Social development
CAMBODIA: Rural poor lose out in land deals
Land governance policies in Asia, especially concessions made to private companies, are leaving the region’s poorest vulnerable to human rights abuses, experts say. “Land-grabbing by the rich and powerful continues,” Suson Bunsak, executive secretary of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, said at the recent Asia ...
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96452/CAMBODIA-Rural-poor-lose-out-in-land-deals
Mass Eviction Looms Ahead Of East Asia Summit
Hundreds of families living near Phnom Penh International Airport are facing imminent eviction from heir homes as security preparations begin for world leaders who will attend next month’s Asean and East Asia summits. A total of 387 families living on 6.3 hectares of land to the ...
Civil engineering students on the rise
Students finishing their secondary education this year are carefully looking at market demand to decide what to study to ensure solid future earnings. Many educators say the recent growth of the construction sector in Cambodia is encouraging parents and students to enroll at the universities of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/Real-Estate/civil-engineering-students-on-the-rise.html
Protesters Employ New Tactic At Eviction Demonstrations
Protester’s from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities demonstrated outside the Ministry of Justice yesterday by employing a new tactic: locking themselves up inside a cage. With about 100 people in attendance, two protesters crouched inside a small cage to protest against the detention ...
Sonando Verdict a Tough Test for KRT Legacy
When the international community hammered out a hard-fought deal with the government in 2001 for a war crimes tribunal to try the most senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, they hoped their efforts would also set an example for local court system riddled with ...
Cambodian Activist Monk Receives Swiss Human Rights Award
The country’s foremost campaigning monk, Loun Sovath, received the Martin Ennals Award in Geneva on Tuesday for his efforts to document the plight of people fighting against eviction in Cambodia. The award, which honors one human rights defender each year, is valued at $21,300, a purse ...
'Multimedia Monk' is honored for activism
Activist monk Luon Sovath has been named the recipient of this year’s Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders for his work promoting villagers’ land claims and publicising rights abuses. A familiar figure at protests in Cambodia, including the widely decried May trial of the Boeung Kak 13, ...
No Effective Voice for Those Facing Land Issues
Despite the government embarking on a nationwide land-titling program, there is still little space for communities affected by economic land concessions to voice their concerns with the government, members of civil society said at a conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. “We’ve observed that there is limited ...
Ethnic Bunong Groups Granted New Land Titles
The government has completed the communal land-titling process for three ethnic Bunong communities in Mondolkiri province living on 1,000 hectares of land in Keo Seima district, villagers and a rights group said yesterday. The three new titles-which will bring to six the total number of communal titles granted ...
Govt hits back at critics
The recent deluge of comments critical toward the Cambodian government is an attempt to sow political chaos, a senior official said yesterday. At a press conference held at the Council of Ministers, Keo Remy, deputy chairman of the Press and Quick Reaction Unit, blasted several individuals ...
Rapid Reaction Unit Spokesman Blasts Critics of Hun Sen
A senior government spokesman held an impromptu press conference at the Council of Ministers yesterday to defend Prime Minister Hun Sen against critics and accused the U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia [Surya Subedi] of being biased in his assessment of the country’s electoral process. In ...
Donors Criticize Sonando Sentence
Three of the Cambodia’s most important donors have now condemned the 20-year jail term handed down to independent radio station owner Mam Sonando for alleged insurrection activities-a verdict branded as politically motivated by many local and international human rights groups. Despite the tough words from the normally very ...
UN envoy focuses on land disputes in Cambodia
A UN envoy has called on the international community to pay more attention to human rights issues in Cambodia. The call comes amid ongoing land disputes and legal harassment of activists. Surya Subedi is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia and has submitted ...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-01/an-cambodia-human-rights/4289544?section=business
Four face charges in incitement case
Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday summonsed three well-known rights workers and a journalist to appear for questioning next week over years-old incitement charges in connection with a long-standing land dispute. In a summons signed by deputy provincial prosecutor Chea Sopheak, the court ordered Radio Free Asia journalist Sok Ratha, ...
Three Rights Workers, Journalist Summoned Over Incitement
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday summoned three human rights workers and a journalist over allegations that hey incited indigenous ethnic minority villagers in Lumphat district to protest violently against a powerful agro-industry company in 2009. Deputy court prosecutor Chea Sopheak said he had requested Adhoc provincial ...
Sonando Jailed for 20 Years; Sentence Denounced
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court handed down a 20-year jail sentence to independent radio station owner Mam Sonando yesterday for his role in fomenting an alleged secessionist movement in a decision drawing condemnation from human rights groups and some of Cambodia’s main foreign donors. The court ...
Youths heed city's siren call
When 29-year-old store manager Srey Mom sent her mother in Takeo province some money to pay young people to help with the rice planting, her mother told her it was no use – the young people had abandoned the village to seek their fortunes in ...
Cambodian land rights campaigner jailed for 20 years
A Cambodian court has jailed a 71-year-old broadcaster and land rights campaigner for 20 years after finding him guilty of leading an anti-state rebellion, a verdict condemned by activists as the latest crackdown on human rights. Three judges at the Phnom Penh court convicted Sonando, who ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/01/cambodia-land-rights-campaigner-jailed
Garment industry stokes Cambodia’s political growth
Under dazzling white strip-lights, a production line of young Cambodians stitch, iron and fold their way to the day’s target of 820 two-piece children’s pajamas. These garments are destined for the shelves of Los Angeles, shop price $9.97. The workers, mostly women, start at 7:30 ...
Dai Fishing Targeted in Mekong Conservation Zone
Fisheries Administration patrols increased on the Mekong River in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces to prevent fishermen from using dai fishing methods as the seasonal fish migration period begins. However, the Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), an umbrella group of national and international organizations, said the ...
Meeting sets out action plan for women's economic empowerment
Poor education and a lack of skills are still major challenges for Cambodian women and a recent meeting in Phnom Penh with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the United Nations Development Program set out to validate an action plan on women’s economic empowerment that ...
The Missing Link
Resources to feed and educate a child, access to shelter and a life free of abuse arc fundamental rights, yet each day millions of Cambodians struggle to meet their basic needs alone. With more than 30% of the population living below the national poverty line of ...
Court Questions Unionist on Incitement Charges
The Kandal Provincial Court yesterday questioned labor leader Rong Chhun over allegations he incited garment factory workers to stage an illegal strike, a court official said. A director at the Tai Yang garment factory in Ang Snuol district- which supplies apparel to U.S. brands Levi Strauss, ...
Gov't and Donors Set New Reform Targets
The new list of reforms approved by the government at a high-level meeting with its foreign donors on Wednesday offer a mixed bag of targets, with some sectors, such as education, given more ambitious goals than before, while others had their ambitions scaled back and old goals ...