Ethnic minorities and indigenous people

Communities are already facing lawsuits for traditional farming practices and seeing encroachment on ancestral lands as new draft laws are set to further erode protections, indigenous groups warned in a forum with government officials on Wednesday. ...

Changes to forestry and protected area laws are proceeding without enough public input, communities say, as drafts introduce hunting licenses and remove wording about ethnic minorities. The country’s Protected Areas Law and Forestry Law are being amended by the environment and agriculture ministries, respectively, sparking growing ...

Preah Vihear Provincial Court last week questioned five community representatives from Prame commune over allegations that they had issued a death threat to a man who had been clearing contested land in Tbeng Meanchey district. ...

Four forestry community representatives in Mondulkiri province have filed a complaint with local authorities against the provincial prosecutor’s office, accusing them of failing to prevent forest crime in a timely manner. ...

On December 6, 2022, 10 indigenous people submitted their petitions to the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, and the Office of the Council of Ministers to seek the intervention to help resolve their land disputes. ...

Indigenous Bunong families from Mondulkiri are petitioning government institutions about 255 hectares of community land transferred to a tycoon amid nationwide state-land privatizations. ...

Young indigenous women and people working to support the development of indigenous women found that young indigenous women live in a situation where information is lacking due to social perspective and public service. ...

Kun Lbokator, Cambodia’s traditional martial art, has just been inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO. ...

The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts will host a Gala Night Charity Dinner next month to raise funds to support the humanitarian activities of Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital. ...

Representatives of indigenous peoples in Mondulkiri province file a petition at the office of Prime Minister Hun Sen to keep more than 200 hectares of community land for residents and stop giving that land to a private company for development that will affect their livelihood. ...

Indigenous people in Laoka village, Sokdom commune, Sen Monorom city, Mondulkiri province, request the authorities to take action to prevent the clearing of the mountainous land, which is a place of worship and the extraction of non-timber forest products as they claim that the perpetrators ...

On Friday, more than 20 representatives of the Kuy indigenous group in Ngon commune, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province gathered in front of the Kampong Thom Provincial Court while an indigenous witness testifies to the case of their representative involved in a land dispute. ...

Indigenous people representing nearly 100 families in Sen Monorom commune, O’Raing district, Mondulkiri province, have filed a complaint against the authorities for granting 255 hectares of their land to a private company for investment and development as a natural tourism area. ...

An outside the court settlement was made in the biggest land dispute in Mondulkiri province had seen since 2019. Bousra commune chief Yeut Savin said yesterday that land disputes involving three companies – Varanasi Economic Land Concession Company, Socfin-KCD Company, Kovipama Company – and indigenous ...

The Department of Culture and Fine Arts of Kampong Chhnang province is making 100 kites to dedicate to the wind god at a traditional event that Cambodians hold on December 8. ...

Nearly 100 indigenous people in Sen Monorom commune, Oreang district, Mondulkiri province, protested in front of the commune hall on Wednesday against authorities cutting their 255 hectares of land to Oknha. ...

After campaigns to retrieve Cambodian artefacts mostly focused in the western hemisphere, the Cambodian delegation searching for the looted artefacts will be focusing on museums in Asia. ...

Hun Sen, Prime Minister and President of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), reaffirmed on Thursday that CPP has carried out well the policy of racial and religious harmony, which allows all religions to coexist. ...

Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, said on Thursday that religion plays a key role in building mental peace, social security, and religious harmony in Cambodia and around the world. ...

Civil society organizations and indigenous peoples’ representatives call on the government to disclose information to the public and include additional elements in the “Right to Information Law” to reduce corruption while they still face some challenges in obtaining sensitive information from government. ...

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Dao Cuong and  secretary of state and spokesman of Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts Long Ponnasirivath signed a cultural and artistic cooperation programme for the 2023 – 2027 period at a meeting in Ho ...

The Kbal Romeas community requests the authorities to help protect their forests from the Chinese company Sivgex and expedite the establishment of another 3,000 hectares of their communal land. ...

Mondulkiri provincial environment officials are working to identify loggers who a Bunong indigenous community accused of clearing nearly 100ha of community forest in Koh Nhek district’s Rayum commune. ...

Indigenous communities attempting to register communal lands are often left in bureaucratic limbo and are at risk of losing this land, advocates said this week, even as the government handed more than 4,000 hectares to three communities in May. ​ ...