Social development

Opening statements started yesterday in a trial pitting Kompong Chhnang province villagers against the wife of Minister of Industry Suy Sem over a long-standing land dispute. However, the plaintiffs and human rights workers monitoring the trial criticized yesterday’s proceedings, which were allowed to proceed despite ...

The government last month granted four companies a total 23,000 hectares of land concessions for agro-industry projects and a special economic zone (SEZ), according to human rights groups, which said it obtained the information from government documents. An additional 500 hectares inside a wildlife sanctuary were ...

The first trial in a long-running land dispute with the wife of Industry, Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem will start today at the Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court, a human rights worker and court officer said yesterday. Court prosecutor Penh Vibol confirmed that the court would ...

Cambodia’s first association for expanding business opportunities and financing for women was launched on Saturday. The Cambodia Women Entrepreneurs Association would seek to enhance the competitiveness of businesswomen in the growing ASEAN market, which was set to integrate by 2015, Seng Takakneary, president of the new ...

The government has chosen representatives of two obscure NGOs to send to an annual meeting between civil society groups and regional leaders during next month’s Asean summit in Phnom Penh, sparking an outcry among other non-governmental groups that say this will prevent critics from being ...

More than 600 villagers from four provinces and civil society organisation officials would em­bark on the largest community crackdown yet on the “anarchic logging” of Prey Lang forest in Kampong Thom, representatives said yesterday. ...

The executive director at the Financial Institute of Cambodia (FIC) says 726 students have completed courses so far at FIC since it opened in early 2011. Tith Seyla, who earned his bachelor’s degree from the Royal University of Law and Economics followed by a master’s ...

For hundreds of years, the ancestors of Vam Sovann have lived in Koh Kong province’s remote Araeng valley. Some 70 km from the nearest national road, Mr. Sovann’s village has no electricity or phone coverage, no paved roads or running water; instead, it has access ...

The Forestry Administration’s proposal to create a conservation zone for Prey Long, one of Cambodia’s largest remaining primary forests, has been scaled down by more than 20 percent and now covers about 480,000 hectares, an official said. During consultation workshops in Phnom Penh last month, the ...

Despite admitting yesterday to firing his pistol during last month’s protest at a Svay Rieng province special economic zone (SEZ), where three women were shot, Bavet City’s former governor Chhuk Bundith was free to return home after making his confession to the court. “[Mr. Bundith] came ...

The construction of a new $17.5 million women’s cancer hospital specializing in gynecological services will break ground this summer, one of the co-founders said yesterday. Janne Ritskes, the director of Tabitha Cambodia, an organization that works to improve the lives of poor Cambodians, said the 220-bed ...

The Free Trade Union (FTU) yesterday filed a complaint with Labor Minister Vong Sauth on behalf of nearly 4,000 garment workers in Kompong Chhnang province against Chinese-owned M&V International Manufacturing Ltd, alleging that they had been forced to work on International Women’s Day, which is ...

The water company that sparked four days of protest in Prey Veng province last week has once again drawn criticism, this time from teachers in Kratie province, who say the firm is building a road across their school’s land. Forty-nine teachers at Preah Kossamak High School ...

Faced with the rapid loss of vast tracts of forest across Cambodia, local communities have begun to fight back, and a growing number of villagers are now organizing their own aggressive forest patrols in order to save the forests on which they have relied for ...

When Reaksmey (not his real name) was in high school two years ago, he and his classmates were urged to attend the supplementary classes taught by their teachers before and after regular school hours. For an hour before school and two to three hours after each ...

The negotiations between Cambodia and Malaysia over a bilateral agreement on improved working conditions for Cambodian migrant maids are slowly progressing as both governments are exchanging draft agreements, according to officials from both countries. Ministry of Labor Secretary of State Othsman Hassan said that Cambodia recently ...

The number of families claiming to have lost contact with relatives working overseas has seen a significant increase in recent months, three human rights groups said Thursday. Local rights groups Adhoc and Licadho and the legal aid association Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC), said that the ...

Rights group Adhoc said yesterday that a large-scale march in Ratanakkiri province involving hundreds of ethnic minority villagers caught in land disputes would go on as planned later this month despite the government’s refusal to approve the march. The provincial coordinator for Adhoc, Pen Bonnar, said ...

Five cashew farmers in Ratanakkiri province will file a lawsuit against Hong An Mang Yang K Rubber Development Company today at the provincial court after the company mistakenly burned down 13 hectares of cashew trees last week, a human rights official said on Friday. With cashew ...

The number of families claiming to have lost contact with relatives working overseas has seen a significant increase in recent months, three human rights groups said Thursday. Local rights groups Adhoc and Licadho and the legal aid association Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC), said that ...

Last year saw a record increase in economic land concessions and the area controlled by agro-industrial companies jumped to more than 2 million hectares nationwide, according to human rights groups who track such projects. Mining companies are also flocking to Cambodia and those already have ...

Since its first day of operation in early December, the non-profit kitchen “Buckhunger” has provided nearly 22,00 lunchtime meals to hundreds of needy children and adults for free. There is no record of who comes and goes, and no condition to being fed. If you ...

Eight SET international (SI) schools have closed nationwide over the past two months because of financial problems, and the remaining two schools in Phnom Penh and Kompong Chhnang provinces also appear poised to shut their doors soon, a Ministry of Education official said. The abrupt closings ...

More than two dozen fisheries experts from across the world have sent a letter of concern to the prime minister and Council of Ministers warning that if construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam goes ahead as planned, it would negatively impact hundreds of thousands ...