International laws and treaties

European Union Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht said he has no plans to launch an investigation into Cambodia’s much-criticized sugarcane plantations after a meeting with Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. Bottom line: Cambodia’s free trade benefits to Europe are safe for ...

A lawyer hired by the opposition CNRP said Tuesday that he would file a complaint next month with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over crimes against humanity allegedly perpetrated by state security forces. “We plan to file a Communication [complaint] before the International Criminal Court next ...

Twelve Cambodians were shot dead by Thai security forces on March 5 after illegally crossing the border from Choam Ksan district in Preah Vihear province to log timber, Cambodian officials said yesterday. Another three illegal loggers were killed on Wednesday and two others are still missing, ...

It took three illegal border crossings, several bribed officials and six months in an overcrowded detention centre before Mohammed Ibrahim* finally arrived in Cambodia. Four years later, the ethnic Rohingya, a victim of violence and oppression in strife-torn Rakhine state in Myanmar’s west, is one of ...

Cambodian garment manufacturers and the association that governs them are failing to meet the standards set by the U.N.’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as evidenced by lethal violence against workers during garment strikes in January, when five people were shot dead and ...

A draft trade union law that the government has pledged to introduce by the end of the year includes provisions that will allow for unions to be suspended if their activities are deemed illegal, the head of Cambodia’s largest employers association said Wednesday. Van Sou Ieng, ...

The government now requires union leaders to prove that they have no criminal record before registering new branches of their organization, according to a statement from the Ministry of Labor, a decision that comes less than a week before planned nationwide strikes in the garment ...

Promising to dramatically open up the region’s airways, the planned Asean Single Aviation Market (ASAM) will bring with it fierce competition and price wars, experts said yesterday during a seminar on the subject at the Phnom Penh Hotel. The seminar brought representatives from the majority of ...

A spirited debate on human rights in Cambodia was heard in the Australian parliament this week after an opposition Labor Party MP introduced a motion calling on the government to condemn state violence against striking garment workers and ask authorities to release detained protesters. Clare O’Neil, ...

The government has no intention of withdrawing its signature from the International Labour Organization’s freedom of association convention, despite calls for it to reconsider its position, a Ministry of Labour spokesman said yesterday. “I don’t think we will withdraw. The prime minister [Hun Sen] has already ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen told business leaders and government officials Tuesday that he will not tolerate “illegal” labor strikes that harm investment, but avoided judgment on a request to withdraw ratification of a U.N. convention protecting workers’ rights to unionize. Speaking at the 17th Government-Private Sector ...

Austalian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has responded to one of her predecessors, Gareth Evans, who accused her of failing to deliver a “robust critique” when she met Hun Sen on February 22 in a Friday op-ed that excoriated Cambodia’s political leaders for abuses. In an interview ...

Two union representatives said that they were detained and “educated” Thursday for distributing leaflets calling on workers to participate in a nationwide strike next month. Yin Saroeun, secretary-general of the National Trade Unions Coalition, said police detained him and his colleague, Chuob Noek, at about 11 ...

Cambodian manufacturers are at risk of being blocked from exporting to the United States for using pirated software, IT industry bodies warned yesterday. Speaking at a seminar that was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh, Michael Mudd, the secretary general of the Asia-Pacific Open ...

Seven pre-Angkorian temples have been discovered on two land concessions in Preah Vihear province, but while an Environment Ministry official said Tuesday that the ministry had no knowledge of the temples when they granted the concessions, the Culture Ministry said their existence had long been ...

Garment workers’ calls for a $160 minimum wage are justified and should be honored, a new report by an international team of academics and labor experts has found. The authors—including a team from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, South Korean and ...

The Asian Human Rights Commission has launched an online petition to pressure the Cambodian government to release 21 union activists and workers charged in connection with labor protests last month. Twenty-three workers were arrested in a violent crackdown by government police and security forces early January, ...

Activists may find themselves in a showdown with police this morning during a planned vigil on Phnom Penh’s riverside and a march to several embassies. National Military Police spokesman Kheng Tito said yesterday that people supporting the release of 21 people detained during a garment strike ...

The U.N.’s special rapporteur on freedom of assembly and association, Maina Kiai, on Friday wrapped up a three-day unofficial visit to Cambodia by paying a visit to the Boeng Kak community, the site of the country’s longest-running land dispute. Inside the home of high-profile Boeng ...

In the weeks that 17-year-old garment worker Yon Chea languished in prison, he spent hours staring out of the window at a concrete wall, certain that he would never see his home or his family again. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday morning granted ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday fined a 29-year-old hairstylist and make-up artist 2 million riel, or about $500, and ordered her to pay 5 million riel, or about $1,250, in compensation to a rival beauty parlor owner she defamed on Facebook. The sentence is ...

Maina Kiai, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the freedom of assembly and association, met with a Foreign Affairs Ministry official Thursday and raised concerns about the government’s blanket ban on gatherings in Phnom Penh. His visit wraps up today, and a thematic report he will issue ...

An employers and businesses federation that took out paid newspaper advertisements claiming Cambodia’s workers have no fundamental right to strike has hit back at the International Labour Organization (ILO), asking it to retract comments it made in response to the ads. Last week, the Cambodian Federation ...

The U.N. special rapporteur on the freedom of peaceful assembly and association, Maina Kiai, began a three-day unofficial visit to Cambodia on Wednesday, just one month after military police shot dead five protesters in Phnom Penh and the government imposed a ban on public gatherings. Mr. ...