News
HRW politicises human rights with a biased report attacking Cambodian dam project
Human rights are for humanity, not for Human Rights Watch (HRW). Human rights must be understood and approached based on the context and the stage of nation building and state building. ...
Cambodia asylum deal to go ahead despite intense opposition
Australia’s secret refugee deal with Cambodia is about to be signed, amid growing opposition to the transfer agreement. With a deal imminent, the office of Immigration Minister Scott Morrison refused to confirm on Monday he was set to travel to Cambodia this week, while the Department ...
Beggars set for Prey Speu: city
After months of claiming that Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Speu Social Affairs Centre had all but shut down, officials yesterday told the Post that the facility would be used in its latest efforts to rid the streets of “undesirables”. City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said that ...
Sen David and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/beggars-set-prey-speu-city
Cambodian authorities take two more opposition MPs into custody
Thursday while a court summoned its deputy chief for questioning following violent clashes when party supporters tried to force the reopening of Freedom Park in the capital. Elected members of parliament Nut Rumduol and Long Ry were taken into custody by policemen in plain clothes from ...
Parameswaran Ponnudurai
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/violence-07172014203608.html
Illegal workers arrested, face Thai court
Thai authorities have arrested and are preparing to try 13 Cambodian migrant workers who were allegedly caught with fake stamps on their work papers as they tried to return home, Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong confirmed on Friday. The government also announced a plan to subsidize ...
Khy Sovuthy and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-workers-arrested-face-trial-in-thailand-62059/
Sentinel page drops photos
Less than two weeks after a major rights group lambasted the US’s training of Cambodia’s “abusive armed forces”, allegedly incriminating photographs have been removed from the official Facebook page of the joint training exercise. On May 20, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement hitting out ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sentinel-page-drops-photos
US army shuts down website cited in HRW report
Four days after Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report criticizing Washington for supporting Cambodia’s “abusive armed forces,” a Facebook page containing photos cited in the report has been removed from the Internet. According to the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, the Facebook page titled “Angkor ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/us-army-shuts-down-website-cited-in-hrw-report-59509/
Rights group says US military support breaches Congress bill
U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday released a report claiming that Washington’s ongoing support for Cambodian security forces is inconsistent with U.S. Congress directives regarding aid to Cambodia. HRW charges that last month’s 10-day Angkor Sentinel military exercise, undertaken by members of the ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-group-says-us-military-support-breaches-congress-bill-59227/
Deal would send workers to Saudi Arabia
Cambodia is nearing a deal that would open a pipeline of workers to Saudi Arabia, a country where Southeast Asian migrants have in the past been abused and even executed for crimes that include “sorcery”. Following a meeting in Hanoi last week with Saudi Ambassador Salah ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/deal-would-send-workers-saudi-arabia
HRW says trial of Stung Meanchey pair ‘flawed’
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has labeled the trial of two teenagers arrested during the lethal suppression of a garment sector strike in November 12 as “deeply flawed” and said that the pair should be spared prison sentences. In a statement Sunday, the rights organization claims that ...
George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hrw-says-trial-of-stung-meanchey-pair-flawed-58483/
Rights group slams SL case
A trial for two teens charged with intentional violence from a Stung Meanchey riot in November was unfair to the defendants, a statement released yesterday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. Calling the trial “deeply flawed”, HRW said the judge in the case showed open hostility ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rights-group-slams-sl-case
Trafficker gets 10 years
The manager of Giant Ocean International, a now-defunct recruitment firm notorious for abuse scandals, was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in jail for trafficking hundreds of Cambodian fishermen to work in slave-like conditions overseas. Taiwanese national Lin Yu-shin, who ran the firm, was arrested in May ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/trafficker-gets-10-years
Concern over migration chief’s family connections
The appointment of General Sok Phal to head the Interior Ministry’s newly formed department to monitor migrant workers has raised concerns over his close familial connection to a labor recruitment industry fraught with human rights abuses. Gen. Phal’s sister, Ung Seang Rithy, is the owner of ...
Matt Blomberg and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/concern-over-migration-chiefs-family-connections-57202/
Uighurs ‘arrested’ at border
A group of 14 ethnic minority Uighurs, including six children, fleeing China were arrested on Saturday in the Thai border province of Sa Keo after Cambodian smugglers deserted them on Friday, Thai media reported yesterday. The five men, three women and six children who were apprehended ...
Amelia Woodside and Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/uighurs-%E2%80%98arrested%E2%80%99-border
Verdict today for Kbal Thnal six
In anticipation of today’s scheduled Municipal Court verdict for six men facing charges of violence and property damage in connection with a September clash on Phnom Penh’s Kbal Thnal overpass, rights groups yesterday called for their acquittal. A statement from Human Rights Watch (HRW) released yesterday ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/verdict-today-kbal-thnal-six
New deadlock but old tactics, analysts say
Ahead of today’s hearing on Cambodia’s record at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, opposition figures and analysts said the ruling Cambodian People’s Party has reverted to familiar tactics of post-election suppression. Analysts yesterday said that the breaking up of Cambodia National Rescue Party-led protests ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-deadlock-old-tactics-analysts-say
US Support to Cambodian Military Under Scrutiny
As military police began a 10-day training program with the U.S. military in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, questions are being raised again over Washington’s ongoing support to Cambodian security forces involved in serious human rights abuses. On January 3, military police officers opened fire with AK-47 ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/us-support-to-cambodian-military-under-scrutiny-50670/
Cambodia: Drug Centers Detain, Abuse ‘Undesirables’, Says HRW
Cambodian authorities unlawfully detain hundreds of drug users and others deemed “undesirable” in centers where they face torture, sexual violence, and forced labor, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch called for the immediate closure of the country’s eight detention ...
Eurasia Review News Staff
http://www.eurasiareview.com/09122013-cambodia-drug-centers-detain-abuse-undesirables-says-hrw/
Call for Oversight of Cambodian Land Campaign
A land titling campaign in Cambodia launched and financed by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s lacks transparency and could leave thousands of people landless, a human rights group said Wednesday, urging the country’s donors to push for reform of the program. The campaign, which employs volunteer youth ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-06122013150317.html
Despite Maid Abuses, Cambodia Retains Trafficking Ranking
Cambodia held on to its Tier 2 ranking for the third straight year in the U.S. State Depart- ments latest global Trafficking in Persons Report, which praised the country for a rise in prosecutions, but criticized the country over a new sub-decree on migrant labor. In ...