Social development

Opposition CNRP lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang says he will visit Phnom Penh’s Prey Speu social affairs center today to investigate its controversial treatment of detainees following the death of a recent charge. ...

After months of negative publicity surrounding its disgraced founder Somaly Mam, anti-trafficking NGO Afesip has taken the first tangible steps to resurrect itself, with a handful of remaining international donors traveling to Cambodia over the past week for “future strategy meetings.” ...

Forty national and foreign NGOs yesterday called on the government to ratify the International Labour Organization’s 2011 Domestic Workers Convention in order to better safeguard the rights of Cambodian domestic workers, both inside and outside of the country. The missive, which says that the Kingdom’s domestic ...

Cambodia is moving closer to its goal of eliminating malaria deaths by 2015, with the number of fatal cases declining from 93 in 2011 to 12 last year, data from a new World Health Organisation report show. ...

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith this week launched a marketing campaign titled “Get Your Sexy Back,” aimed at promoting a culture of moderate alcohol consumption among young people by linking excessive drinking to a loss of sexual attractiveness. Launched on Monday and presided over by the long-serving ...

Plans for a universal health care system will be included in the 10-year strategy to strengthen Cambodia’s social welfare, according to a government official, as a new report reveals almost three-quarters of Cambodians lack any legal health coverage. The study, released this week by the International ...

Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen has committed to stopping new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections by 2020, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said. The news came following Cambodian government’s decision to allocate $3.7 million from 2015 to 2017 to HIV treatment. ...

Thousands of Cambodians, including Buddhist monks and garment workers, on Wednesday (Dec 10) rallied across the capital calling for respect for human rights and the release of a group of jailed land activists. On Wednesday around 3,000 people massed outside the parliament building in Phnom ...

Chan Soveth, a longtime human rights defender, died of a heart attack on Wednesday. Colleagues say he was returning from celebrations to mark International Human Rights Day. He was 51. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng said Tuesday that he would try to find a solution for moto-taxi drivers who have complained about a stipulation in the newly adopted traffic law that says motorbikes can carry a maximum of two adults and one child. Mr. Kheng said that ...

Staff at the Phnom Penh Municipal Referral Hospital said Tuesday that they had no record of a recent visit from a man who died late last month at the Prey Speu social affairs center, contradicting claims made by a city official. Both a file search by ...

A conference on youth cooperation among Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia opened in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi on Monday, drawing participation of representatives from the three neighboring countries. ...

Human rights group (LICADHO) has called for the release of 18 activists who have been wrongfully imprisoned following a recent spate of arrests as Cambodia will celebrate International Human Rights Day on December 10th. In a statement issued today [Monday], the right group also condemns the ...

Hundreds of monks are marching to Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh to mark International Human Rights Day, defying the orders of their own leaders and police and military roadblocks, local media reported Monday. Accompanied by rights campaigners, some of the monks have been walking towards the city ...

The Cambodian government should promptly close all centers arbitrarily detaining people outside the criminal justice system, Licadho and Human Rights Watch said today. The abusive nature of these centers was highlighted by the death on November 26, 2014, of a man who was arbitrarily detained ...

Approximately 1,500 young Cambodian people on Saturday performed the “Madison,” a popular dance during Khmer wedding receptions and New Year celebrations, here in order to call for an end of violence against women and girls, an organizer said. Inala Fathimath, a gender program specialist at the ...

More than a hundred monks and rights activists marching to Phnom Penh for International Human Rights Day were blocked by soldiers and police at their starting point in Takeo province’s Kirivong district yesterday. ...

A UN delegation met with Ratanakkiri province’s deputy police chief yesterday afternoon to discuss the fate of 13 Montagnard asylum seekers who have been hiding in the province in recent weeks. The provincial administration, however, has continued to call for the group’s deportation. Deputy police chief ...

Ignoring objections and even vague threats made by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Cambodian activists in South Korea plan to stage a protest on Sunday ahead of a five-day summit Prime Minister Hun Sen is scheduled to attend on December 10. Around 1,500 opposition supporters intend to ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Thursday that his government has mainly focused on retaining a sustainable economic growth and setting out strategies to ensure the gradual alleviation of poverty, according to a spokesman. Poverty rate in Cambodia has declined to 19.8 percent in 2011, ...

Cambodian police said Wednesday they were scouring remote northeastern jungles for a group of Vietnamese Montagnards who crossed the border in an apparent attempt to seek asylum. Rights groups say 13 of the hill tribe people, including one woman, fled persecution in Vietnam late last month ...

A Ministry of Social Affairs official yesterday announced that, starting next year, the government would offer regular payments of 20,000 riel (about $5) to all disabled Cambodians, a benefit that so far has only been available to retired disabled soldiers. In an announcement that coincided with ...

Cambodian authorities are hunting more than a dozen ethnic minority hill people from Vietnam, drawing international criticism and raising further doubts about Australia’s controversial agreement to send refugees to Phnom Penh. Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), warned ...

A team from the United Nations refugee agency traveled to northeast Cambodia Wednesday to meet with 13 ethnic Montagnards seeking asylum in the country after fleeing alleged persecution in Vietnam, according to an agency spokesperson and a member of a local rights group. United Nations High ...