Social development
Civil society
Murdered reporter’s wife asks court to expand investigation
The wife of slain journalist Taing Try filed a complaint with the Kratie Provincial Court on Tuesday urging judicial officials to bring charges against two more men, including a local military police chief, for her husband’s murder on Sunday. ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/murdered-reporters-wife-asks-court-to-expand-investigation-69986/
Soldiers took our cameras, allege NGOs
Activists from two local rights groups yesterday accused soldiers in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district of seizing their cameras and stopping them from investigating a land dispute. ...
Phak Seangly
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/soldiers-took-our-cameras-allege-ngos
Another wage body to form
Following a meeting with parliamentarians at the National Assembly yesterday, Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng announced the ministry would form a 27-member committee to study technical aspects of raising the minimum wage in Cambodia’s garment sector. The new committee will comprise nine representatives each from ...
Pech Sotheary and Sean Teehan
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/another-wage-body-form
Men confess to killing journalist
The three men arrested for the murder of 49-year-old journalist Taing Try in Kratie province on Sunday morning confessed to murdering the reporter after he threatened to tell authorities about their illegal logging activities, a police official said. ...
Saing Soenthrith and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-recount-killers-confession-in-slaying-of-journalist-69750/
Consult quickly: Door closing on Laos dam input period
Very quietly, with no official public announcement, the intergovernmental assessment process for Laos’s contentious Don Sahong dam is almost over before anyone knew it began. ...
Laignee Barron
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/consult-quickly-door-closing-laos-dam-input-period
Journalist investigating illegal logging shot dead
A 49-year-old journalist reportedly investigating illegal logging in Kratie province was shot dead early Sunday morning. Within hours, police arrested three men—a commune police chief, a military police officer and a Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldier—for the murder, officials said. Taing Try, who contributed to ...
Saing Soenthrith and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/journalist-investigating-illegal-logging-shot-dead-69629/
Cambodia takes tentative steps to tackle corruption
Luxury cars and fancy homes are among the lavish gifts Cambodia’s political and business elite shower each other with on special occasions but there are hints the government is moving to curb such excesses. Patronage has long been a problem in impoverished Cambodia, with bribery ...
Worldbulletin News Staff
http://www.worldbulletin.net/america-canada/146002/cambodia-takes-tentative-steps-to-tackle-corruption
Land-grab complaint against ANZ filed with OECD
NGOs have filed a new complaint against Australia’s ANZ Bank claiming it owes compensation to 681 Cambodian families who say their farms were illegally grabbed by a sugarcane plantation the bank helped to finance. ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-grab-complaint-against-anz-filed-with-oecd-69444/
City bans pair of marches
City Hall has banned street marches for World Teachers’ Day and World Housing Rights Day, ordering participants to confine their activities to Freedom Park instead. World Teachers’ Day and World Housing Rights Day occur on October 5 and 6, respectively. Planners for both expressed disappointment ...
Taing Vida
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/city-bans-pair-marches
Child labourer injuries rife
Over 85 per cent of child domestic workers in Phnom Penh are injured in the course of their employment, research into child labour released yesterday revealed. The Cambodian Development Research Institute and World Vision International are jointly examining child labour practices in the Kingdom, and the ...
Laignee Barron and Sen David
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/child-labourer-injuries-rife
Cambodia defends plan for Chhay Areng River hydroelectric dam development
Cambodia on Tuesday defended its plan to build the 108-megawatt Chhay Areng River hydropower plant in a jungle in southwestern Koh Kong province, saying the project would greatly contribute to developing the energy sector. “An initial study found that the project has a capacity of 108 ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140930/cambodia-defends-plan-chhay-areng-river-hydroelectric-dam-de
Construction of controversial Areng dam to cost USD 400 mln
The construction of Koh Kong’s Cheay Areng hydrowpower dam will cost USD 400 million and be completed by 2020, said Energy Secretary of State Ith Prang Tuesday. Speaking at a press conference, he said the study of the dam and its impact on environment has been ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/construction-of-controversial-areng-dam-to-cost-usd-400-mln-7401
Wanted: big trucks for a big crowd
With the spectre of potential garment-sector unrest on the horizon and emboldened communities protesting land disputes, the National Police is buying what appear to be the authorities’ first water-cannon trucks designed specifically to control demonstrations. In advertisements in yesterday’s Post and Post Khmer newspapers, the ...
