Law and judiciary

Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng became the latest senior member of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CPP government to accuse the opposition CNRP of attempting to “topple” the government though what he claimed is a “constitutional coup.” In a posting to the Interior Ministry ...

Two human rights groups on Friday appealed to Interior Minister Sar Kheng to intervene after the General Department of Prisons, which is part of the Interior Ministry, refused to allow representatives from their organizations to meet with some of the 23 union activists and protesters ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy says the international community is now pushing hard for serious human rights reforms in Cambodia. Sam Rainsy, head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, was this week in Geneva, where a UN human rights review of Cambodia took place. The UN’s Human Rights ...

A member of the European Parliament is in Cambodia investigating agri-business firms accused of evicting hundreds of families while benefiting from a free-trade scheme with Europe worth millions of dollars, according to the NGO Equitable Cambodia. The visit from France’s Patrice Tirolien follows a resolution the ...

Just weeks after the country’s only independent teachers’ association staged a strike for higher wages, Phnom Penh’s education chief told teachers this week that they must stop taking bribes to comply with the government’s promised reform agenda. Speaking to about 500 educators, mainly school directors, from ...

An outspoken CNRP youth activist who claims that her passport application was leaked by immigration police said Thursday that she will lead protests in front of the Ministry of Interior and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s residence in Phnom Penh if authorities do not attempt to ...

Five police from Phnom Penh’s Dangkor and Russey Keo districts could face charges for allegedly beating false confessions out of three suspects, a technique human rights observers say is pervasive in Cambodia. Judges and lawyers at Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday questioned the three Russey Keo ...

Cambodia is preparing three long-awaited laws aimed at restoring its widely criticized judicial system. However, two of the three draft laws obtained by VOA Khmer still need a lot more improvement, according to legal experts. The laws focus on codifying court jurisdiction, laying out guidelines for ...

The government has slammed broadcasters Radio Free Asia and Voice of America as “political instruments serving the interests of the opposition party” and accused them of fabricating news in a speech delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on Tuesday. The US-government-funded broadcasters have been taken ...

A labour law expert from the International Labour Organization yesterday rejected claims made by Cambodian factories and employers associations that workers in the Kingdom have no fundamental right to strike. In a paid advertisement in the Post yesterday, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) and ...

Rights groups yesterday called on ANZ bank to help address alleged labour and environmental violations at Phnom Penh Sugar Company instead of walking away from the problem. A joint statement released yesterday by Equitable Cambodia and Inclusive Development International said it would be wrong for the ...

A week after they began their campaign, activists and rights groups handed out the last of their petitions to embassies across Phnom Penh on Wednesday, hoping to solicit the help of foreign governments in securing the release of 23 men arrested earlier this month at ...

Though Cambodia had four years to implement 91 recommendations on how to improve its human rights record, U.N. member states still had to push for action in a number of key areas during its second Universal Periodic Review hearing in Geneva on Tuesday. In a speech ...

Video footage of Daun Penh district deputy governor Sok Penh Vuth bashing a defenceless man with a bullhorn on Monday has sparked outrage and demands for his ouster, but his boss told the Post yesterday that people shouldn’t be too hasty to judge, suggesting the footage may ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday laid out more details in his plan to introduce a series of political reforms after a narrow win for his long-ruling CPP at the polls in July, including creating a new national working group and establishing public forums to ...

The Ministry of Interior has suspended the operation of an orphanage after it found that its director had colluded with a recruitment agency to cheat migrant workers out of an alleged $600,000, officials said Tuesday. “The Ministry of Interior temporarily suspends all activities of Our Friends ...

Authorities in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Creada district on Wednesday set up roadblocks to prevent indigenous minority villagers from traveling to Sen Monorom City to attend a demonstration calling for an end to illegal logging, villagers and authorities said. Some 300 indigenous villagers had planned to attend ...

The Ministry of Defense released a statement Wednesday condemning an opposition party spokesman for allegedly “looking down on” Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government and the armed forces. The statement, dated Tuesday, attacked CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann for comments made to the media on January 23, in ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on all embassies and consulates to accelerate visa application procedures and end all “unofficial” fees. Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong said the government would crackdown on corruption related to the issue of visas. According to a Phnom Penh Post ...

General Neang Phat has become the second senior military official to wade into the current political impasse between Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CPP government and the CNRP, accusing the opposition party of trying to destabilize the country, according to a local media report. Gen. Phat, who ...

Two days after uniformed security personnel were recorded on video in Phnom Penh chasing and beating demonstrators at will, a man police say admitted to using a slingshot at the scene to “inflame protesters’ anger towards police” was charged in court. After two hours of questioning ...

Four witnesses appeared at Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday to testify on behalf of 13 of the 23 men detained in Kampong Cham’s Correctional Centre 3 since crackdowns on striking garment workers at the beginning of this month, a lawyer representing the 13 said. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday charged a man with committing violence under aggravating circumstances after he was detained by protesters at a demonstration in Phnom Penh on Sunday and handed over to police on suspicion of instigating violence at the rally near Freedom ...

Cambodia’s human rights record was assessed Tuesday by the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 47 member states in Geneva, many of which cited concerns about the recent violent suppression of protests by the government, and a judiciary beholden to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling CPP. The U.N. ...