot
Boeng Kak’s best teach villagers protest 101
When two middle-aged novices emerged with signs protesting the development of disputed land near the tip of the Chroy Changva peninsula on Thursday, one of the country’s foremost anti-eviction activists was there to tell them they were doing it all wrong. Ms. Vanny, who was ...
Matt Blomberg and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kaks-best-teach-villagers-protest-101-64920/
Minister meets NGOs over ongoing UDG dispute
Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Thursday met with U.N. and NGO representatives to discuss the ongoing dispute between the powerful Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) and villagers in Koh Kong province who say they were kicked off their land and had their shelters torched. In ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-meets-ngos-over-ongoing-udg-dispute-64952/