Social development
Human rights
KDC workers petition against the release of five villagers
Workers at the center of a land dispute between villagers in Kompong Chhnang province and a company owned by the wife of the mines and energy minister on Thursday pressed forward with a campaign against the release of five villagers who were imprisoned over violence ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kdc-workers-petition-against-the-release-of-five-villagers-67270/
Guards move batons aside in rare show of benevolence
Over the past year, Phnom Penh officials have proven themselves to be an unyielding group in the face of dissent, and the helmeted, baton-wielding security guards who answer to them the scourge of protesters. On Wednesday, however, Daun Penh district officials took a softer approach when ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/guards-move-batons-aside-in-rare-show-of-benevolence-67226/
Right activist says freedom of assembly is hostage of politicians
Ny Chakriya, senior official from human rights group ADHOC, said that freedom of assembly is hostage in hand of politicians. When they get along well with each other, the freedom of expression and assembly is widely opened. Chakriya said Thursday during a ceremony held to announce ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=Yzk2YmFjMmYyNDk
Kem Sokha leads parliament sessions
Kem Sokha, newly-elected first vice president of the National Assembly, led a session of the National Assembly Wednesday for the first time after president Heng Samrin went out to have a meeting the outgoing Thai Ambassador to Cambodia for a short period of time. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=ZWQ4ZjhhMDhlYzB
Kratie land dispute unsolved after latest talks
Representatives of villagers in Kratie province locked in a land dispute with an agribusiness firm said discussions with land management and provincial officials at the Snuol district hall ended Tuesday without a resolution. ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kratie-land-dispute-unsolved-after-latest-talks-67198/
Villagers questioned over dispute with senator
The Koh Kong Provincial Court questioned four villager representatives Tuesday over alleged violence and property damage in an ongoing land dispute with CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat’s Koh Kong Special Economic Zone company. ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-questioned-over-dispute-with-senator-67200/
Tempers flare at bus protest
Resolution continued to elude 17 former bus drivers for the Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation Company yesterday when a demonstration at the company’s headquarters was roughly dispersed by company security after the ex-staffers tried to block buses from leaving. Sambath Vorn, president of the union whose founding ...
Mom Kunthear and Tat Oudom
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tempers-flare-bus-protest
Lor Peang villagers march to Justice Ministry, National Assembly
A group of Kompong Chhnang villagers in a fight for land with the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem delivered petitions to the Ministry of Justice and National Assembly on Monday, one of five communities from across the country that have recently traveled ...
Khuon Narim and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lor-peang-villagers-march-to-justice-ministry-national-assembly-67138/
Amid overcrowding, inmates build new prison
Even within the country’s notoriously overcrowded prison system, inmates in this northern province live in particularly harsh conditions. Approximately 120 prisoners, including 16 women and three children, are held in four cells in the Oddar Meanchey provincial police headquarters. “In one cell we keep 20 or more ...
Lauren Crothers and Ouch Sony
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/amid-overcrowding-inmates-build-new-prison-67129/
Battambang families to petition Prime Minister
A group of families involved in a land dispute with a businessman in Battambang province will today submit petitions to the National Assembly and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet to plead for intervention. The more than 300 families, from Bavel district’s Boeng Bram commune, maintain that ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/battambang-families-to-petition-prime-minister-67156/
Workers take pay dispute to ministry of labor
Hundreds of garment workers traveled from a Kompong Chhnang factory to Phnom Penh on Monday to petition the Ministry of Labor to intervene in their dispute with factory management. About 3,000 workers from the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory have been striking since August 18, accusing ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-take-pay-dispute-to-ministry-of-labor-67148/
Villagers pushed back from Hun Sen’s house
About 70 residents from Kandal province’s Ponhea Leu district were blocked on Saturday from marching to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Phnom Penh villa, where they planned to appeal for support in a long-running land dispute. The residents were representing 134 families from four villages in Chhvang ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-pushed-back-from-hun-sens-house-67107/
Rubber giant to hear villagers’ complaints
More than 15 months after a Global Witness report revealed that Vietnam’s state-owned rubber giant had illegally cleared land and displaced communities in Cambodia, the company has announced that it will accept and respond to complaints from those whose lives it has damaged. Vietnam Rubber Group, ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rubber-giant-to-hear-villagers-complaints-67074/
Stranded migrants on their way home
To get his teenage daughter and niece on a plane yesterday after 10 months of alleged abuse and forced marriages in China, Kim Vicheat* said he had to bury his family in debt because the Cambodian consulate refused to fund their repatriation. The two 19-year-olds told The ...
