Social development

Police in Koh Kong province yesterday raided a house rented by local environmental NGO Mother Nature in what its members have described as an ongoing campaign of intimidation against the group amid the detention of three of its activists. ...

Not long ago, Sim Pov, a representative of 69 families from Kratie province, came to Phnom Penh to meet with urban housing rights protesters. He wanted to learn from them how he could organize his own community, which is locked in a land dispute with ...

An NGO umbrella group will start holding workshops around the country next month to help independent organizations prepare for the implementation of the new NGO law, which has been viewed as an attempt by the government to clamp down on dissent. ...

Students across Cambodia are preparing for this year’s national high school exam, which will take place Monday. ...

With the end of its four-year program to fight human trafficking approaching, USAID, partner organization Winrock International and the government’s National Committee to Combat Trafficking are taking stock of their progress. ...

More than 5,600 people have volunteered to monitor the national high school examination next week, an Anti-Corruption Unit official said Wednesday, more than double the number of observers who supervised the test last year. ...

Despite unprecedentedly strict anti-cheating measures being implemented in last year’s grade 12 examinations, the Kingdom’s Anti-Corruption Unit pledged yesterday that punishments will be tougher still for proctors caught selling answers and accepting bribes this time around. ...

As the risks of abuse and violence against women morph with societal changes in Cambodia, technology and social media are helping those in need to stay one step ahead. ...

The owners of bookshops near the Bak Touk High School would usually be doing a roaring trade at this time of year. The grade 12 examinations each August have long been an annual boom time for the shops where students copied cheat sheets for the ...

While there are many issues for Cambodia’s journalists to cover these days—from the tensions with Vietnam over border issues to land disputes, the law to regulate NGOs, the labor sector and others—the country’s reporters are often disrupted from their work. ...

Beginning with last year’s Grade 12 national exam, the Education Ministry put a stop to the time-honored tradition of teachers taking bribes to allow students to cheat on the test, drastically reducing the passing rate among students and the profit-making potential for proctors. ...

A push is on to mandate handicapped-accessible ramps at the Kingdom’s tourist attractions, a member of the government’s Disability Action Council (DAC) said yesterday. ...

No Cambodians have been reported among the victims of the Erawan Shrine bombing in Bangkok, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said yesterday. ...

Despite implementing a ban on marketing for breast-milk substitutes (BMS) in an effort to boost natural breastfeeding, suppliers of baby formula continue to commit “flagrant violations” of the law by marketing their products illegally and claiming superior health benefits, a new report shows. ...

Activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature caused more than $100,000 in damages to a company that was legally dredging for sand in Koh Kong province, Khem Sameth, CEO of the company Direct Access, said yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Education on Monday broke ground on a new Institute of Technology campus in Kompong Speu province’s Thpong district that officials said is being built with funds from the Thai royal family on land partially donated by agribusiness magnate Ly Yong Phat. ...

Disgraced former Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealaktei was sent to the Kandal Provincial Prison on Sunday after he was charged with embezzlement for allegedly confiscating an SUV from a drug dealer and giving it to his son, a prison official said Monday. ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court on Monday imprisoned three activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature after a prosecutor charged them with threatening to cause damage during their ongoing campaign against a company accused of illegally dredging at a local estuary, according to rights group Licadho. ...

Some two-hundred vendors peacefully gathered in front of the residence of Prime Minister Hun Sen near Independence Monument, seeking the premier’s intervention to stop a planned construction of new Doeum Kor market. ...

The use of bicycling to get around the crowded streets of Phnom Penh has become increasingly popular. Not only do people use bikes more often to get around the city, but on weekends, cyclists can be seen on the outskirts of town. ...

The national high school exam will take place on August 24, but unlike last year there will be no second chance for those who fail, Prime Minister Hun Sen said. ...

Four Vietnamese nationals were jailed on kidnapping charges in Svay Rieng province on Saturday after allegedly detaining two of their countrymen over gambling debts in a casino in Bavet town.​ ...

Officials in Kratie province are insisting that a small group of families involved in a local land dispute register with the Interior Ministry or be “punished.” ...

Three activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature were summoned to appear at the Botum Sakor district police station in Koh Kong province on Friday to answer for their involvement in a campaign to chase off a sand-dredging company accused of destroying the environment, officials said. ...