Social development
Human rights
Supporters of 21 to march to embassies
Activists may find themselves in a showdown with police this morning during a planned vigil on Phnom Penh’s riverside and a march to several embassies. National Military Police spokesman Kheng Tito said yesterday that people supporting the release of 21 people detained during a garment strike ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/supporters-21-march-embassies
Un envoy visits Boeng Kak, condemns killings
The U.N.’s special rapporteur on freedom of assembly and association, Maina Kiai, on Friday wrapped up a three-day unofficial visit to Cambodia by paying a visit to the Boeng Kak community, the site of the country’s longest-running land dispute. Inside the home of high-profile Boeng ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-visits-boeng-kak-condemns-killings-51726/
ADB waters down plans to amend mistakes in Cambodia
Newly approved plans by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to fix mistakes it made on a $143 million railway project appear to water down recommendations proposed by the Bank’s own review panel, and could impose the costs of the plan on the very families who ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/adb-waters-down-plans-to-amend-mistakes-in-cambodia-51763/
Bailed Garment Workers Speak of Injustice Ahead of March
In the weeks that 17-year-old garment worker Yon Chea languished in prison, he spent hours staring out of the window at a concrete wall, certain that he would never see his home or his family again. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday morning granted ...
Mech Dara and Alice Cuddy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bailed-garment-workers-speak-of-injustice-ahead-of-march-51759/
Police arrest 11 Cambodians for illegally crossing the border to Thailand
Police arrested 11 Cambodian people while they were trying to illegally cross the border to work in Thailand. Thousands of Cambodian people reportedly crossed the border illegally to find jobs and cut down trees in Thailand every year, prompting the Thai soldiers to open fire ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=NjA3NDQ4ZjhlOGE
Two of 23 jailed protesters granted bail; release date unknown
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday morning granted bail to two of the 23 union activists and protesters jailed following the lethal suppression of garment worker strikes by military police on January 3. Municipal court presiding Judge Leang Samnatt held an unscheduled hearing on Friday ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/two-of-23-jailed-protesters-granted-bail-release-date-unknown-51734/
Threat to unleash ‘paratroopers’ in land dispute
About 200 villagers locked in a land dispute with the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) in Koh Kong province said they were warned on Friday that “paratroopers” would be brought in if they continued to block a road to the company’s headquarters in Botum Sakor ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/threat-to-unleash-paratroopers-in-land-dispute-51740/
Garment workers to receive USD 100 per month from February
The Government already issued a Decision to require the employers to increase the minimum wage for the factory workers to USD 100 per month, starting from February 2014, said a government official. Vong Savann, a senior official of the Labor Ministry added that the Decision was ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NmY5MTVmYTZhMzE
UNESCO chief deplores ‘brutal’ killing of Cambodian journalist
The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom today deplored the killing of Cambodian journalist Suon Chan and called for those responsible for the killing to be brought to justice. A group of men wielding stones and bamboo sticks attacked Mr. ...
UN News Centre Staff
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47103&Cr=journalist&Cr1=#.UvX3TNJmi1I
ADB admits mistakes over controversial railway project in Cambodia
In a rare admission, the Asian Development Bank has surprisingly acknowledged its own shortcomings following a controversial railway rehabilitation project in Cambodia that sparked complaints from thousands of displaced local residents affected by forced resettlements, insufficient compensations and neglect of their human rights. The concerns were confirmed by the Compliance ...
Lean Alfred Santos
https://www.devex.com/en/news/adb-admits-mistakes-over-failed-railway-project-in/82809
First sentence given for facebook comments
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday fined a 29-year-old hairstylist and make-up artist 2 million riel, or about $500, and ordered her to pay 5 million riel, or about $1,250, in compensation to a rival beauty parlor owner she defamed on Facebook. The sentence is ...
