Social development
CNRP Distances Itself From Threatened Social Media Activist
The opposition CNRP’s deputy public affairs director, Kem Monovithya, posted a statement to her official Facebook account on Saturday distancing the party from Thy Sovantha, a 19-year-old opposition activist with a large social media following, announcing that Ms. Sovantha was “not involved” with the CNRP. Last ...
Hul Reaksmey and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-distances-itself-from-threatened-social-media-activist-51218/
Hun Sen asks Britain to help human resource development
Prime Minister Hun Sen asked Britain to help Cambodia on human resource development. Hun Sen and Hugo Swire, British Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs, had a meeting Friday at the Peace Palace. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=OGY0MjA0ZDI1MDA
EU Parliamentarian Finds Abuses Fueled by Trade Scheme
Sugar plantations that benefit from the European Union’s Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme, which allows preferential access to the E.U.’s market, have further impoverished Cambodia’s poor, and an investigation needs to be launched, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) said on Friday. Patrice Tirolien, MEP ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-parliamentarian-finds-abuses-fueled-by-trade-scheme-51188/
Media-Savvy Monks to Launch Weekly Radio Show
As Buddhist monks across the country don saffron robes and leave pagodas in search of donations to fill alms bowls each morning, seven monks based in Dangkao district on the dusty outskirts of Phnom Penh are thinking only of feeding the country’s growing appetite for ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/media-savvy-monks-to-launch-weekly-radio-show-51192/
Rights Groups Want Access to 23 Detained Prisoners
Two human rights groups on Friday appealed to Interior Minister Sar Kheng to intervene after the General Department of Prisons, which is part of the Interior Ministry, refused to allow representatives from their organizations to meet with some of the 23 union activists and protesters ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-groups-want-access-to-23-detained-prisoners-51194/
Life as Living Nightmare Along National Route 6a
Two years after Prime Minister Hun Sen broke ground on a Chinese-funded project to widen National Road 6a in order to expand its capacity as a major trade and tourism thoroughfare, life for the tens of thousands of families living along the 50-km stretch of ...
Hul Reaksmey and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/life-as-living-nightmare-along-national-route-6a-51156/
EU Parliamentarian Probes Sugar Plantations in Cambodia
A member of the European Parliament is in Cambodia investigating agri-business firms accused of evicting hundreds of families while benefiting from a free-trade scheme with Europe worth millions of dollars, according to the NGO Equitable Cambodia. The visit from France’s Patrice Tirolien follows a resolution the ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-parliamentarian-probes-sugar-plantations-in-cambodia-51166/
More houses razed in dispute
Authorities burned one house and demolished three others in the past two days in Koh Kong’s Botum Sakor and Kiri Sakor districts in the latest development in the long-running land dispute between villagers and Tianjin Union Development Group, community representatives and the rights group Adhoc ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/more-houses-razed-dispute
Social land concessions climb
More than 40 fresh land rows have emerged across the country – and many more could be going unreported, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) said yesterday. A study CCHR conducted into land conflicts between 2011 and 2013 has resulted in the rights group publishing ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/social-land-concessions-climb
Teachers Told to Expel Corruption From Classrooms
Just weeks after the country’s only independent teachers’ association staged a strike for higher wages, Phnom Penh’s education chief told teachers this week that they must stop taking bribes to comply with the government’s promised reform agenda. Speaking to about 500 educators, mainly school directors, from ...
