Social development

Local rights group Licadho yesterday praised the government’s plan to release a number of incarcerated women who are pregnant or have their children with them in prison within the next week, but said deeper reforms are needed. In a statement, the NGO said it welcomed an ...

More than 400 teachers who took part in an eight-month teaching course at the National Institute of Education (NIE) are demanding the government pay them scholarship funds that were initially promised only to be later axed over cost concerns. In a petition sent yesterday to the ...

The Cambodian government will provide legal representation to three citizens who were shot at and arrested by Thai soldiers last week while allegedly smuggling drugs across the border. ...

Nobel Peace laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai was barely of school age in 2001 when Kamal Ahmad came up with the idea of establishing a tertiary institution for women in Asia. The university hosts about 600 students from 15 countries, compared with 120 in ...

Thirteen Vietnamese Montagnards have been recommended for refugee status by Cambodian authorities, pending approval by the Minister of the Interior. Spokesman Khieu Sopheak added that the refugee status for the remaining 13 now will be considered for official confirmation. ...

Cambodia’s lowest paid high-school and primary-school teachers will receive a $25 increase to their base monthly salary by the end of May, the government revealed on Monday. Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the raise at the opening of the National Literacy Campaign on Monday and reiterated ...

Increasing exposure to damaging sound levels in recreational areas and the unsafe use of personal audio devices are putting Cambodians, especially teenagers and young adults, at a high risk of hearing loss, health experts said yesterday. ...

Vocational skills are due to be added to the state curriculum next year in an attempt to improve graduates’ job prospects, Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron has said. ...

A Cambodian national who was allegedly arrested on Thursday alongside dozens of Montagnard asylum seekers remained missing yesterday, while those sent back to Vietnam were reportedly abused by authorities for their attempted escape. Forty-two-year-old Dy Heun, an ethnic Jarai from Ratanakkiri province, was officially reported missing ...

Phnom Penh anti-human trafficking police prevented an accused sex trafficker from boarding a plane on Saturday along with five women—including a teenager—she was planning to sell into the sex trade in Malaysia, officials said Sunday. ...

In the heart of the Areng Valley, on the edges of the rolling Cardamom Mountains, an old Bodhi tree pierces the thick green canopy. At its base, nestled in between its hanging roots, sits a ramshackle altar of tin and timber for the spirit of ...

Police in Sihanoukville are seeking to arrest a Russian businessman who is wanted in his home country for possession of weapons and explosives as part of a criminal syndicate, according to Interpol. ...

Police in Sihanoukville arrested a Turkish businessman Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours after gunmen fired up to 10 shots at his car from a passing vehicle, leaving a Cambodian man wounded outside Kampongsom City Casino on Thursday night, officials said. ...

About 200 garment workers protested outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday after 20 colleagues were turned away when trying to enter the Smart Shirts factory earlier the same morning, union leaders said. ...

After the government deported Spanish environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson on Monday, the opposition CNRP has called on the Interior Ministry to turn its attention to thousands of Vietnamese immigrants living in the country illegally. ...

The University of Health Sciences (UHS) rejected allegations from staff and students yesterday that their management is embezzling funds from the national medical exit examinations. On Tuesday, UHS staff and students accused the university of pocketing funds from the $125 exams that were held between February ...

A senior official yesterday urged local leaders to share information on available community services and government changes to residents as the Ministry of Information yesterday laid out its social accountability strategic action plan for the coming year and eyed last year’s results. ...

Minister for Social Affairs Vong Soth yesterday vowed to cut the amount of children in orphanages by 30 per cent within two years through a joint campaign with NGOs. Dubbed “Keep Families Together”, the initiative, backed by USAID, UNICEF and Friends International, will urge parents to ...

A senior official yesterday urged local leaders to share information on available community services and government changes to residents as the Ministry of Information yesterday laid out its social accountability strategic action plan for the coming year and eyed last year’s results. ...

Physicians are scrambling to update treatments to combat the growing threat caused by a new strain of malaria that is unique to Cambodia and resistant to the drug that dictates whether patients are ultimately cured. ...

Minister for Social Affairs Vong Soth yesterday vowed to cut the amount of children in orphanages by 30 per cent within two years through a joint campaign with NGOs. Dubbed “Keep Families Together”, the initiative, backed by USAID, UNICEF and Friends International, will urge parents to ...

A group of nine Montagnard asylum seekers hiding out in Ratanakkiri province had a close brush with law enforcement officials yesterday, even as a new group of the Vietnamese ethnic minority crossed the border into Cambodia, a rights group and a villager helping the hiding ...

Amid an ongoing investigation into the massive HIV outbreak in Battambang’s Roka commune, health officials yesterday said that they are requesting that auto-disabled syringes be exclusively used for administering injections in Cambodia. ...

The day after the government deported a foreign activist opposed to a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday invited activists in the valley to secede from Cambodia, but warned that rocket launchers could be deployed if ...