Economic, social and cultural rights

Authorities in Siem Reap province have stopped negotiating with hundreds of families who recently built homes and shops illegally inside the Angkor Archaeological Park, and Defense Minister Tea Banh said they would start razing the structures without their consent. ...

Representatives from housing NGOs yesterday called on the government to do more to help disadvantaged communities access affordable housing. They were speaking at the National Housing Forum, hosted by Habitat for Humanity Cambodia (HHC) at the Intercontinental Hotel, which brought together  NGOs and Land Management Minister ...

The Unesco representative in Cambodia has expressed support for the Apsara Authority’s actions to prevent the spread of illegal constructions in the Angkor Archaeological Park. ...

Sixteen families in Kandal have accused a purported Interior Ministry official of sending soldiers to intimidate them to take their land, though the official denied the claims and said no such dispute existed at all. ...

The government body charged with managing the Angkor Archaeological Park on Monday started tearing down the first of more than 500 homes and shophouses illegally built within the park in the weeks before the June 4 commune elections. ...

About 130 villagers and more than 20 of their children demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Land Management from 8am to noon yesterday, demanding that the government exclude their villages from a proposed development plan and protect their homes by granting them land titles. ...

Chroy Changvar peninsula land disputants yesterday delivered a petition to the Ministry of Land Management rejecting City Hall’s proposal to take away 90 percent of their land for the development of a satellite city. ...

About 100 people representing 162 families from Koh Kong province came to Phnom Penh yesterday to resubmit a petition to the National Assembly and some state institutions asking for intervention in a decade-old land dispute with three sugar companies. Phav Nherng, a representative of the families ...

An NGO is taking aim at development companies in a new report detailing the troubling tactics of construction companies forcibly evicting residents of Phnom Penh. The study, released yesterday, showed that among 77 sites since 2011 throughout Phnom Penh where residents were evicted so their building ...

In recent years, communities displaced by sugar plantations have attempted to reclaim their land by targeting the plantations’ investors and buyers overseas, but a study published last week in the peer-reviewed Journal of Civil Society suggests such efforts may disappoint. ...

Boeung Kak land activists have called on the government to release one of their most prominent representatives, Tep Vanny, who was charged with intentional violence related to a protest outside Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house in 2013, a case reactivated after she was arrested during ...

More than 50 people representing 253 families from Preah Vihear province’s Choam Ksan district resubmitted a petition to the Interior Ministry yesterday, asking authorities to expedite a resolution of their land dispute. ...

More than 100 former Boeung Kak and Borei Keila residents submitted petitions to the premier and various ministries in Phnom Penh yesterday, asking for intervention in their respective land disputes and making various other requests. ...

A little-publicized sub-decree signed in July and discovered by the Post yesterday in an NGO database raises questions as to whether the eviction on Saturday of six ethnic Kuoy families in Preah Vihear was in contravention of an order by Prime Minister Hun Sen. ...

Six ethnic Kuoy families were violently evicted from their homes in Preah Vihear over the weekend, according to eyewitnesses, with further evictions threatened for another 13 families this morning. ...

Rights groups say families being forced off their land by development projects recently revealed to have World Bank Group backing could probably file successful complaints against the institution, effectively forcing it to help the families save their homes or at least win better compensation. ...

Rhona Smith, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia, will start her 10-day visit to the Kingdom today, with plans to meet government officials, opposition party activists and civil society workers. Am Sam Ath, a senior coordinator for rights group Licadho, said he was ...

About 1,000 activists are planning to gather at the former Dey Krahorm neighborhood in central Phnom Penh this morning before marching to the Ministry of Land Management in protest of land and housing evictions, according to those involved, who dismissed City Hall’s ban of the ...

Twenty Cham villagers from Kratie province’s Snuol district yesterday visited the Ministry of Land Management and Urban Planning to demand authorities resolve their community’s seven-year-old land dispute with two rubber companies. ...

A new paper from the International Criminal Court laying out a shift in focus to crimes linked to environmental destruction and the unlawful dispossession of land has rekindled the debate over whether the court will launch an investigation into a case highlighting land-grabbing in Cambodia. ...

Civil society organizations yesterday repeated calls for land disputes to be resolved quickly, peacefully and without authorities using police and the courts to put pressure on communities. Speaking at an event celebrating poor urban communities at the American Intercon School yesterday, more than 200 people, including ...

Ethnic Vietnamese residents of Tonle Sap Lake are continuing to head back to Vietnam in droves due to overbearing and costly rules being strictly enforced by local authorities, robbing many of them of the only homeland they have ever known. Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) official Seorn ...

Four Boeung Kak lake activists, including recently jailed community leader Tep Vanny, will face trial next month for a five-year-old case of insulting and obstructing public officials during a 2011 protest at City Hall. ...

Cham Muslims are not fully integrated into Cambodian society and many Cambodian people continue to think Chams are practitioners of “black magic,” according to a report on religious freedom released last week by the US State Department. ...