Social development
Human rights
Rubber company suspends projects as World Bank investigates
A World Bank-supported rubber company accused of land grabs has suspended some of its projects, as an investigation by the bank continues. The Hoang Anh Gia Lai company, which received support from the bank’s International Finance Corporation, said in a decision following an April 2 ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/rubber-company-suspends-projects-as-world-bank-investigates/1908775.html
Union says three workers arrested over wing star protest
At least three workers were arrested Tuesday morning outside the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kompong Speu province, where the Free Trade Union (FTU) has been leading a strike calling for benefits and back pay, according to police and a union representative. An FTU representative said ...
Mech Dara and Sany Sinary
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-says-three-workers-arrested-over-wing-star-protest-58169/
Garment protest trial defendants deny charges
Defendants in a mass trial of 25 men and teenagers accused of joining a string of violent garment worker protests continued to profess their innocence during the second day of hearings at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday. Twenty-three of the men were arrested in ...
Khy Sovuthy and Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-protest-trial-defendants-deny-charges-58166/
Again, abuse in China alleged
Four parents in Kampong Cham province have filed complaints with provincial police alleging that their daughters are being sexually abused by their husbands in China, officers said yesterday. Thol Meng, deputy bureau chief of the provincial anti-human trafficking department, said a total of 10 concerned mothers ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/again-abuse-china-alleged
CNRP activist detained over political VCDs
Police on Sunday detained a CNRP activist and confiscated 347 political video-CDs that he was transporting to the party’s headquarters in Phnom Penh, police and opposition party officials said Monday. The VCDs showed violent police and military repressions of land and labor activists and last ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-activist-detained-over-political-vcds-58127/
A way of life falls with trees
The Phnong ethnic minority in Mondulkiri province have heard the promises of development before. With increasing investment and the selling off of the region’s forests will come new roads and schools, they are told. But people in this ancient community, tired of seeing their sacred forests handed ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/way-life-falls-trees
Journalists garner support, monks silent in wake of attacks
Condemnation has grown following Friday’s attack on a journalist near Freedom Park as the Ministry of Information joined the U.N. Human Rights Office in denouncing the attacks. On Saturday, the U.N.’s human rights representative in Cambodia, Wan-Hea Lee, called for an investigation into the beating of ...
Kuch Naren and George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/journalists-garner-support-monks-silent-in-wake-of-attacks-58145/
Change airport plans: villagers
Familes living near Phnom Penh’s airport yesterday again called on civil aviation officials to drop an expansion plan that would cut into their property. Following a press conference in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Chao commune, community leader Kao Sovann said members of 63 families will ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/change-airport-plans-villagers
Trial continues: Workers to gather at court house
Observers expect the trial of 23 people arrested during early January strike demonstrations will not be completed today, due to the number of witnesses who may testify. “I think the trial would take more than the time [available today],” Ham Samrith, senior lawyer for the Community ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/trial-continues-workers-gather-court-house
Employees of Wing Star strike again
Thousands of striking factory workers in Kampong Speu province blocked National Road 3 yesterday, an action they say is in response to managers not living up to their end of a deal struck in March. Workers at the Wing Star Shoe factory – which employs about ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/employees-wing-star-strike-again
Kratie Residents seek PM’s help over land dispute in Kratie
About 40 residents from Kratie province rallied on Monday in front of Wat Botum pagoda in order to present a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen over land disputes in their community. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YmRiZjhhMDY5YzQ
Garment workers end strikes in Cambodia's Bavet City
Nearly all workers in two special economic zones in Svay Rieng province ended their strikes and returned to work on Monday after failing to demand a US$50 bonus from employers, Xinhua news agency reports. Kat Lot, vice president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, ...
Bernama News Staff
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1035772
Ministry fails to settle fears over Koh Kong dam
A meeting at the Ministry of Mines and Energy on Friday about plans for a controversial hydropower dam in Koh Kong province failed to assuage fears among those trying to stop the project that construction had already been approved. During Friday’s meeting, officials from the ministry ...
