Social development

Despite widespread concern it could curtail pro-democracy and rights work in the country, a bill to regulate NGOs in Cambodia arrived at the National Assembly Tuesday, where it must be debated before its likely passage into law. ...

Outgoing ambassador of the European Union to Cambodia Jean-Francois Cautain on Tuesday welcomed the Cambodian government’s decision to establish a law on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Associations, according to a Cambodian government official. ...

A gathering of some 50 youths from five different provinces met in Phnom Penh last week to discuss the problems of forced migration and its dangers. The Community Youth Network leaders came from provinces where migrant work is common, to discuss how to make it ...

Starting next month, the ministries of education and labor will offer job counseling to students in Svay Rieng province as the first step in an effort to better match employment opportunities in the country with the skills of youth entering the workforce, the education minister ...

Following an appeal by Prime Minister Hun Sen for the country’s youth to better understand his self-titled “win-win policy,” which he credits for ending the civil war and peacefully reintegrating the Khmer Rouge, the premier Monday delivered an hourlong lecture on the topic to about ...

The case of a woman who was accused of killing her mother to steal more than 375 grams of gold in Koh Kong province, has been sent to the provincial court despite investigators being unable to find any incriminating evidence to demonstrate her involvement in ...

Local authorities armed with axes and hammers on Saturday attempted to dismantle homes in the capital’s Russey Keo district to make way for a new road that they hope will ease traffic, according to villagers. ...

A leaked copy of the contentious draft law on associations and NGOs is fuelling fears among its many critics that its purpose is to stifle criticism of the government by giving it broad powers to shut down both foreign and domestic associations and NGOs. ...

Democracy watchdog Comfrel yesterday rolled out a new website intended to help young workers garner support for a variety of causes. ...

Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bunheng on Sunday called for more blood donations since the Southeast Asian country saw only 4 out of 1,000 people donate their blood. ...

The oldest public school in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, is in a small courtyard downtown. The Tuan Hoa school has a Chinese temple and Mandarin language classes for its 2,000 students. But in Phnom Penh, Chinese usage is still behind English. This is true although ...

Cambodia has seen 957 dengue fever cases in the first five months of 2015, a 63 percent rise compared with 586 cases over the same period last year, a health official said Thursday. ...

A sex-trafficking network that included “high-ranking” government officials and had infiltrated Cambodian law enforcement agencies and NGOs for years worked to cover up Vietnamese sex rings and collect payoffs from illegal prostitution establishments in Phnom Penh. However, four years after a court finally convicted the police ...

The UK Government pledged to increase the number of scholarships to Cambodian students. They also promised to give more assistance to the Khmer Rouge Court trials and help solve the mine problem. ...

A new study by the International Justice Mission (IJM) has asserted that Cambodia’s child sex trade – long a hot-button issue that has for years drawn international attention – has been reduced to a tiny fraction of its previous size. A statement from IJM that accompanied ...

Nearly 600 guns – most of them crude homemade rifles – were burned in Battambang province on Monday after a campaign to encourage locals to hand their weapons over to the proper officials. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday received Vietnamese Communist Party Politburo official Le Hong Anh at his office in Phnom Penh and asked that Vietnam remain “calm” over recent fact-finding trips to the border led by opposition lawmakers. ...

In perhaps the most comprehensive review to date of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 land titling project, the NGO Forum on Tuesday said the campaign has yielded major benefits, but not without some serious costs—particularly for the country’s beleaguered indigenous communities. ...

Members of a community in Battambang where an unlicensed doctor allegedly infected more than 200 people with HIV earlier this year have demanded free general healthcare, a provision usually reserved only for the country’s most poor. ...

The outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in South Korea has sparked international alarm, and about 25,000 people have cancelled trips to the country between June 5 and 7, the Korean Tourism Organisation said.  ...

In a small courtyard in downtown Phnom Penh sits the city’s oldest public school. Founded more than 100 years ago, Tuan Hoa features a Chinese temple and Mandarin language instruction for its 2,000 students. ...

With the approval last week of a draft NGO law by Cambodia’s Council of Ministers, many pro-democracy and rights advocates say they should now have a chance to add their comments on the bill, before it goes to the National Assembly for debate. ...

The Interior Ministry is developing the curriculum for a “School of Good Governance,” which from 2016 will bring officials from the provinces to Phnom Penh for a crash course in acting with integrity, a ministry official and an NGO partner said Monday. ...

More Montagnard asylum seekers from Vietnam arrived in Phnom Penh over the weekend, bringing the number waiting to apply for refugee status to 109, according to the United Nations. Vivian Tan, regional spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), said the Montagnards – an indigenous group ...