Kevin Ponniah and Chhay Channyda
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/wanted-big-trucks-big-crowd
Cambodian garment workers suffer from anemia, food insecurity: study
A new study indicated that 43. 2 percent of Cambodian garment workers suffered from anemia and 15. 7 percent of workers are underweight, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Monday. The study also found that garment workers spent approximately 1. 3 U.S. dollars per day on ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-09/29/c_133682574.htm
Energy Minister plays down Areng concerns
Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem has issued a letter to the National Assembly commission on the environment, offering assurances that the planned Stung Cheay Areng Hydropower Dam will meet high environmental and social standards. Opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party member Te Chanmony on September ...
May Titthara
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/energy-minister-plays-down-areng-concerns
Villagers refuse relocation
Villagers whose homes will be destroyed if the controversial Lower Sesan 2 Dam is built are to deliver today a letter to provincial authorities announcing that they refuse to be resettled. Meach Mean, coordinator of the 3S Rivers Protection Network, said the villagers, who hail from ...
Alice Cuddy and Phak Seangly
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-refuse-relocation
Protests continue at Kompong Cham factory
About 2,000 workers from the Chinese-owned Juhui Footwear factory in Kompong Cham province began a fresh round of protests on Friday and Saturday over claims that the factory is refusing to rehire unionists who were fired during a strike earlier this month, a provincial official ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/protests-continue-at-kompong-cham-factory-68565/
Cambodia's anti-graft agency receives 728 complaints in 9 months
The Cambodia’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) had received 728 corruption-related complaints in the first nine months of this year, down 16 percent from the same period last year, the agency said in a statement on Sunday. “From January to September 2014, the ACU had received a total ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140928/cambodias-anti-graft-agency-receives-728-complaints-9-months
Minister says wage agreement must be reached next month
Negotiations held on Friday between garment factory owners, union leaders and government officials failed to set a new industry minimum wage for next year, but a final decision will be reached by October 10, according to Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng. The tripartite Labor Advisory Council ...
Sek Odom and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-says-wage-agreement-must-be-reached-next-month-68532/
NGO positive NA wants to tackle corruption
Transparency International Cambodia yesterday presented findings of a recent scathing report on corruption to the newly formed parliamentary anti-corruption commission. ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/ngo-positive-na-wants-tackle-corruption
Rule changes give assembly president broad new powers
National Assembly President Heng Samrin has given himself the power to deny access to the assembly compound, including the offices of all lawmakers, to anyone not employed by the government and has barred all private citizens from testifying before—or sitting in on—assembly commission meetings. In ...
Kuch Naren and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rule-changes-give-assembly-president-broad-new%E2%80%88powers-68216/
APLE defends work on case
Child rights groups Action Pour Les Enfants and International Justice Mission have said they carried out a “detailed and impartial” investigation into claims of sexual abuse before removing six young boys from their families against their parents’ wishes last week. In a statement defending their work ...
Alice Cuddy and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/aple-defends-work-case
UN refugee agency slams Cambodia-Australia deal
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has distanced itself from Australia’s still unsigned deal to transfer refugees from the Nauru refugee detention center for resettlement in Cambodia, one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations. First raised in February, the cash-for-refugees deal is believed to be imminent. ...
Michael Sainsbury
http://www.ucanews.com/news/un-refugee-agency-slams-cambodia-australia-deal/71943
Cambodia arrests 11 in China dam protest
Authorities in western Cambodia have detained 11 activists after they tried to stop further studies for a planned Chinese-built dam. About 30 local villagers and environmental activists in the Areng Valley went to the area Monday to protect barricades they had erected earlier this year to ...
Kimseng Men
http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodia-arrests-11-in-china-dam-protest/2450828.html