Social development
M’kiri villagers petition over illegal logging
Nearly 200 people from 25 different communities converged on the Mondolkiri Provincial Hall Monday to file complaints and petitions calling for an end to illegal logging and environmental degradation. The action comes two days after armed commune police blocked 16 rights workers and journalists from visiting ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mkiri-villagers-petition-over-illegal-logging-57612/
Cobra house family again accuses security guards of arson
A family locked in a longstanding land dispute with a powerful real estate tycoon claims company guards late on Sunday night once again attempted to burn down their Tuol Kok home. The alleged attempted arson is the latest in a slew of bizarre attacks on the ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cobra-house-family-again-accuses-security-guards-of-arson-57606/
Villagers questioned over land dispute
Five men in Koh Kong province could be prosecuted for stealing from a construction crew after the group allegedly seized tools in January, preventing the construction team from building fences in their village. Police summonsed the villagers from Kiri Sakor district’s Prek Khsach commune for questioning ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-questioned-over-land-dispute
CNRP lawmaker files suit against official
Opposition lawmaker-elect Lim Kim-Ya filed charges with Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday morning against a government official he claims led an attack on a peaceful crowd at Freedom Park last Monday. Ket Khy, a Cambodia National Rescue Party lawyer, told the Post that Kim-Ya was seeking financial compensation ...
Chhay Channyda and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-lawmaker-files-suit-against-official
UN Rep asked to focus on public assembly ban
The U.N.’s deputy high commissioner for human rights, Flavia Pansieri—who is on a weeklong mission in Cambodia —has been asked to address an arbitrarily enforced ban on public assemblies, which has been in place since January. In a letter dated Monday, Muth Chantha, secretary-general of the ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-rep-asked-to-focus-on-public-assembly-ban-57654/
ADB report finds gov’t shirking duty
The government is refusing to compensate up to 1,000 families forced to wait for income restoration measures after being relocated from their homes for an Asian Development Bank-funded railway rehabilitation project, a previously unreleased action plan from the ADB reveals. The ADB Management Action Plan, released ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/adb-report-finds-gov%E2%80%99t-shirking-duty
Former Boeng Kak activists protest at City Hall
About 50 residents evicted from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood in 2008 and 2009 to make way for a senator’s real estate project once again protested in front of City Hall Monday to demand better compensation. They are among some 3,000 families who were forced ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/former-boeng-kak-activists-protest-at-city-hall-57647/
Hun Sen hits back at judicial reform criticism
Prime Minister Hun Sen used a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh Monday to denounce criticism from civil society groups who say that his government is rushing judicial reforms into law without appropriate public consultation. Speaking at the ceremony for about 1,800 students from the Asia Euro ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-hits-back-at-judicial-reform-criticism-57613/
Hun Sen: Cambodia has no law to require the government to send draft law to NGOs
Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday that the cabinet is not obliged by any law to seek suggestions from the civil society. The premier made comments at a graduation ceremony of Asia European University in response to non-government organizations which condemned the approval on April ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=YmM2YjYxMzIxNmU
Deaths raise new questions on ANZ funding of Cambodian sugar projects
First Sum Tea lost her farm. Then she lost her son. Sum Tea is one of hundreds of farmers who lost her small landholding in 2006 when the Cambodian government granted Phnom Penh Sugar, a company owned by Cambodian tycoon and ruling party senator Ly Yong ...
