Human rights

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is trying to ease concerns over the social and economic costs of the country’s plan with Australia to receive refugees. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has called for the deal to be halted until Cambodia improves its refugee support system. Hun Sen ...

A yearlong investigation by immigration police culminated in the arrest on Saturday of 17 Bangladeshi men hiding in Phnom Penh and Poipet City to avoid charges of human trafficking in their home country, police said Sunday. Three of the fugitives, arrested   at a guesthouse in Phnom ...

Hundreds of people gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday to mark the International Day to End Impunity, calling on the government to tackle the issue by reforming its court system. Speaking at the event at the capital’s Cambodiana Hotel, Preap Kol, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, ...

A group of civil society organization has condemned recent arrest of two citizens who were involved in a land dispute with the Khun Sear Import Export company, and called on the government to release them and ensure the safety of their family. In a joint statement ...

European diplomats called on Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday to express their concerns about the recent spate of activists’ arrests, with the minister reportedly saying that he believed a one-year sentence speedily handed down to seven Boeung Kak lake protesters last week was rather “heavy”. ...

Under an agreement with Malaysia, Cambodian migrant workers will be allowed to hold on to their passports and copies of their contracts but will be banned from any “political activities”, according to a draft version of the document obtained by the Post. The memorandum of understanding ...

Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong yesterday defended the independence of Cambodia’s judiciary following concerns raised by a UN official about the whirlwind imprisonment of 11 activists arrested for protesting last week. Kuong accused Surya Subedi, the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights, of making a habit ...

More than 155,000 people in Cambodia are living as modern “slaves”, according to a global index released this week. The Global Slavery Index 2014, released on Monday by Australia-based NGO Walk Free Foundation (WFF), ranks Cambodia 14th out of 167 countries for the prevalence of slavery, ...

Hundreds of people gathered yesterday morning in front of Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison to demand the release of 17 incarcerated activists, monks and opposition members. The detainees include 10 land activists, three monks and four members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. Fifteen of ...

Cambodia and Australia have reiterated their commitment to comply with a refugee deal signed in September despite criticism from human rights groups and opposition parties in both countries, Xinhua news agency reported. ...

Local rights workers say they fear ongoing protests by the Khmer Krom minority in front of the Vietnamese Embassy could be putting demonstrators at risk of a blacklisting. ...

The Cambodian government is carrying out a new wave of arrests of opposition party and social activists. Cambodia’s donors should speak out against the government’s harassment, arbitrary detention, and summary trials of peaceful protesters and the government should end the crackdown. The crackdown has ...

Civil society groups have condemned the arrest, detention and conviction of seven Boeung Kok land activists, following their protests earlier this week outside Phnom Penh City Hall. Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday charged them with the violation of traffic law by blocking a public ...

A Cambodian court on Tuesday sentenced seven female land rights activists, including a 75-year-old woman, to one year in prison each for blocking traffic during a protest. Judge Mong Mony Sophea of Phnom Penh Municipal Court ruled the women were guilty of “creating a public ...

Representatives of Oddar Meanchey villagers who allegedly lost their homes in a 2008 land grab by Thai-owned sugar giant Mitr Phol are hopeful a settlement may soon be reached after they testify before Thai human rights officials today. Witnesses representing more than 400 families are slated ...

A campaign organised by Cambodians has led the country’s first vice-president of the National Assembly to urge Australia to back down from its bid to resettle refugees there. Kem Sokha said in a letter to the Australian Ambassador to Cambodia, Alison Burrows, that the deal to ...

A group of activist monks say they will force CPP lawmaker Chheang Vun to apologize for a heated discussion he had with a monk on Monday if he tries to enter one of their pagodas in the future. ...

Two outspoken critics of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen are to be dragged to court this month on vague charges of “incitement to commit a crime,” but the defendants say they have done nothing illegal. Prominent activist monk Luon Sovath received a summons dated Oct. 22 ...

Police arrested a woman on suspicion of human trafficking in Tbong Khmum province’s Suong City on Monday, after the woman was found with a teenage girl whose parents had raised the alarm with local authorities once she went missing in Ratanakkiri province, officials said Tuesday. ...

Two Vietnamese women were sentenced yesterday by Phnom Penh Municipal Court to two-and-a-half years in prison each for trafficking five Vietnamese women to have sex with wealthy men in a hotel. ...

The head of the country’s anti-graft body has said he has received two death threats since the unit responsible for directing investigations into public and private-sector corruption was established in 2010. ...

A 60-year-old woman was injured and sent to hospital yesterday when police cracked down on anti-eviction protesters blocking a busy bridge in Koh Kong province, villagers said. More than 100 villagers locked in a dispute with the company that manages the Koh Kong Special Economic ...

Kem Sokha, first vice president of the National Assembly and vice president of Cambodia National Rescue Party, has asked Prime Minister Hun Sen to reconsider the transfer of refugees from Nauru to Cambodia. ...

About 40 security guards armed with axes and AK-47s and working for the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) on Sunday demolished the homes of three villagers who claim to own land on UDG’s sprawling $3.8-billion beachside tourist development in Koh Kong province, villagers said. ...