Civil and political rights

Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, is the President of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), the country’s ruling party since 1979. In recent years, when an opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), started gaining momentum and making their voices heard, Sen’s government found ...

More than 200 activists attempting to cycle from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to the National Assembly in Phnom Penh to mark International Women’s Day were penned in by authorities Tuesday morning after pedaling less than 100 meters.​ ...

In a wide-ranging speech to ruling Cambodian People’s Party supporters in California yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen slammed the US government as well as the opposition, and said his presence at the US-ASEAN Summit at Rancho Mirage was no different than that of US President ...

Amid fears of a potential reprise of anti-opposition violence that flared in October, a US Embassy spokesman yesterday called on the government “to ensure that no one is threatened, punished, or harmed in Cambodia” if a planned anti-Hun Sen rally takes place as scheduled next ...

Twelve civil society organizations submitted a joint statement asking the US government and heads of democratic ASEAN members to raise issues of human rights violations in Cambodia and the misuse of courts to stifle the opposition at next week’s US-ASEAN Summit in California, in order ...

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights released a public notice on Monday noting a “substantial increase” in the number of people being charged for making anti-government or anti-Hun Sen comments in social media. ...

 In September 2015, a Facebook page bearing the name of Prime Minister Hun Sen notched up its millionth “like.” Until then, the long-serving Cambodian leader had denied ever using social media, making fun of political rivals, like opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who were active online. ...

With at least four Cambodians killed in recent years trying to uncover environmental crimes, the country ranks as the “deadliest” place in the world to conduct such reporting, according to a new report.  ...

Rights and development groups say a draft law on access to information will be more useful to the public if it has input from outside the government.A number of civil society organizations met in Phnom Penh this week to discuss the law, in hopes of ...

In July, an estimated 2.9 million Cambodians were on Facebook, up from 1.7 million a year earlier.The social networking website Facebook has grown increasingly popular with government officials, who use it to communicate with their constituents and to push their political positions to a younger ...

Cambodian TV news anchor Soy Sopheap has again stepped into the role of political peacemaker in an effort to end the feud between Prime Minister Hun Sen and exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy which threatens to ignite political conflict. ...

A U.S. State Department official told the country’s Senate on Thurs­day that recent political events in Cambodia, including the beatings of lawmakers outside the Nation­al Assembly and the removal of opposition officials from their seats and positions in parliament, were a cause for “grave concern.” ...

A man in Kampong Speu’s Oral district was briefly placed under house arrest yesterday, following his public criticism of the government and prime minister at a town hall meeting.Ung Ny, Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) Oral district executive director, said that 45-year-old Hay Hoeun, a ...

The United Nations human rights office expressed concern today over a worsening climate for opposition politicians and activists in Cambodia, and stressed that the right to peaceful assembly and to freedom of expression belongs to all. ...

Defense Minister Tea Banh says Cambodia’s soldiers should have the right to support demonstrations.Speaking at the airport as he waited for Prime Minister Hun Sen to arrive from an official visit to France, Tea Banh said his troops have a right to “express their opinion.” ...

A Cambodian University student, who was arrested by provincial police in Siem Reap after he threatened to kill Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng on social media, has confessed to the plot to throw a grenade at the government official during the school’s graduation ceremony, the ...

The new United Nations envoy to Cambodia concluded her first official visit to the country Thursday by calling on Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government to ensure the independence of the judiciary amid a host of land and labor disputes she said are encroaching on the ...

Vice president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) Kem Sokha held talk with visiting new UN Human Right Envoy Rhona Smith at the National Assembly today. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen says he will continue to “dismantle” groups that are a threat to the government.In a letter to coincide with the International Day of Peace on Monday, Hun Sen said Cambodian democracy and human rights are making progress, but he also said ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen will meet with the current United Nations Special Rapporteur Rhona Smith at Peace Palace on September 21, 2015. ...

The U.N.’s new special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, Rhona Smith will make her first official visit eight-day in Cambodia. ...

Cambodian pro-democracy and rights groups have written a statement of principles to guide Internet freedom in the country, following the arrests of activists for Facebook posts. ...

Cambodia announced plans this week to form a new government department responsible for monitoring and cracking down on a range of vaguely defined “online” crimes, drawing expressions of concern from human rights groups and the country’s political opposition. ...

The General Commissariat of National Police has recently established a new department called “Department for Anti-technology Crime”, said Gen. Khieu Sopheak, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior. ...