Social development

A deadline set by Prime Minister Hun Sen to finalize a controversial draft NGO law by the end of May will be missed, as a government spokesman said discussions were put on hold while the Interior Minister is abroad. ...

The Ministry of Labor issued a statement Friday claiming that the controversial draft Trade Union Law is aimed at protecting the rights of workers, after unions announced they would write to the ministry, the National Assembly and the European Union next week calling for the ...

Three Chinese men and a Cambodian were charged Friday by the Battambang Provincial Court for operating unlicensed medical facilities and supplying spoiled or fake drugs, a court official said. ...

Members of Cambodia’s civil society are rebuking their representation at the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples’ Forum last week, alleging the Kingdom’s civil society representatives were disproportionately government-aligned. ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Land Management is in the initial phase of a project to build affordable housing for the Kingdom’s low-income population. ...

A group of activists and villagers from southwestern Cambodia’s Koh Kong province petitioned outside the country’s parliament Thursday, calling on lawmakers to intervene against a sand dredging company they say is operating in the area without a license. ...

Two more people have tested positive for HIV in Battambang province’s Roka commune this month, bringing the total number infected to 272 since an outbreak of the virus was first detected in December, a health official said Wednesday. ...

A recently released study on hygiene in Cambodia has found that a lack of understanding of the dangers of handling child faeces is causing serious health problems. ...

Police in Svay Rieng province said Wednesday that they had yet to identify any suspects in the armed robbery of a mobile-payment kiosk and currency exchange business in Romeas Hek district that left one man dead. ...

A new report suggests counterfeit anti-malarial drugs are far less prevalent in Cambodia than previously thought, but almost a third of the legitimate medicines are of substandard quality. According to the study, published on Monday by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, none of ...

Earlier this year, a mob in Takeo province beat a mentally ill man to death, then dragged his body into the rice paddies and set it on fire. The 27-year-old was suspected of robbery. This week, Takeo Governor Lay Vannak launched a campaign to combat future ...

Locals in Koh Kong province have written to the provincial authorities urging them to expel activists from local NGO Mother Nature who have been conducting a campaign of direct action against sand dredging firms that the NGO accuses of breaking the law and damaging the ...

Some 100,000 prospective patients could lose opportunity for eye care due to Australia scaling back its foreign aid budget. But as Fred Hollows and other Australian NGOs brace themselves for the cuts, the Australian government is forging ahead with a $40 million scheme to relocate ...

An 89-year-old woman who was among the more than 240 villagers to test positive for HIV in Battambang province’s Roka commune died Monday, bringing the total number of deaths since the outbreak was first detected in December to eight. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday convicted a British national of purchasing child prostitution and committing indecent acts against minors, sentencing him to eight years in prison and ordering him to pay a total of $5,000 in fines and compensation. ...

Government authorities in a southwest Cambodian province are planning a coordinated campaign to round up residents suffering from mental illness and take them to Buddhist temples where they will be cared for by monks, a provincial official said. ...

About 3,000 union representatives, teachers and senior officials from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party gathered at a ceremony on Koh Pich yesterday to mark the 129th International Labour Day – as well as to bolster support for the ruling party, one official noted. ...

Police and military officials in Kompong Speu province are searching for a soldier with six wives who shot and killed his sister-in-law and mother-in-law on Saturday morning after berating his second wife for talking to another man the day before, local officials said Sunday. ...

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says Australia is violating the rights of children being sent from Nauru to Cambodia under the refugee transfer agreement. In the coming week, possibly as early as Monday, a charter plane is expected to fly out from Nauru with ...

The United Nations Children’s Fund is voicing concern about the decision by Australia to transfer asylum seekers detained on the Pacific island of Nauru to Cambodia, possibly as early as Monday. UNICEF’s concerns come amid growing refugee protests in Nauru and protests over transfers of ...

Thong Sarath, a senior Defense Ministry official wanted for the November murder of tycoon Ung Meng Chue, was arrested by Vietnamese police Thursday after months on the run, the head of Cambodia’s Interpol office said on Friday. ...

A police officer was arrested on Tuesday night for firing his state-issued K-59 pistol into the air after getting into a fight at a Khmer New Year party in Phnom Penh, but he was released without charge the same night, police said. ...

The son of a wealthy property developer and police general was arrested Monday evening after attacking another rich, young businessman inside a Phnom Penh tattoo parlor, military police said Tuesday. ...

A Guinness World Records judge kicked this year’s Angkor Sankranta festival into action Monday by officially declaring a 4-ton sticky rice cake produced for the Khmer New Year celebration to be the largest ever made. ...