Human rights

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.​ ...

As the government issued a familiar package of platitudes and promises on International Women’s Day, a walk through a single rural village in Kandal offered a shocking glimpse into how widespread – and widely accepted – domestic abuse remains in the Kingdom. ...

Roughly 100 Phnom Penh residents who believe they will be affected by a planned expressway leading from the airport to the city centre protested again at the Ministry of Public Works yesterday, demanding that community representatives be included on the committee that settles such matters ...

Cambodia’s ambassador to Asean on Friday rebuked his U.S. counterpart for comments she made on the country’s human rights situation, asking her to refrain from “criticizing Cambodia inappropriately.” ...

Cambodia has been taken to task in Amnesty International’s latest global report, which said the Southeast Asian country continued to abuse human rights while allowing impunity to continue unchecked. ...

The top U.S. envoy to ASEAN said on Wednesday that despite trade and security issues being at the cen­ter of last week’s U.S.-ASEAN Sum­mit, U.S. President Barack Obama also used the setting to address the region’s human rights problems. ...

Cambodians continue to suffer from a raft of human rights abuses in­cluding “arbitrary restrictions” on freedoms of assembly and ex­pression, according to Amnesty In­ternational’s latest global report re­leased this morning. ...

A grinning Prime Minister Hun Sen walked up to US President Barack Obama and shook his hand in California yesterday, lending the premier his long-sought aura of legitimacy even as hundreds of angry Cambodians protested his 31-year rule less than half of a kilometre away. ...

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 ...

More than 100 Southeast Asian parliamentarians are urging President Barack Obama to address regional human rights issues during his meetings with ASEAN leaders next week, according to an open letter posted online Thursday. ...

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 Cambodia Confederation Development Association (CCDA), a well-known tuk-tuk and moto-taxi association, plans to lodge complaints against local rights group Licadho next week over a statement the NGO co-signed with 33 other civil society groups regarding the association’s involvement in a Saturday protest at the ...

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. ...

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong is in China this week for official talks aimed at strengthening trade and security ties. ...

Human Rights Watch (HRW), long one of the most strident critics of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling party, again slammed the government on Wednesday for its failure to uphold human rights in Cam­bodia, with the release of its World Report 2016. ...

Cambodian democracy regressed last year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2015 Democracy Index, which indicates that the Kingdom is “on the cusp of the ‘authoritarian regime’ category”. ...

Ahead of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s planned visit to Cambodia this week, local and international NGOs have urged Mr. Kerry not to sign any new bilateral agreements unless Cambodia vows to improve its human rights and democracy efforts. ...

Riot police and municipal security guards shunted a group of would-be mourners around Phnom Penh’s southern industrial precinct on Sunday morning as they attempted to mark the second anniversary of the day military police marched along Veng Sreng Boulevard firing assault rifles into crowds of ...

 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. ...

More than 160 families in Kratie province’s Snuol district have alleged that the Memot Rubber Plantation company has been using excavators to clear their land. ...

A small group of human rights advocates and other Cambodian-Americans met recently in Virginia to discuss Cambodia’s ongoing problems with human rights abuse.Participants discussed the difficulty in promoting human rights and democracy in Cambodia, where political pressure and powerful individuals often intervene. ...

Close to 2,000 people, including monks, NGO workers and citizens, marched peacefully to the Ministry of Justice yesterday morning, defying City Hall’s ban on the Human Rights Day protest.Demonstrators from 16 different provinces marched from three separate locations – the Senate, Chenla Cinema and Wat ...

Authorities in Siem Reap yesterday blocked a march celebrating International Human Rights Day (IHRD), as officials in Phnom Penh reiterated their threat to shut down a planned mass rally in the capital on Thursday.As IHRD, officially on December 10, approaches, associated demonstrations across the Kingdom ...