Social development
Civil society
Number of women in politics back in focus
Finding out why women’s voices are not being listened to is imperative to increasing the proportion of female political representation in Cambodia, a meeting heard yesterday. The Committee to Promote Women in Politics (CPWP) – which is made up of 12 organisations – hosted discussions in ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/number-women-politics-back-focus
Cambodia: Pro-opposition's trade unions rally against low wage hike for 2014
An estimated 3,000 garment workers from various factories rallied at the capital’s Freedom Park on Wednesday to protest against the low wage hike for 2014. The strike was led by pro-opposition trade unions. It happened a day after the government decided to raise a monthly minimum ...
Voice of Russia News Staff
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_25/Cambodia-Pro-oppositions-trade-unions-rally-against-low-wage-hike-for-2014-4683/
Protesting monks leave City Hall after violence re-erupts: report
Hundreds of protesting monks, who participated with Boeng Kak residents in a rally held in front of Phnom Penh City Hall, left after violence re-erupts. They are demanding Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheat Vong provide more compensation to the evicted families in Boeng Kak. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=YWVkZWNmOGEwZTU
Journos claim officials are involved in logging
A group of local journalists in Preah Vihear province allege, in a complaint filed with a rights group, that authorities are involved in the sale of illegally logged timber. Seven journalists, who asked that their names and respective outlets not be identified for fear of retribution ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/journos-claim-officials-are-involved-logging
ACU asks Global Fund for evidence in probe
Cambodia’s Anti-corruption Unit has criticised the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for not sending them the findings of its investigation into widespread corruption in health grants. Chhay Savuth, vice-president of the Anti-Corruption Unit, said he had contacted the Global Fund to request evidence ...
Mom Kunthear and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/acu-asks-global-fund-evidence-probe
ELC guards ‘Keep NGOs off property’
Security guards from a Chinese development firm in Koh Kong province have allegedly prevented civil society groups from gathering data they planned to use for a petition asking for compensation for evictees. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/elc-guards-%E2%80%98keep-ngos-property%E2%80%99
Rights Group Calls for Investigation of Thai Casino Torture Case
Local human rights group Adhoc has called on the government to investigate the alleged detention and torture of a Cambodian woman at a Bangkok casino where she was employed. In a statement released Friday, Adhoc said the government must push for a “full investigation” into the ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-group-calls-for-investigation-of-thai-casino-torture-case-49552/
Cambodia’s Deportation of Uighurs to China Remembered
Four years after the forcible deportation of 20 Uighur asylum seekers from Cambodia to China, an advocacy group has said it remains “deeply concerned” about their fate and has called on China to lift a veil of secrecy surrounding their treatment. In a statement, the World ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodias-deportation-of-uighurs-to-china-remembered-49549/
Program aims for safer workplaces for women
A new program launched yesterday has its sights set on ending the endemic problem of sexual harassment against women in the workplace. A ceremony at the Hotel Cambodiana marked the start of Safe Workplaces, Safer Communities, a project run by CARE Cambodia. The three-year program, which will ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/program-aims-safer-workplaces-women
NGOs ask PM to axe Koh Kong dam plans
A coalition of NGOs yesterday implored Prime Minister Hun Sen to shelve the government’s plans for the Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province and instead turn the wilderness area in question into an eco-tourism site. ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-ask-pm-axe-koh-kong-dam-plans
City Hall Warns Monks Over Political Activism
Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong warned monks Thursday that if they do not follow orders to keep out of politics, they could create a rift within the monkhood that could threaten the very existence of Buddhism in the country. Mr. Socheatvong also said that if monks ...
Mech Dara and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-warns-monks-over-political-activism-49496/
Fund playing hardball
The Global Fund has threatened to suspend or reduce health grants to Cambodia totalling more than $100 million if the Ministry of Health, the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD (NCHADS) and NGO umbrella group MEDiCAM fail to meet a 30-day deadline to return ...