Zsombor Peter and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-fails-to-settle-fears-over-koh-kong-dam-58021/
CNRP holds a citywide rolling rally
Days after authorities repeatedly cracked down on demonstrations, opposition party supporters staged a rolling rally across Phnom Penh yesterday, filling up roads for hours and blocking major intersections. About 500 people with tuk-tuks and motorbikes gathered at the Cambodia National Rescue Party headquarters in the ...
Meas Sokchea and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-holds-citywide-rolling-rally
Gov’t dismisses judicial reform concerns
Human Rights Watch says three draft laws on the verge of approval by the National Assembly, intended to assure the independence of Cambodia’s courts, would do just the opposite, and has called on the government to withdraw them. The Council of Ministers approved the trio of ...
Zsombor Peter and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-dismisses-judicial-reform-concerns-58023/
Military might: soldiers put end to Veng Sreng strike
Soldiers used force on Friday to end a strike at a garment factory on Veng Sreng Boulevard, where demands included a lunch bonus of 2,000 riel and an end to forced overtime, workers and union officials said yesterday. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/military-might-soldiers-put-end-veng-sreng-strike
Injured to file complaints over crackdown
A monk, an opposition lawmaker-elect and a journalist, all assaulted by Daun Penh district security guards near Freedom Park on Friday, said they are in the process of filing legal complaints against the district forces as they recover from their injuries. “I am planning on filing ...
George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/injured-to-file-complaints-over-crackdown-58025/
Security dressed down
For months now, Daun Penh district security forces, identifiable by their dark blue uniforms, black motorbike helmets and merciless truncheon swinging, have been unleashed on protesters, opposition and otherwise, as the all-too-willing enforcers of government-approved crackdowns. But as district forces have begun targeting more journalists during ...
Vong Sokheng and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/security-dressed-down
Human Rights group: Cambodia’s press freedom becomes worse
The freedom of the press and expression in Cambodia becomes worse this year, according the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC). ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=MzBhOGNkZGJiMzE
UN human rights official wraps visit, ‘saddened’ by violence
U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri on Friday wrapped up a five-day mission to Cambodia, saying that she was concerned and “deeply saddened” by the violent beating of bystanders and journalists after a May Day gathering near a cordoned-off Freedom Park. In prepared ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-human-rights-official-wraps-visit-saddened-by-violence-58002/
Amnesty International urges Gov’t to scrap asylum seeker plans
Amnesty International on Friday lambasted a pending deal that would see people seeking asylum in Australia to be resettled in Cambodia. “Australia should be ending its offshore processing and detention of asylum seekers, not looking to outsource its refugee responsibilities to another, much poorer country,” ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/amnesty-international-urges-govt-to-scrap-asylum-seeker-plans-57996/
At government rally, all proceeds smoothly
While workers and opposition supporters marched to mark Labour Day yesterday, and baton-wielding district security guards enforced a ban on gatherings, a very different, uninterrupted rally took place at the capital’s Koh Pich Exhibition Center. About 2,000 workers from pro-government unions and government officials heard Labour ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/government-rally-all-proceeds-smoothly
Five injured in Labor Day clashes near Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park
Security forces in the Cambodian capital violently dispersed Labor Day demonstrators gathered near the city’s Freedom Park Thursday, injuring at least five people, including bystanders, according to eyewitnesses and rights groups. They took the action after opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leaders finished speaking to ...
Rachel Vandenbrink
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/labor-day-05012014194525.html
Cambodia breaks up May Day rally
Several people were injured Thursday when Cambodian authorities broke up a Labour Day rally involving hundreds of garment workers and opposition party supporters in central Phnom Penh. Am Sam Ath, senior monitor of local human rights group Licadho, told Kyodo News he saw at least five ...
Bangkok Post News Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/most-recent/407663/cambodia-breaks-up-may-day-rally