Eang Mengleng And Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/first-sentence-given-for-facebook-comments-51649/
Worse off than before
In May of 2010, just four days after their family was resettled in Battambang province, two children, accompanied by their sister-in-law, walked to a pond. Stories differ as to why they were there. Rights groups say they went to bathe and collect water. Police claim ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/worse
Villagers block road, demand compensation
About 140 villagers in Koh Kong province set up a roadblock for the second consecutive day Thursday, demanding compensation from a Chinese company they say burned down their homes to make way for part of a multibillion-dollar tourist resort, according to a rights worker and ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-block-road-demand-compensation-51643/
UN envoy raises assembly ban concerns
Maina Kiai, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the freedom of assembly and association, met with a Foreign Affairs Ministry official Thursday and raised concerns about the government’s blanket ban on gatherings in Phnom Penh. His visit wraps up today, and a thematic report he will issue ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-raises-assembly-ban-concerns-51652/
Unions want wage negotiations, arrest of shooters from January violence
Representatives of nine unions met together have made seven resolutions to seek better conditions and wages for workers in Cambodia’s factories. The unions are calling for the release of those workers, the restart of wage negotiations and the “unmasking” of police personnel who did the ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/unions-want-wage-negotiations-arrest-of-shooters-from-january-violence/1845791.html
Missing boy presumed dead after protest shooting
The father of a 16-year-old boy who went missing during last month’s labor protest crackdowns says he now presumes his son dead. The boy, Khim Sophat, was caught up in demonstrations at the Canadia Industrial Zone in early January. He was not listed among the four ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/missing-boy-presumed-dead-after-protest-shooting/1845735.html
Sugar Firm Offers Defense After Call for Probe of EU Trade Links
The director of a CPP senator’s sugar plantation accused of stealing land from hundreds of families said Wednesday that most locals were happy with the new jobs the plantation has generated, a week after a visiting European Union parliamentarian renewed calls for an investigation of ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sugar-firm-offers-defense-after-call-for-probe-of-eu-trade-links-51545/
Workers From 2011 Shooting Still Dealing With Medical Problems
Two women wounded in the 2011 protest shooting in Svay Rieng province have seen their conditions worsen. A total three women were shot during worker strikes by the former governor of Bavet city, Chhouk Bandith, during worker strikes in February 2011. ...
Heng Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/workers-from-2011-shooting-still-dealing-with-medical-problems/1845710.html
Tuk-Tuk, Motorbike Drivers Want Vehicles Back
A dozen tuk-tuk and motorcycle-taxi drivers who say their vehicles were confiscated after police suppressed a demonstration in Phnom Penh last week gathered outside City Hall on Wednedsay to demand the return of their property. The drivers waited from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. hoping to ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tuk-tuk-motorbike-drivers-want-vehicles-back-51555/
UN Envoy Asks Cambodia to Lift Demonstrations Ban
A U.N. rights envoy suggested Thursday that Cambodia lift a ban on public gatherings in the capital imposed amid a violent crackdown on demonstrators a month ago. Maina Kiai, the U.N.’s global Special Rapporteur for freedom of peaceful assembly and association, made the suggestion to Foreign ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/rapporteur-02062014181843.html
Khmer minority lack equal rights: report
Thach Ry, a 64-year-old Khmer Krom man, fled Vietnam in 2008 after authorities there tried to arrest him for protesting the government’s treatment of his community. Arriving in Cambodia with his wife and daughter, authorities here tried to arrest him, too, he said, so like many ...
Kevin Ponniah and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/khmer-minority-lack-equal-rights-report
Ministry to ‘examine’ probe results
Officials from the Ministry of Interior will meet tomorrow to review the results of an investigation into a crackdown that left four dead on Veng Sreng Boulevard in Phnom Penh last month, a police spokesman said. After saying on Tuesday that a report on the investigation’s ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-%E2%80%98examine%E2%80%99-probe-results
Khmer Krom Seeking Refuge Remain in a State of Limbo
Khmer Krom people fleeing persecution in Vietnam and denied refuge in Thailand are being sent to Cambodia, where the government does not ensure that their rights are protected, the Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) has said in a new report. The report—“Abandoned People Khmer Krom Seeking Refuge ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/khmer-krom-seeking-refuge-remain-in-a-state-of-limbo-51557/
Killing of Journalist May Not Be Linked to Illegal Fishing Reports
Police in Kompong Chhnang province on Tuesday said they were looking for three suspects in the murder of a local journalist on Friday night and may soon add more names to the list, but still had no motive for the attack. However, the provincial coordinator for ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/killing-of-journalist-may-not-be-linked-to-illegal-fishing-reports-51448/