Social development

The fate of 70 million people rests on what happens to the Mekong river. With world leaders meeting in Paris next week for crucial UN climate talks, John Vidal journeys down south-east Asia’s vast waterway – a place that encapsulates some of the dilemmas they ...

The United Nations and the Cambodian Ministry of Women’s Affairs will organize four major events across the country to raise awareness of the need to end violence against women and girls, according to a UN Women’s statement on Wednesday. ...

Following two strenuous days of races at the Water Festival this week, boatman Sgnoun Chai celebrated its conclusion on Wednesday with a night on the town. ...

Parliament urges Cambodia to drop all charges brought against opposition leader Sam Rainsy and Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) members; calls on the Bangladesh authorities to restore the full independence of the media; and appeals to the government of Afghanistan to intensify cooperation with the ...

A worldwide, 16-day campaign to end violence against women kicked off in Cambodia yesterday, with NGOs, the United Nations and government agencies intensifying their efforts toward preventative measures.Spanning from yesterday’s International Day for Eliminating Violence against Women and Girls until Human Rights Day on December ...

Cambodia’s increasingly fractious political situation is pushing the country towards a “dangerous tipping point”, the UN rights envoy to the kingdom said on Tuesday (Nov 24).The country has been plunged into a bitter political crisis after an arrest warrant was issued for Sam Rainsy, Cambodia’s ...

Thirty schools in Siem Reap, Battambang and Kampong Thom will participate in a two-year pilot project to host vegetable gardens to improve nutrition and teach students life skills, starting in December, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Friday. ...

While unemployment rates are low among Cambodian youths, their jobs are largely poorly paid and informal, providing them with just enough money to survive on, according to a recent report.The report, released on Sunday by youth NGO the Youth Resource Development Program (YRDP) and the ...

More Montagnard asylum seekers prepared to return to Vietnam yesterday after giving up on obtaining refugee status in Phnom Penh, while five Rohingya refugees set off for resettlement in Canada. ...

Young people in Cambodia are often taken advantage of by factories because of their inexperience and lack of understanding about labor rights, but the Youth Resource Development Program (YRDP) is trying to change that by educating young people on unions and dispute management in the ...

A U.S. State Department official told the country’s Senate on Thurs­day that recent political events in Cambodia, including the beatings of lawmakers outside the Nation­al Assembly and the removal of opposition officials from their seats and positions in parliament, were a cause for “grave concern.” ...

Cambodian sex workers are often thought of as victims of trafficking. And that may be true for some. For others, however, work in the country’s entertainment sectors offers financial security, and sex work becomes a choice. ...

Phnom Penh’s Social Affairs Department yesterday dismissed reports that dozens of homeless people were sent to the city’s notorious Prey Speu detention centre this week, even as the United Nations confirmed the transfer and expressed concern at the continued use of the facility.​ ...

Three women and four kids fell ill after ingesting pesticides and were transported to a local hospital nearby yesterday in Kampong Chnang city. ...

Eight people have died of malaria so far this year across the country, according to the government’s latest figures. The deaths mean Cambodia has missed its goal to eliminate fatalities from the mosquito-borne parasite by 2015, though health officials questioned the number—and even the target. ...

Minister of Education Hang Chuon Naron was questioned in front of a parliamentary panel yesterday, offering lawmakers a nine-point policy for reforming the Kingdom’s educational sector, according to a ministry official. ...

Just weeks after reports emerged of more fatalities from Phnom Penh’s Prey Speu social affairs centre and ensuing promises of reform, authorities yesterday rounded up dozens more homeless people and detained them at the notorious facility.Kim Vutha, Daun Penh district’s chief of security, said 61 ...

The Education Ministry will organize a training course and study programs that will give all of the country’s teachers access to bachelor’s degree programs by 2020, officials said yesterday. ...

Local innovations have catapulted Cambodia, which has long had dire toilet use numbers, to be a leader in sanitation. On World Toilet Day, the country gears up to attain ambitious new targets, Joanna Mayhew reports. ...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that an arrest warrant issued against Cambodia’s opposition leader Sam Rainsy was a worrisome development and called for dialogue. He called for dialogue and encouraged all political players to “refrain from violence, intimidation and harassment.” ...

More than 2,000 ducks have died from the H5N1 bird flu in Siem Reap and Battambang provinces since Thursday in the first outbreak of the virus since March 2014, according to officials and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on Tuesday. ...

To tackle youth unemployment in the Kingdom, new short-course programs preparing youths for their future career path are set to start in early December. ...

For the second time in three weeks the United Nations has expressed concern over increasing tensions between Cambodia’s Government and opposition, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today calling the arrest warrant issued against opposition leader Sam Rainsy “worrisome.” ...

The victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s movement in Burma after years of military rule and repression is already starting to unnerve autocrats nearby. Last week, Sam Rainsy, an opposition leader in Cambodia, declared that the democrats’ “resounding” victory “has created panic among the last ...