Law and judiciary

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday sentenced the manager of job recruitment agency VC Manpower to 13 months in prison for ilegally detaining underage recruits at a Phnom Penh training center, while the firm’s foreign director was convicted in absentia to eight years’ imprisonment General Manager ...

An opposition Sam Rainsy Party activist who was badly beaten on September 16 by riot police during a protest against the demolition of homes at Boeng Kak lake filed a complaint yesterday with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against developer Shukaku Inc and the officers ...

Provincial authorities in Siem Reap will demand that the Angkor Village Hotel and Resort respect an Arbitration Council decision, which it has so far baulked at, ordering to reinstate more than 60 workers fired since July. Following protests outside the hotel and at a court hearing ...

The US House of Representatives has renewed a trade law experts said could have a substantial effect on Cambodia’s exports to the United States, as well as the future of the Kingdom’s manufacturing sector. The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program waived tariffs on about US$13 ...

A group of independent trade unions yesterday put forth a list of demands for changes to Cambodia’s first trade union law, which will be finalised by the government in the coming months. Unionists said the revisions were necessary, as the current draft law would undermine unions ...

Multiple government ministries and the International Labor organization will form a group to investigate the mass fainting that have plagued Cambodia’s garment industry over the past several months, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said yesterday. There have been at least 15 mass fainting since the beginning ...

Authorities in Kompong Thom province yesterday forced a pagoda to withdraw its invitation to host a workshop about forest protection, continuing their pressure on two NGOs that provide community legal education in the province, a monk and NGO worker said. Chin Neth, chief monk at ...

The government has dropped controversial criminal penalties targeting unionists in its latest draft of the union law, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said yesterday. Addressing a meeting of representatives of international apparel brands, including Nike, Adidas and PUMA, unions, government officials and the International Labour Organisation, ...

Road accidents claimed the lives of 1,816 people in 2010, a slight increase from the 1,717 killed in 2009, according to a report by the Cambodia Road Crash and Victim Information System. The total number of casualties from road accidents reached 18,287 in 2010, according ...

Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has summoned for questioning two rights group activists and a journalist over charges that they incited ethnic minority villagers in Lumphat district to violence in 2009, a court official said yesterday. The case against the three men – Adhoc provincial coordinator Pen ...

Kompong Thom provincial authorities have threatened to shut down two NGOs who have been providing free legal education to poor villagers in the province, accusing the groups of fomenting rural unrest against private investors. The NGOs, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and the Natural ...

Weak enforcement of mining laws excludes local communities from the decision-making process and smudges the revenue transparency, said George Boden, a campaigner at watchdog group Global Witness. Weak enforcement of mining laws excludes local communities from the decision-making process and smudges the revenue transparency, said ...

Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has extended a deadline for 52 villagers embroiled in a long-standing land dispute with a development company owned by the wife of Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem to pay court fees, a court official and rights workers said ...

The government is drafting a new law that will aim at improving auditing standards and management practices at all of Cambodia’s ports on the coast and rivers and at dry ports inland, officials said yesterday. Speaking at a workshop on port regulation in Phnom Penh, ...

Agriculture Ministry officials said yesterday that they would soon complete a new law to regulate and support the creation of farmers’ cooperatives. They said the law would allow farmers to organize cooperatives, which could improve their market position and allow access to financial and technical ...

As the creation of Cambodia’s first law on trade unions enters a final phase this week, labor activists and unions said the draft law as it stands is in urgent need of revision, as it would cripple unions and severely undermine collective bargaining rights. They ...

Ten international organizations including Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, and Global Witness have urged dozens of foreign ministers to consider freezing aid to Cambodia if the government passes the current draft of its proposed NGO law. In a letter sent Wednesday to 36 foreign ministers ...

Officials in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district said yesterday that all transportation of sand across the old and new Preah Monivong bridges has been banned for the duration of the rainy season to protect the road surface and avoid accidents. According to a City Hall announcement ...

Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has ordered 40 families embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the wife of Minister of Industry Suy Sem to pay court fees of up to $155 each, or have their complaints dropped. The villagers, however, say they are too poor ...

The government has brought into force a new law that makes all illegal payments to officials punishable by up to 15 years in jail for those who accept such payments and up to 10 years for those who make payments. Im Oudom, a member of ...

Further development of Bassac Garden City is to be halted after a court order was issued. This means that no more “construction, selling, renting, pawning, giving as donation, bequeathment or transference of ownership of the 3,000 square meters of land,” can happen. There is currently ...

Three villagers who were part of a protest over a land dispute with the Meng Keth Company have been summoned to court for questioning over alleged violence during the protest. The land dispute is over 65 contested hectares of land that was granted to the ...

Three villagers have been summoned as a result of  bloody clash last year stemming from a land dispute and eviction by the Kompong Speu Provincial Court. The 65 hectares of land have been awarded to Kuo Sheng a Taiwanese businessman by the Supreme court. Licadho, ...

The last of the Chi Kraeng villagers has been freed by the Appeal Court after it upheld their acquittal. The villagers had originally been convicted of forcibly detaining two businessmen over a land dispute involving 475 hectares of rice paddies in Siem Reap in 2009. ...