Social development

The Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday questioned 17 villagers locked in a land dispute with the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) over a pair of competing lawsuits filed in the wake of a clash between locals and company security guards in January. ...

Som Saron has not worked since testing positive for HIV late last year. Taking care of her young niece at her parents’ home in Roka commune last week, the 37-year-old said that a fear of being stigmatized kept her from walking the community’s gravel roads selling ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), in collaboration with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, is holding a second Asia Women Leadership Program (AWLP) event starting today to help senior women government officials develop their potential to become future leaders. ...

A man in Kampong Speu’s Oral district was briefly placed under house arrest yesterday, following his public criticism of the government and prime minister at a town hall meeting.Ung Ny, Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) Oral district executive director, said that 45-year-old Hay Hoeun, a ...

As students filed back into schools yesterday to kick off the 2015-2016 academic year, Prime Minister Hun Sen broadcasted some televised tough love, telling students to take their studies seriously for the good of the nation. ...

The government this week agreed to partner with an NGO to create a new national physical edu­cation curriculum for junior high schools, the education minister said on Friday. ...

The United Nations human rights office expressed concern today over a worsening climate for opposition politicians and activists in Cambodia, and stressed that the right to peaceful assembly and to freedom of expression belongs to all. ...

Three weeks after the Health Ministry announced that measles had reappeared in Cambodia, a ministry official said Thursday that the highly contagious disease had in fact not been found. ...

Baby formula companies are pushing their products in clinics and on health care professionals—some with great effect—despite a government ban on such acts and extensive research showing that formula is an inferior alternative to mother’s milk. ...

Cambodia has been named among states accused of using counter-terrorism measures to clamp down on human rights and civil society in a report released this week by the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism.Speaking in New York on Monday, the British rapporteur ...

The percentage of smokers over the age of 15 has dropped from 19.5 percent in 2011 to 16.9 percent last year, according to the National Adult Tobacco Survey which was released yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics. ...

Defense Minister Tea Banh says Cambodia’s soldiers should have the right to support demonstrations.Speaking at the airport as he waited for Prime Minister Hun Sen to arrive from an official visit to France, Tea Banh said his troops have a right to “express their opinion.” ...

Young Cambodians will be urged to consider a career in the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), through a joint initiative launched yesterday by the Ministry of Education, the British Embassy and the international employment and training organisation IDP Education.​ ...

UNICEF yesterday awarded $400,000 to six NGOs to work with disabled people around the country through a series of community based programs. ...

A doctor who had been accused of causing a woman to die in labour because he abandoned her during childbirth to go to a party had charges against him dropped by the Court of Appeal on Monday. ...

Cambodia will join three other regional countries in carrying out standardized testing for grade five students as part of a pilot program that aims to improve primary school education in Asean, officials said this week. ...

In efforts to improve conditions for its disabled citizens, the government yesterday announced that it plans to order the installation of ramps and access signs at all public places. ...

Following the eviction earlier this month of about 1,000 mostly Vietnamese families living in floating homes in Kompong Chhnang City, provincial authorities now have plans to evict a further 1,500 mostly Cambodian families living further south on the river, officials said Sunday. ...

The United Nations’ human rights agency in Geneva has urged Cambodia to abide by its obligations not to forcibly return 13 Montagnard refugees to Vietnam and to register the claims of hundreds more asylum seekers living in limbo in Phnom Penh. ...

Police arrested 36 men and one woman on Saturday in the latest raid on Phnom Penh’s Trapaing Chhouk slum, a cluster of shanties above a fetid pond in Sen Sok district where crystal methamphetamine use and distribution are rampant. ...

A coalition of government ministries, the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations launched a new campaign yesterday to combat violence against women.​ ...

A Cambodian medical research­er has received international rec­ognition for a presentation on de­velopments in the treatment of pa­tients infected with both HIV and tuberculosis at a conference in France last week. ...

A team of security officials led by a commune chief descended on a private home in rural Koh Kong province on Friday morning to prevent a group of students and ac­tivists from holding a democracy training session, an activist and officials said. ...

Cambodia’s efforts in HIV prevention and treatment have shown significant results in the past ten years and the government is now setting the bar even higher. Last December, Prime Minister Hun Sen committed to stopping new HIV infections by 2020. ...