Social development

More Montagnard asylum seekers are planning to return to home amid cuts in United Nations-provided food rations.Vivian Tan, regional spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said more than 10 indigenous Christian Montagnards had requested assistance in returning to Vietnam. ...

LGBT Cambodians face a formidable level of prejudice and discrimination, which for many means a life lived in secrecy and isolation, a major new study of attitudes has revealed.The survey of almost 1,600 people, straight and LGBT, across seven provinces, published yesterday, found that a ...

New targets have been set to boost the number of women in positions of influence, according to an initiative launched yesterday by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday told the Ministry of Justice to re-check pardon applications from convicted robbers and drug dealers, saying that recidivism is a big problem in the Kingdom.The premier’s statement, made in a speech on Koh Pich, follows a turbulent weekend rife with ...

The Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday issued a new sub-decree ordering all orphanages to get a permit, submit to inspections and limit the conditions under which children can be admitted.According to many experts, including Social Affairs Minister Vong Soth, orphanage care does more harm than ...

Cambodian health officials have been sent to a northeastern district where 10 people died and more than 100 were sickened in two separate incidents linked to the consumption of dog meat and rice wine, a medical officer said Friday. ...

In spite of gains, gender inequality in Cambodia remains significant, particularly in education and political empowerment, according to the World Economic Forum’s recently released 2015 Global Gender Gap Report. ...

Minister of Health Mam Bunheng yesterday asked the public to stop drinking rice wine and eating sick animals after 19 people died and 170 fell ill in Kratie province over the past month. ...

Authorities in Kratie province have ordered an emergency ban on the production of rice wine as the death toll from methanol poisoning in the province over the past five days rose to 17 with the deaths on Sunday of five people in Chet Borei district. ...

Rice wine brewed with a toxic level of alcohol has killed at least 19 people and left 172 more in hospital in northeast Cambodia, the health ministry said Sunday.“Laboratory tests found the deaths were caused by the high methanol level in the wine,” Ly Sovann, ...

With Asean integration fast approaching, analysts say Cambodia has more to do to strengthen its human resources and be competitive in the region’s open markets. ...

Art can represent a nation’s identity, and younger generations have a responsibility to conserve it. But that means education, to help youth appreciate art and culture, says Donna Strahan, head of conservation and research at the Freer-Sackler Gallery. ...

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 ...

The rights of LGBT people took centrestage at an event to celebrate Human Rights Day at the FCC mansion in Phnom Penh yesterday.Organised by NGO CamAsean, which advocates on behalf of marginalised people, the morning conference included a rap performance by lesbian and transgender teenagers, ...

Police in Siem Reap province yesterday shuttered an unlicensed medical clinic they say was using more than 100 unregistered medicines, though the clinic’s owner insisted the raid was in response to rival clinics complaining about their prices being undercut by his charitable operation. ...

Violence against children cost Cambodia approximately $168 million in 2013, or just over 1 per cent of GDP, according to a new report from the government and UNICEF that explores the economic impacts of physical abuse.Titled The economic burden of health consequences of violence against ...

Alcohol experts and victims of excessive drinking came together yesterday to urge the government to speedily adopt a law controlling the consumption and sale of booze that was first drafted in 2008. ...

Forty young environmental envoys began training on December 5 to become Young Eco Ambassadors, tasked with raising awareness of the need to protect the environment. ...

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 ...

The Education Ministry will include an internationally agreed disaster risk reduction component in school curriculums from next year as part of a growing global move to teach students and communities how to deal with events such as flooding and major storms. ...

At least three Cambodian villagers have died and 31 others have been hospitalised in eastern Kratie province after consuming the cooked flesh of a big dog that was toxic, a local police chief confirmed on Monday. ...

With at least four Cambodians killed in recent years trying to uncover environmental crimes, the country ranks as the “deadliest” place in the world to conduct such reporting, according to a new report.  ...

Rights and development groups say a draft law on access to information will be more useful to the public if it has input from outside the government.A number of civil society organizations met in Phnom Penh this week to discuss the law, in hopes of ...

When the Battambang Provincial Court last week handed down a 25-year prison sentence to Yem Chrin, an unlicensed medic blamed for spreading HIV to more than 280 residents of rural Roka commune, it likely failed to consider relevant medical evidence, according to interviews with doctors ...