Phann Ana
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/teachers-told-to-expel-corruption-from-classrooms-51158/
CNRP Youth Activist to Protest Over Leaked Passport Details
An outspoken CNRP youth activist who claims that her passport application was leaked by immigration police said Thursday that she will lead protests in front of the Ministry of Interior and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s residence in Phnom Penh if authorities do not attempt to ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-youth-activist-to-protest-over-leaked-passport-details-51160/
Leprosy Dark Spot Healed by Early Detection
It started with a small, dark spot on Oeur Pisey’s left arm: A spot that he simply ignored. Slowly, other spots appeared. They soon covered Mr. Pisey’s thighs, upper body, and eventually, his face. A local health clinic in Kompong Cham province told him not to worry: ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/leprosy-dark-spot-healed-by-early-detection-51173/
‘Forced’ confessions have cops in hot seat
Five police from Phnom Penh’s Dangkor and Russey Keo districts could face charges for allegedly beating false confessions out of three suspects, a technique human rights observers say is pervasive in Cambodia. Judges and lawyers at Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday questioned the three Russey Keo ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98forced%E2%80%99-confessions-have-cops-hot-seat
New Cambodian Land Disputes Despite Moratorium on Key Concessions
At least 41 new land disputes were reported in Cambodia last year despite a government moratorium on the widespread grant of so-called economic land concessions, a rights group said Thursday. The new cases in 17 locations—including the capital Phnom Penh—added to the 223 land conflicts previously ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/disputes-01302014194318.html
Judicial Reform Drafts Still Need Work, Experts Say
Cambodia is preparing three long-awaited laws aimed at restoring its widely criticized judicial system. However, two of the three draft laws obtained by VOA Khmer still need a lot more improvement, according to legal experts. The laws focus on codifying court jurisdiction, laying out guidelines for ...
Men Kimseng
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/judicial-reforms-drafts-still-need-work-experts-say/1840254.html
Right to strike ‘Fundamental’
A labour law expert from the International Labour Organization yesterday rejected claims made by Cambodian factories and employers associations that workers in the Kingdom have no fundamental right to strike. In a paid advertisement in the Post yesterday, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) and ...
Shane Worrell and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/right-strike-%E2%80%98fundamental%E2%80%99
NGOs say bank must remain to clean mess
Rights groups yesterday called on ANZ bank to help address alleged labour and environmental violations at Phnom Penh Sugar Company instead of walking away from the problem. A joint statement released yesterday by Equitable Cambodia and Inclusive Development International said it would be wrong for the ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ngos-say-bank-must-remain-clean-mess
Death Threat Made Against CNRP’s Social Media Activist
Thy Sovantha is accustomed to being threatened on Facebook. But the 19-year-old CNRP youth activist, who became something of an online celebrity through the popular opposition Facebook page “I Love Cambodia Hot News,” says the latest threat against her, in which a copy of her passport ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/death-threat-made-against-cnrps-social-media-activist-51124/
Petition Rally for Prisoners’ Release Ends Peacefully
A week after they began their campaign, activists and rights groups handed out the last of their petitions to embassies across Phnom Penh on Wednesday, hoping to solicit the help of foreign governments in securing the release of 23 men arrested earlier this month at ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/petition-rally-for-prisoners-release-ends-peacefully-51135/
Work Remains for Cambodia After UN Rights Hearing
Though Cambodia had four years to implement 91 recommendations on how to improve its human rights record, U.N. member states still had to push for action in a number of key areas during its second Universal Periodic Review hearing in Geneva on Tuesday. In a speech ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/work-remains-for-cambodia-after-un-rights-hearing-51129/
Video can’t be trusted: district gov
Video footage of Daun Penh district deputy governor Sok Penh Vuth bashing a defenceless man with a bullhorn on Monday has sparked outrage and demands for his ouster, but his boss told the Post yesterday that people shouldn’t be too hasty to judge, suggesting the footage may ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/video-can%E2%80%99t-be-trusted-district-gov
Authorities break up gathering
Police and soldiers in Mondulkiri province broke up a gathering of ethnic minority villagers yesterday as they planned to hold prayers and call on the government to stop illegal logging. The ceremony, held in Mondulkiri province‘s Sen Monorom district, was to be attended by an estimated ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/authorities-break-gathering
Hun Sen Moves Ahead With ‘Reform’ Plan, Minus Opposition
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday laid out more details in his plan to introduce a series of political reforms after a narrow win for his long-ruling CPP at the polls in July, including creating a new national working group and establishing public forums to ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-moves-ahead-with-reform-plan-minus-opposition-51126/
Fake Orphanage Ordered Closed After Alleged Migrant Scam
The Ministry of Interior has suspended the operation of an orphanage after it found that its director had colluded with a recruitment agency to cheat migrant workers out of an alleged $600,000, officials said Tuesday. “The Ministry of Interior temporarily suspends all activities of Our Friends ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fake-orphanage-ordered-closed-after-alleged-migrant-scam-51114/