Social development

A draft law to protect state secrets has been in the works for more than two years and could be submitted to the Council of Minister for review in two months’ time, a senior police official said yesterday. ...

Three Montagnards, including a 10-year-old girl, arrived yesterday morning at the government’s Refugee Department in Phnom Penh to process their asylum claims. ...

Three Montagnards, including a 10-year-old girl, arrived yesterday morning at the government’s Refugee Department in Phnom Penh to process their asylum claims. ...

After negotiations between vendors and management at Phnom Penh’s Sorya Mall ended without a solution on Wednesday, hundreds of disgruntled shopkeepers shut their shops on Thursday, effectively closing one of the city’s biggest shopping centers. ...

Bokor Mountain, Kampot province – Spurred on by social media rumors that Vietnamese tourists are flocking to this colonial-era retreat for elaborate, hidden ceremonies at the graves of their ancestors, CNRP lawmaker Yem Ponhearith on Thursday led about 50 officials here on a fact-finding trek. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday cast a negative light on Phnom Penh, labelling the capital a hotbed for criminal activity and likening the levels of street crime to the Ho Chi Minh City of yore, where he said it was once unsafe to walk around ...

Cambodia’s efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger have yielded mixed results, despite the government’s claim it has reduced the poverty rate ahead of a UN deadline. But many people remain near the poverty line, vulnerable to natural disasters, such as flooding, that could put ...

Nine more Montagnard asylum seekers crossed into Ratanakkiri on Tuesday, bringing the total number hiding in the province’s O’Yadaw district to 32, a police official said Wednesday. ...

Montagnards seeking asylum in Cambodia and who are found to be fleeing persecution in Vietnam will not be allowed to stay in the Kingdom if a third country does not accept them, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday. Speaking after opening a workshop on violence against ...

Cambodia, a common source, transit and destination country for human trafficking, yesterday launched a far-reaching plan to combat the exploitative practice. The 2014 to 2018 National Plan of Action (NPA), which was launched yesterday afternoon at the Interior Ministry, was devised by the National Committee for ...

Pharmacists in Cambodia have a particular affinity for prescribing antibiotics, so much so that resistance to the drugs has become a public health problem worthy of a national response. ...

Deputy Phnom Penh governor Khuong Sreng on Tuesday reversed course on a City Hall announcement that it was investigating Wat Samakki Raingsey over alleged anti-government behavior and secessionist designs, comments that sparked fears among its monks that the independent-minded pagoda would be shut down. During a ...

Rights group Adhoc is investigating the death of an opposition party activist this weekend in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town. ...

As violence against women remains pervasive throughout the country, the government on Tuesday launched a second action plan that it hopes will help give women greater protection. The National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women 2014-2018 focuses on preventing gender-based violence and aims to provide ...

Motorcycle fatalities are claiming the lives of a third of people in Asia–but governments don’t seem to notice. In Cambodia, HIV/AIDS-related deaths equate to 2,300 per year, and the government allocates $58 million to combat the disease—but 2,000 deaths are caused by highway fatalities, with ...

Phnom Penh’s Wat Samakki Raingsey, under scrutiny by City Hall for alleged “anti-government acts,” on Friday requested three commissions of the National Assembly to accompany municipal officials to a planned inspection of the pagoda on Tuesday afternoon. “I sent the letters to request the first commission ...

Phat Sreytouch, a former beer promoter, recalls being the constant subject of harassment from the men she served in beer gardens, many who felt they were within their rights to touch her and her colleagues. In a new initiative aimed at ending such attitudes and ...

The Kampot Museum opened on January 28 at 8​ a.m. with a ribbon cutting and Buddhist blessing for the new venture. It was a hastily planned inauguration – the entrance fee was yet to be decided, and several guests misinterpreted the email invitation and turned ...

In Cambodia, three women have been recognized for work that combines technology with efforts to combat violence against women, a major problem in the Southeast Asian country. Winning the inaugural VXW Award means the women will get assistance to further promote their efforts on smartphones ...

Cambodia has improved overall in protecting children from abuse and exploitation, the United Nations’ first Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) found in a report released yesterday, but the Kingdom has to take greater strides to further safeguard children’s rights. ...

Members of Cambodia’s Muslim community say they fear increased animosity across the Middle East, with the recent murder of a Jordanian pilot by militants and Jordan’s announcement it will execute two members of the group currently in prison. ...

Cambodia’s Supreme Court has upheld eight-year prison sentences for three foreigners convicted more than four years ago of threatening to bomb the US, UK and Australian embassies. ...

Representatives of communities across the country who have had their lives upturned by development projects yesterday called on the government to rescind the economic land concessions at the centre of their disputes. ...

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the eight-year prison sentences of three foreign men convicted in 2011 on tenuous evidence of threatening to bomb the US, UK and Australian embassies. ...