Daniel Quinlan, Richard Baker, Nick McKenzie
http://www.smh.com.au/national/investigations/deaths-raise-new-questions-on-anz-funding-of-cambodian-sugar-projects-20140427-zr0bj.html
Government urges land concession firms to respect law
Environment Minister Say Sam Al met with private firms with land concessions last week to gauge their compliance with government rules and regulations, and adherence to their own contracts. Amid mounting local and international pressure, Prime Minister Hun Sen in mid-2012 ordered a freeze on ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-urges-land-concession-firms-to-respect-law-57474/
Ex-KR soldiers lock in land-dispute meeting
Seventy-four former Khmer Rouge soldiers fighting for land they claim the government granted them in the 1990s have agreed to meet with the military commanders who allegedly sold the parcels for personal profit. The meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, follows a week after a pair representatives for ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ex-kr-soldiers-lock-land-dispute-meeting
Bavet City garment strikes gain momentum
Trade unions may have failed to get a stay-at-home strike for higher wages off the ground after the Khmer New Year earlier this month. But a strike for bonus pay is picking up steam in Svay Rieng Province, where some 20,000 garment workers protested at ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bavet-city-garment-strikes-gain-momentum-57447/
CNRP youths ‘to enter park’
More than 100 opposition supporters gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday morning for training in “defending freedom” ahead of a planned attempt to enter Freedom Park on Wednesday. Opposition lawmaker-elect Mu Sochua, who has been forcibly removed from the park a number of times this month, led ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-youths-%E2%80%98-enter-park%E2%80%99
Minor fraud prompts hard prison sentence
A former civil servant was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison by Kampong Cham Provincial Court for stealing the pensions of 10 retired teachers – a total of $500 – in March 2012. Mang Yusreng, former chief of the Social Affairs Office in Srei ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minor-fraud-prompts-hard-prison-sentence
Eighteen fired bus drivers protest in front of firm’s office
Eighteen sacked drivers for the Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation company protested in front of the company’s offices Friday morning calling for their reinstatement and a raise. The drivers say they were fired in mid- and late-April for leading strikes—in which they walked off with the keys ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eighteen-fired-bus-drivers-protest-in-front-of-firms-office-57423/
Cambodia's garment manufacturers calls on gov't to curb illegal strikes
The Garment Manufacturers Associations in Cambodia (GMAC) on Sunday urged the government to curb outlawed garment strikes that have occurred this week at Special Economic Zones in eastern Bavet City, which are expected to continue next week. “GMAC is disappointed that the government and local authorities ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-04/27/c_133293620.htm
Union leader appeals court orders restricting his activities
Ath Thorn, the president of the country’s largest independent labor union, said Friday that he has appealed court orders restricting his unionizing activity and is seeking support from international labor organizations as he faces charges of incitement. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has ordered Mr. Thorn, ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-appeals-court-orders-restricting-his-activities-57425/
GMAC boycotts workshop on minimum wages
A would-be tripartite workshop intended to improve the garment sector’s minimum wage setting process closed Friday, with the industry’s most influential player, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), boycotting the talks at Phnom Penh Hotel. The two-day workshop would have been the first meeting between ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/gmac-boycotts-workshop-on-minimum-wages-57430/
Major General arrested on defamation charges
A two-star general in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces was arrested Friday on charges of defamation, police and prison officials said Friday. On Friday, police officers from the Interior Ministry’s penal department arrested Major General Chea Dara, who works at the Ministry of Defense, following a ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/major-general-arrested-on-defamation-charges-57434/
Cambodia sees 9 pct drop in malaria cases in Q1
Cambodia reported 10,000 malaria cases in the first three months of 2014, down 9 percent from about 11,000 cases over the same period last year, a health official said Thursday. ...
ASEAN - China Centre News Staff
http://www.asean-china-center.org/english/2014-04/25/c_133290120.htm
Labor unions, associations not allowed to celebrate Labor Day at Freedom Park
Phnom Penh City Hall has refused labor unions and associations to celebrate 128th International Labor Day (May 1) at Freedom Park. The decision was made during a meeting on Thursday between representatives of labor unions, association and Phnom Penh City Hall officials. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YzFjZmRmZjg4ODE
Concerns ahead of trial for 23
One the eve of the trial of 23 people arrested during a garment strike in January, their supporters yesterday expressed concern that politics, rather than the facts, may determine the verdict. Nearly four months after their arrests at protests on January 2 and 3 – the ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/concerns-ahead-trial-23
Factories mostly skip minimum wage meeting
Government officials and union representatives met behind closed doors Thursday to start hashing out a better way to set the minimum wage for the country’s all-important but troubled garment sector at a workshop brokered by the International Labor Organization (ILO). But what was supposed to be ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factories-mostly-skip-minimum-wage-meeting-57337/