Human rights

Rhona Smith, the UN Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia, is to arrive in Phnom Penh on Monday to monitor the current situation in the Kingdom at the invitation of the government. During an 11-day visit from April 29 to ...

Thousands of supporters of the Supreme Court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) on Saturday gathered in the South Korean city of Gwangju to hold a candlelight demonstration calling for the “liberation” of democracy in Cambodia. Yim Sinorn, a CNRP member in South Korea, said on ...

Preah Sihanouk provincial authorities on Sunday sent eight people to court for blocking National Road 4 and using violence against authorities in a land dispute in Prey Nop district’s Bit Traing commune. Four police officers and two commune security guards sustained injuries when the protesters ...

A group of international business associations representing garment, footwear and travel goods buyers have called on the government to improve labour and human rights conditions in the Kingdom in the face of possible preferential trade agreement changes by the United States and European Union. In February, ...

City Hall will hold a consultative forum with non-governmental organisations tomorrow to discuss challenges in resolving issues and also promote cooperation between the government and civil society groups. The forum, to be held on Koh Pich, will be presided over by Phnom Penh Governor Khuong ...

The government on Tuesday said it had “noted” 25 recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), saying they were part of a political agenda and linked to the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). It accepted the other 173 recommendations ...

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Cambodian authorities to immediately reveal the whereabouts of a land activist who was “forcibly disappeared” in Preah Vihear province. It said it was the first time such a thing had occurred since the country was ruled by a single ...

Ouk Chetana, a 39-year-old mother of two, sits on a bamboo bed in a temporary home after the house she had lived in since 2009 was destroyed by authorities, as the village she shared with some 200 other families was deemed to have encroached on ...

Civil society organisations dealing with environmental issues yesterday urged the Environment Ministry to disclose environmental impact assessment reports due to a lack of public information on whether or not companies comply with their reports after development projects have been approved. In a workshop on “Promoting Environmental ...

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith yesterday confirmed that the draft law on Access to Information has been inserted into the 6th mandate of the government’s strategic plan. In an announcement dated yesterday that addressed public and civil society groups’ requests, Mr Kanharith said the ministry had ...

The EU on Monday announced that it has begun the 18-month process of withdrawing the Kingdom’s access to its preferential Everything But Arms (EBA) agreement over “a deterioration of democracy [and] respect for human rights”. ...

A group of 19 non-governmental organisations and associations have urged the Kingdom’s legislative and executive bodies to expedite the passage of a draft law on freedom of information, which the group said had been delayed for years. ...

The Justice Ministry yesterday hit back at US-based Human Rights Watch over a report accusing the government of failing to provide free medical treatment for victims of acid attacks or take action against perpetrators. HRW on Monday issued a 48-page report titled “What Hell Feels Like: ...

Survivors of acid attacks in Cambodia are being denied free government treatment that they are legally entitled to, Human Rights Watch says. Its report focused on 17 survivors, none of whom are said to have received government aid for their injuries. ...

Cambodian authorities have ordered an investigation into violent clashes over a land dispute in which a protester was shot, after a video clip of the incident sparked outrage on social media. A man was shot and a 10-year-old boy injured in the clash last week ...

The former senior adviser to the Supreme Court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Kong Korm, has been named the honorary president of the Khmer Will Party (KWP). The appointment came after Korm and his son Kong Bora became the first of 118 banned senior CNRP ...

The Cambodia Human Rights Committee (CHRC) led a delegation to participate in the 32nd Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, for the third time, it said in a press release issued on Friday. It said Cambodia had already submitted documents last ...

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith on Friday said Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) would be allowed to reopen their offices only after fulfilling their tax obligations. In a letter dated January 25 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, ...

Teachers in Preah Vihear province and the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association (Cita) have denounced a letter issued on Tuesday by the provincial education department banning teachers from tutoring on Sundays and public holidays. ...

King Norodom Sihamoni on Tuesday granted “rehabilitation” to Kong Korm and his son Kong Bora – the first of 118 opposition officials banned from politics for five years to request a royal decree – allowing them to return to the political fold. The 118 high-ranking ...

The Preah Sihanouk provincial authority will continue with plans to bulldoze some 20 homes in Sihanoukville, after authorities failed to find a solution to an ongoing land dispute with villagers during a visit on Monday. The homes, located in Village I, Commune I, have faced ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen raised cyber-security and access to information in his address to nearly 5,000 participants at the correspondents’ dinner held on Friday in Phnom Penh. In his speech, Hun Sen called on officials and members of the press to wage a fight against ...

Some 40 local and international journalists from several media outlets in Cambodia released an open letter on Thursday, calling for the court to drop charges against two former Radio Free Asia (RFA) reporters. The call comes following the release of journalists Uon Chhin and Yeang ...

Some 1,000 villagers on Tuesday blocked National Road 2 in Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district, each demanding compensation of $250 from the provincial authority for communal land they claim a former commune chief sold to a well-connected developer without their knowledge in 2008. ...