Legal and judicial reform

Former Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealaktei, who was ousted Tuesday amid claims of corruption at the court, was granted a new position in the Ministry of Justice during the ceremony to replace him on Wednesday. ...

The National Assembly yesterday appointed a ruling Cambodian People’s Party stalwart to fill the final seat of the judicial body that oversees the Kingdom’s judges and prosecutors and whose political independence is already a target of criticism. A majority of 66 parliamentarians voted Ith Rady, an ...

Media experts are asking the government to consider granting citizen journalists the same safeguards as professional journalists under Cambodia’s Press Law. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng said that two points of the draft Constitution amendment sent by Sam Rainsy need to be discussed further. The two points are immunity and autonomous budget for National Election Committee (NEC). “We needed to discuss further over the request to grant immunity ...

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 ...

After months of decrying the one-party National Assembly as illegitimate and vowing to amend any flawed legislation passed during a parliamentary boycott, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, by agreeing to take its seats yesterday, is about to get its chance. In the roughly 10-month period since ...

International legal experts are expressing deep concern over proposed changes to Cambodia’s legal system that critics say hand over too much power to the executive.  At a meeting in Phnom Penh Tuesday, a group recommended the three judicial reform laws should be returned to parliament ...

A group of civil society organizations will petition King Norodom Sihamoni today, calling on the king to withhold his signature from three judicial laws that they say will entrench the ruling CPP’s control of the courts and jeopardize citizens’ constitutional freedoms. Despite concern raised by local ...

Cambodia’s Constitutional Council has approved three controversial draft laws on judicial reform, despite heavy opposition from rights groups and international observers who say they will not restore the public’s faith in the courts. Critics say the laws—passed without opposition members in the National Assembly—put too much ...

The approval of King Norodom Sihamoni is all that is needed for three controversial judicial bills to be passed into law after they were declared constitutional this week by the CPP-stacked Constitutional Council of Cambodia (CCC). Despite an outcry from rights and legal advocacy groups over ...

The single-party National Assembly on Thursday approved the 2014 to 2018 National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP), which will cost an estimated $26.58 billion to implement. An extradition agreement between Cambodia and Vietnam was also passed. Approved earlier this month by the Council of Ministers, it is ...

Cambodia’s human rights groups are continuing to seek ways to prevent three draft judicial reform bills from becoming law. The drafts have already passed the National Assembly, but they have not been signed by the king. ...

As part of a trio of long-awaited judicial laws passed last month by the National Assembly, the country’s judicial system is set to integrate a number of new provincial appeal courts, expanding access to the appeal process to people imprisoned outside Phnom Penh. But the only ...

Judges in Cambodia’s Court of Appeal fail to inform defendants of their rights and a high number of hearings do not even have the defendants or their lawyers present, according to a study by a local rights group. In addition, the quality of evidence presented at ...

With all 11 senators from the opposition boycotting their seats, the Senate on Thursday passed three controversial judiciary laws which critics say will tighten government control of the courts. The ruling CPP’s 44 senators passed the laws without change, said CPP senator and Senate spokesman Mam ...

Opposition senators will boycott the plenary session on Thursday at which ruling Cambodian People’s Party lawmakers are expected to debate three controversial judicial draft laws that passed through the National Assembly unopposed last month. ...

Human rights groups and other members of civil society on Tuesday submitted a letter to Senate President Chea Sim, requesting a meeting over their concerns for three draft judicial reform laws passed last month in the National Assembly. The three drafts must be approved by ...

Indigenous villagers in Mondolkiri province say relevant authorities that are supposed to crack down on forestry crimes instead collude with logging companies and powerful businessmen, allowing them cut down trees. That has put their forest tribal traditions and livelihoods, which are dependent on forests, in ...

In three years’ time, Cambodia will have legislation clearly outlining what government information is available to the general public, according to a recently signed memorandum of understanding. Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith and Anne Lemaistre, UNESCO’s representative to Cambodia, signed the memorandum on Friday. The MoU ...

Surya Subedi, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, added his voice yesterday to the growing chorus of criticism aimed at three draft laws on Cambodia’s judiciary that sailed through the National Assembly last week. Subedi – who had previously championed the laws as ...

The lack of consultative process on three draft laws has set a worrying precedent for future key legislation, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, Surya P. Subedi. “For many years in my capacity as the Special RapporteurI ...

Two draft laws on judicial reform were easily passed by the single-party National Assembly on Friday but the session was overshadowed by a rookie lawmaker’s attack on lax enforcement of forestry laws in Stung Treng province. On the fourth day of the third plenary session of ...

Cambodia’s ruling party- controlled National Assembly has unanimously passed three laws, designed to strengthen the country’s judicial system, despite ongoing boycott of parliament by the main opposition party. The Law on the Organization of the Judiciary was adopted on Thursday, and the Laws on the Organization ...

The single-party National Assembly sat for the third day of its third plenary session Thursday, with a senior ruling party lawmaker calling on Information Minister Khieu Kanharith to examine whether journalists who call the Assembly “single party” can be punished under law. Sixty-four of the 68 ...