Law and judiciary

The director of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court last week formally accused a property developer of attempting to defraud him of more than $200,000 he paid for a villa in Tuol Kok district when his name was not transferred to the land title, the businessman’s ...

Cambodian labor unions this week lowered their demands for a 60 percent increase to the country’s $100 minimum wage, as talks loom next month on setting a new wage.Unions agreed to call for $150 a month during a meeting with officials from the Garment Manufacturers’ ...

Samraong City, Oddar Meanchey province – In December, Kuy Bunsorn, director-general of the General Department of Prisons (GDP), announced that ground would be broken on two new prisons in Pailin and Oddar Meanchey provinces to alleviate chronic overcrowding. Mr. Bunsorn said that the Ministry of Finance ...

The Ministry of Labour has issued a prakas urging employers to follow existing regulations in the Labour Law that limit foreign workers to 10 per cent of the total workforce at any one company. It has warned that failure to stay within this limit – or ...

A draft law regulating the purchase and consumption of alcohol in Cambodia will, if passed, set the country’s legal drinking age at 21 years old, according to officials involved with the legislation, which many see as a tool to fight excessive youth drinking and drunken ...

A human rights group on Thursday urged authorities in Cambodia to end the prosecution of six trade unionists accused of stoking violent clashes between protesting workers and security forces, calling the case against them “politically motivated.” New York-based Human Rights Watch said prominent activists Pav Sina, ...

Assemblyman Bill Nojay, R-Pittsford, is wanted for questioning in southern Asia as part of an investigation into a $1 million fraud complaint, theCambodian press reported this week. In a July 7 letter, a local Cambodian prosecutor summoned Nojay and three others to appear for questioning in ...

Thirty-three Cambodian nationals were arrested for illegally logging rare rosewood trees in Thailand, where they are currently awaiting trial, officials said Wednesday. The arrests marked a long-called-for shift in tactics by Thai authorities: In the past, Thai soldiers and border police have often dealt with illegal ...

Civil society groups  campaigned Wednesday to seek support from three former Prime Ministers in order to limit terms for Premiership. Kol Panha, president of Committee for Free and Fair Election in Cambodia (Comfrel), told reporters that he met with Pen Sovann to ask him to ...

Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday agreed to postpone a meeting with the opposition party’s information department chief, Meach Sovannara, who missed a scheduled meeting in which he was to answer questions regarding his alleged role in a violent protest in July, his lawyer said. ...

The National Assembly’s newly formed bipartisan Human Rights Commission met with representatives from the embattled Lor Peang village on Monday, promising a prompt resolution to their 12-year-old dispute over 145 hectares of land in Kompong Chhnang province. Lork Kheng, deputy chair of the commission, vowed that ...

Former parliamentary candidate and opposition information chief Meach Sovannara said yesterday that he would not appear in court today for questioning related to charges stemming from a violent opposition protest in July. ...

The UN and human rights groups called on the government Friday to honor its obligations as a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and thoroughly investigate the disappearance of 16-year-old Khem Sopath, who was last seen lying ...

A group of 50 migrant workers on Wednesday protested outside a branch of a recruitment agency in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district that they say duped them out of $260 they paid for a guarantee of employment in Thailand. ...

Kem Sokha, newly-elected first vice president of the National Assembly, led a session of the National Assembly Wednesday for the first time after president Heng Samrin went out to have a meeting the outgoing Thai Ambassador to Cambodia for a short period of time. ...

Opposition party leader Sam Rainsy on Wednesday expressed disappointment after his two leading lawmakers failed in votes for the posts of chairpersons of the National Assembly’s eighth and tenth commissions. He said he would push for proper solution in accordance with July 22 agreement. “It is rights ...

The National Assembly carried on session Wednesday to vote for members of remaining commissions. The session was attended by 122 lawmakers from ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). ...

Yim Sovann and Mu Sochua, both prominent lawmakers of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), failed in votes for the posts of chairpersons of the National Assembly’s commissions in confidential votes on Wednesday. The CNRP nominated male-lawmaker Yim Sovann as the head of the National ...

CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha, who was on Tuesday elected National Assembly vice president, told reporters that the opposition party supports recent calls to impose limits on the number of terms a person can serve as prime minister. The issue has been in the local news ...

Civil society advocates – who last week called on parliament to consider amending the constitution to limit prime ministers to two terms in office – are now trying to enlist former premiers to back their proposal. The group, which includes well-known political analysts and representatives of ...

Even within the country’s notoriously overcrowded prison system, inmates in this northern province live in particularly harsh conditions. Approximately 120 prisoners, including 16 women and three children, are held in four cells in the Oddar Meanchey provincial police headquarters. “In one cell we keep 20 or more ...

This week lawmakers from Cambodia’s opposition party are being voted onto 10 parliamentary commissions. This is a key part of a political deal in which the opposition finally agreed to take its 55 seats in parliament, ending its year-long boycott over alleged vote-rigging in the ...

A group of families involved in a land dispute with a businessman in Battambang province will today submit petitions to the National Assembly and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet to plead for intervention. The more than 300 families, from Bavel district’s Boeng Bram commune, maintain that ...

The Committee to Promote Women in Politics (CPWP), and civil society groups in Cambodia have asked the National Assembly and ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to keep Mrs. Khuon Sodary as second vice president of the National Assembly. In a statement issued on Monday, the groups ...