Kevin Ponniah and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fund-playing-hardball
Rights Group Reaffirms Stance on Use of ‘Yuon’
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) on Wednesday released a statement seeking to clarify an open letter it issued on December 12, which accused CNRP President Sam Rainsy of making comments that are “both derogatory and discriminatory, againstpeople of Vietnamese origin.” The original letter, signed ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-group-reaffirms-stance-on-use-of-yuon-49477/
NGO alleges bribery over titles
An environmental protection NGO is preparing to file a lawsuit with the Kampong Speu provincial court and a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit against an Agriculture Department official who was allegedly paid by a development firm to issue land titles to villagers squatting on state ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngo-alleges-bribery-over-titles
Slipping through the cracks
US national Daniel Stephen Johnson was transferred to Prey Sar prison yesterday after being charged on Saturday over the alleged rape of five underage boys – residents of the orphanage he ran without interference from authorities for several months. According to Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor ...
Stuart White and Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/slipping-through-cracks
High school meth use up: UN
High school students are increasingly using methamphetamines and other stimulants to relax or help them study, according to the UN. A spike in trafficking of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) across the borders with Thailand and Laos over the past two years has gone hand-in-hand with a rise ...
Daniel Pye and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/high-school-meth-use-un
Factory Owners Slam Government Over Handling of Strikes
Members of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) said during a conference Sunday that they are “fed up” with the government for not controlling strikes by labor unions. “All of us have the same issue: illegal strikes,” Van Porphin, a member of GMAC’s executive committee, ...
Colin Meyn and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factory-owners-slam-government-over-handling-of-strikes-49352/
Monks and Cash Rewards Save Softshell Turtles
SAMBOR DISTRICT, Kratie Province – A sharply dressed usher in a crisp black shirt, black pants and a shiny black tie escorted guests to one of several bungalow-style, private booths at the Mloub Dong restaurant on a recent evening. While the privacy the restaurant offers is ...
Khy Sovuthy and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/monks-and-cash-rewards-save-softshell-turtles-49329/
School resources for disabled scarce
Kimseang spent much of his childhood enduring harassment and verbal abuse, with teachers and other children dismissing him because of a visual and physical impairment. While the kingdom has seen overall access to education improve from a 69 per cent net enrollment rate in 1991 ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/school-resources-disabled-scarce
Debate on land reform takes place in absence of the CPP
Civil society groups held a workshop in Phnom Penh on Thursday in which government officials and lawmakers were invited to discuss post-election land grabs and land-based conflict, although the ruling CPP failed to turn up to the event. Though incidents of land-grabbing appeared to decrease ahead ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/debate-on-land-reform-takes-place-in-absence-of-the-cpp-49282/
Small-scale protests continue
A day after authorities carted away 11 protesters intending to camp out in front of the United States embassy, a similarly ad hoc group of citizens struggled to deliver petitions to three embassies in the capital yesterday. The group of about 50 were blocked by police ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/small-scale-protests-continue
Ethics Awards for Much Maligned Media
The first ever Annual Journalism Ethics Awards ceremony was held Wednesday in Phnom Penh, which conferred a total of 19 awards on five national newspapers and eight national television stations in recognition of their adherence to ethical journalism. The newspapers garnering awards in categories including balance ...
Phorn Bopha and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ethics-awards-for-much-maligned-media-49153/
Man fronts court over Pheap row
A man facing defamation charges was questioned in Kandal Provincial Court yesterday following his comments in a report that alleged tycoon Try Pheap was illegally logging. San Sen was quoted in a Cambodian Human Rights Task Force (CHRTF) report last month that implicated the tycoon in ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/man-fronts-court-over-pheap-row
Undercover underused: NGO
Cambodia hopes to legalise undercover investigative techniques – like covert surveillance and officers posing as criminals, which until now have fallen into a murky legal grey area – by next year. At a workshop in the capital yesterday, law enforcement officials and representatives of human rights ...
Laignee Barron and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/undercover-underused-ngo