VOA Khmer

Talks between Cambodia’s ruling party and the opposition to resolve the impasse over last year’s election have been deadlocked for months. The two sides disagree on a number of issues, most significantly reform of the National Election Committee (NEC). But signs of a thaw have ...

Ruling party members continued to meet at the National Assembly on Wednesday, discussing a draft law on roadways despite a boycott by the opposition. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party has refused to participate in the new government, following 2013 elections it says were marred by ...

Diplomats, legal experts and political analysts all met in a forum in Phnom Penh Tuesday to discuss the implications of last year’s election and the ongoing political deadlock. Some diplomats, like Dinesh Patnaik, India’s ambassador to Cambodia, questioned the legitimacy of a government the opposition refuses ...

Health officials from Cambodia and Vietnam met on Monday in an effort to cooperate on avian influenza. ...

Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh on Tuesday offered grave warnings to anyone who “tries to topple the current government.” The minister appeared to be addressing the opposition, which has said it will call for mass demonstrations if election reform is not enacted by the ruling Cambodian ...

Cambodians need to be more courageous in challenging endemic corruption, a development expert says. Preap Kol, head of Transparency International Cambodia, told “Hello VOA” last week that the more people challenge corruption, the more likely it is they will free themselves from it. Cambodia remains one ...

Members of the government, military and civil society met on Monday to form a working group to undertake security reform and reporting. The working group will have 26 members from a wide spectrum of government and nongovernment agencies to produce policy recommendations to Cambodia’s leaders. The formation ...

A small set of Cambodian factories being monitored by the International Labor Organization have showed some signs of improvement, according to a recent report. The ILO’s Better Factories initiative monitors 51 facilities. In a new report, the ILO says 30 of those factories showed signs of ...

Negotiators for Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties say they have reached agreements on key points of election reform, moving past a potential breakdown in talks last week. But they did not agree on an overhaul of the National Election Committee, widely seen as biased toward ...

Cambodia’s opposition has written a formal request to the country’s ruling party, requesting an agreement to reform the national election body before political negotiations resume on Monday. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party wants a two-thirds majority vote on members of the National Election Committee, which ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said Tuesday that political negotiations with the ruling party have hit an impasse. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party “refuses to discuss any changes to the composition of the electoral commission,” he wrote in an open letter to the diplomatic community. The National Election ...

Journalists need to be more professional in their reporting, which is the best way to protect themselves, a media educator says. “Like any other profession, journalism can be risky, but if journalists follow their professional codes of conduct and ethics and work with responsibility, there should ...

An increasing number of NGOs in Cambodia are facing the prospect of budget cuts, with money from foreign donors decreasing as a political deadlock continues. Cambodia’s robust civil society relies on donor countries, but some have postponed funding while the country’s two rival political parties remain ...

Three judicial reform draft laws will be submitted to the Council of Ministers last this month, justice officials said Wednesday. The draft laws deal with the functions of the courts and the conduct of judges and prosecutors, as well as an oversight body called the Supreme ...

NGOs working in democracy, human rights and transparency all say they face a lack of cooperation from Cambodian authorities, especially in the provinces, a new report finds. The Cooperation Committee for Cambodia conducted research on Cambodia’s overall climate for civil society organizations, finding that those dealing ...

Ohio University is poised to hold its sixth annual Khmer Studies Forum, beginning later this month. Topics for discussion at the three-day conference include Cambodia’s current political climate, the Khmer Rouge tribunal, and the country’s art, media and culture.​ The forum will be held at the ...

Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties on Monday agreed to create a law governing the regulation of financing for political parties, as they opened negotiations to end the longstanding political deadlock and in hopes of reforming the election process. A joint statement by the ruling Cambodian People’s ...

An experiment in public busing sponsored by the Japanese government ends tomorrow, but Phnom Penh officials say they want the service to continue. The service will be handed over to the city and a Chinese company, so that 10 bus lines will keep running, but officials ...

The World Bank’s ombudsman office says it will assess a complaint from indigenous groups in Ratanakkiri province that a bank-supported company has damaged the forest and surrounding communities. Seventeen different groups joined in the complaint, claiming the Hoang Anh Gia Lai rubber company, which receives ...

The beating death of a Vietnamese-Cambodian earlier this month was the first incident in several years that some are calling a hate crime. Leaders of the Vietnamese community in Cambodia, as well as the Vietnamese Embassy, say they want the Cambodian authorities to pay more attention ...

Phnom Penh will host one of Asia’s biggest technology conferences later this month. FossAsia, a conference on open source and free software, will be held in the capital Feb. 28 to March 2—a free event open to students, developers and entrepreneurs. Technologies discussed at the conference will ...

The Asian Human Rights Commission has launched an online petition to pressure the Cambodian government to release 21 union activists and workers charged in connection with labor protests last month. Twenty-three workers were arrested in a violent crackdown by government police and security forces early January, ...

The World Bank says it will investigate reports from indigenous groups in Cambodia that a company funded by the bank’s International Finance Corporation is involved in deforestation and land grabs. The bank’s Office of the Compliance Adviser Ombudsman, or CAO, will first examine the credibility of ...

US President Barack Obama’s Southeast Asia-only trip in 2012 marked a high point in the US prioritization of the region. But there has been a drop in the presence of high-level US diplomats since then, and in his recent State of the Union speech, Obama ...