Laignee Barron and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/stranded-migrants-their-way-home
Australia wants to resettle refugees on remote island, Cambodian opposition leader says
Australia has considered sending up to 1000 refugees to live on a remote island off the coast of impoverished Cambodia under a controversial resettlement agreement,, according to an opposition leader in Phnom Penh. Australian officials have visited several sites to accommodate the refugees now on Nauru, ...
Striking factory workers thwart police arrests
Police in Kompong Chhnang province on Thursday were prevented from arresting workers and union officials outside a Samakki Meanchey district garment factory by a mob of irate protesters who pulled two of their colleagues out of a police car to thwart their arrests. About 3,000 employees ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/striking-factory-workers-thwart-police-arrests-66997/
In China, nowhere to run
In yet another case of Cambodian women facing abuse in China, a 19-year-old told the Post yesterday that she has taken to living on the streets after the consulate in Shanghai refused to pay for her repatriation. Kim Sophea*, who claims she has been forced into marriage in ...
Sen David and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/china-nowhere-run
More Than 1,000 Faintings Reported in Cambodian Factories This Year
The faintings between January and August were much higher than the 802 reported in the whole of last year, while only one factory worker died in the workplace in 2013, the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) said in a ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/faintings-08212014140815.html
Hun Sen Calls Rights Worker ‘an Idiot’
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday lashed out at the rights group Adhoc, angered by comments rights workers have made about land grabs in recent years. During a speech in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen called a rights worker from the group “insolent and an idiot.” ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/hun-sen-calls-rights-worker-an-idiot/2423347.html
Land at risk: Families in Kratie wary over moves
Kratie town and provincial administrators met with representatives of families living alongside Kratie Town Hall yesterday after receiving a petition expressing villagers’ concern that the town hall planned to expand its premises onto their land. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-risk-families-kratie-wary-over-moves
Three Opposition Activists Remain in Detention After July Violence
Rights groups are calling for the release of three opposition activists who have been held in detention since violent clashes with security forces in July. The activists have been held despite a political deal last month between the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the opposition Cambodia ...
Heng Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/three-opposition-activists-remaon-in-detention-after-july-violence/2422001.html
ANZ says no to evicted Cambodian farmers
ANZ has ruled out helping hundreds of poor Cambodian families forcibly evicted from their land to make way for sugar-cane plantations that involved child labour and led to food shortages. Fairfax Media this year revealed confidential audits that disclosed that ANZ’s Cambodian subsidiary, ANZ Royal Bank, ...
Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/anz-says-no-to-evicted-cambodian-farmers-20140819-105sib.html
Garment workers at two factories go on strike for more pay
About 3,000 garment workers went on strike in Kompong Chhnang province for a second day Tuesday, accusing their factory of withholding some of their monthly bonuses. Employees from the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory blocked National Road 5 for more than four hours Tuesday, claiming that ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-workers-at-two-factories-go-on-strike-for-more-pay-66897/
NGO says legal action over land disputes on the rise
The number of people charged in land disputes across the country so far this year has already surpassed the number of charges in all of 2013 in what rights group Adhoc on Tuesday called an “alarming” increase in legal action against those wrapped up in ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngo-says-legal-action-over-land-disputes-on-the-rise-66873/