Social development

Representatives from an ethnic Bunong community in Mondolkiri province filed a complaint with a district governor against a commune police chief on Thursday after he allegedly cleared trees belonging to villagers in Pech Chreada district’s Krang Tes commune, officials said Friday. ...

Security guards hired by the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) thwarted an attempt Friday by 10 villagers to bring a halt to the company’s clearing of land in Koh Kong province, locals said. ...

The Cambodian education ministry announced Friday that 10,871 applicants, or 17.94 percent, of the total 60,611 candidates passed the second and final high school graduation exam for 2014. The ministry organized the second test after only 25.72 percent of the total 89,937 high school students ...

Kem Sokha, first vice president of the National Assembly and vice president of Cambodia National Rescue Party, has asked the Australian government to reconsider the transfer of refugees from Nauru to Cambodia. The request was made through a recent letter to Mrs. Alison Burrows, the Australian ...

Companies contracted to carry out social and environmental studies of the proposed Stung Cheay Areng dam in Koh Kong province yesterday confirmed that the Sinohydro Group is set to renew work in the Areng Valley in the coming days. The studies, which would pave the way ...

Representatives of 273 ethnic Bunong families from Mondolkiri province submitted a petition on Thursday to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet in Phnom Penh, seeking the cancellation of an economic land concession they say has infringed on their ancestral lands. ...

More than 200 ethnic families in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom town filed complaints to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet and the provincial court yesterday, asking for the cancellation of Villa Development’s land concession and demanding $500 million for allegedly destroying their resin trees. The complaint is the ...

Cambodia and Thailand on Thursday signed three deals to pave the way for the two neighbors to broaden bilateral ties and cooperation, a Cambodian spokesman said. The deals aimed to enhance bilateral cooperation in tourism, fighting against human trafficking, and connecting a railway between the ...

The French Development Agency (AFD) confirmed Wednesday that it will sign $6 million worth of loan agreements with three microfinance institutions (MFIs) to help rural households purchase solar panels and electricity. ...

Thousands of employees at Grand Twins International, Cambodia’s only publicly listed garment factory, will be back at the assembly line today after nearly two weeks on strike, accepting a court order to return to work. Workers will follow the order the Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued ...

A report from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has decried the killing of journalists with no consequences, listing Cambodia as one of several countries where members of the press have been killed since 2004 “with complete impunity”. From 2004 to 2013, 370 journalists ...

Despite reports that Prime Minister Hun Sen recently offered assurances that construction of the controversial Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam would not be allowed to begin in the near future, local officials are allegedly pushing forward with plans to relocate villagers. Multiple provincial, district and village ...

Less than a week away from the start of the new school year, the government is short on teachers. Every year, the government struggles to recruit enough instructors to keep pace with enrollment rates and replace those who have retired, left teaching or passed away. The ...

A man who claims to be hiding from authorities in the jungle after being linked to the Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF), a dissident political group that saw 10 of its members charged with plotting to incite violence on Saturday, said Tuesday he was seeking ...

The Kampong Cham Provincial Court yesterday ordered that five workers who were arrested during a violent protest at Juhui Footwear on Saturday be held in prison while charges against them are investigated. Two of them, Khun Sokhom and Mon Sarem, officials from the Coalition of Cambodian ...

Three Cambodian men arrested in Thailand last week were returned to Preah Vihear province on Monday and claim they were tortured by the Thai military before being released, according to a military colonel in the area who provided a video of the men’s accounts. According ...

Media experts are asking the government to consider granting citizen journalists the same safeguards as professional journalists under Cambodia’s Press Law. ...

Throngs of Cambodian students from various Chinese schools flocked to see the fifth edition of a Chinese book fair on Monday, seeking reading books which are helpful to their studies.​ Held at the Peace Book Center in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, the three-day ...

The Kompong Cham Provincial Court on Monday released five of the 10 people who were arrested Saturday after clashes between police and about 1,000 sacked workers from the Taiwanese-owned Juhui Footwear factory. The protest on Saturday turned violent when Juhui Footwear administrative director Teng Sambath ...

Expecting thousands of international tourists to travel to Phnom Penh for the first Water Festival held since 2010, the National Committee for Organizing National and International Festivals plans to set up several services catering specifically to foreigners. ...

Social worker Nong Socheat is well-acquainted with the ugly scope of child abuse. As a counsellor for First Step Cambodia (FSC), a local NGO that focuses on supporting male survivors of sexual assault, she regularly provides support for boys dealing with the aftermath of molestation. ...

The seven-inch scar runs diagonally across the left flank of his skinny torso, a glaring reminder of an operation he hoped would save his family from debt but instead plunged him into shame. But on discovering the broker earned US$10,000 for each kidney they sacrificed, ...

Three people in Cambodia were charged with the murder last week of a woman they believed to be a witch behind a spate of unexplained deaths in their community, according to a newspaper report on Monday. ...

Dissatisfied by wages at home, thousands of Cambodians have been lured to Malaysia by the promise of bigger pay cheques, but while many have found themselves subjected to long hours, unpaid wages, unsafe working conditions and even physical abuse, they have – until now – ...