News

Seventeen members of a Cambodian rights group and environmental NGO were briefly detained by authorities in Cambodia’s southeastern Koh Kong province Wednesday as they observed protests calling for the release of three activists held for interfering with sand-dredging operations, sources said. ...

Police in Koh Kong province on Wednesday detained at least 17 people, who had been protesting the detention of three environmental activists. ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court on Monday denied bail to three jailed activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature who were charged last mo nth with threatening to destroy barges operated by a sand dredging company, their lawyer said. ...

About 80 protesters marched in Cambodia’s southwestern Koh Kong province on Monday to demand the release of three activists detained earlier this month for interfering with sand-dredging operations blamed for local pollution and riverbank collapse, sources said. ...

Military police attempted to arrest a group of protesters as they marched through Koh Kong province’s Khemara Phoumint City Thursday to demand the release of three jailed activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature, a rights worker and an official said. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday charged just 11 of the 88 people arrested on Friday during a sweeping raid of a drug-riddled ghetto in Sen Sok district’s Toek Thla commune, sending the remaining 77 to the city’s Orkas Knhom drug rehabilitation center, police ...

An increasing number of women who are victims of violence are looking for solutions outside the country’s dysfunctional court system, the president of rights group Licadho, Pung Chhiv Kek, said yesterday. ...

Dozens of people protested outside of the provincial prison in Koh Kong on Wednesday demanding the release of three activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature who were charged on Monday with threatening destruction, a rights worker and police said. ...

A defrocked monk arrested in Phnom Penh earlier this month for the alleged possession of weapons, fake documents and crystal methamphetamine told the municipal court Wednesday that he and a fellow defendant never possessed any of the contraband. ...

Activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature caused more than $100,000 in damages to a company that was legally dredging for sand in Koh Kong province, Khem Sameth, CEO of the company Direct Access, said yesterday. ...

Former Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith is enjoying preferential treatment in prison, according to an NGO with access to the facility, while the three garment workers he was jailed for shooting have still not received compensation. ...

Rights group Licadho has welcomed an announcement from the Interior Ministry that conditions at prisons, social rehabilitation centers and drug rehabs will be improved to ensure that the rights of inmates, patients and others housed or confined at the centers will be respected. ...

As the government prepares to draft a new law on cybercrime, Internet users are speaking up about which rights they want to see protected. ...

Rights groups say the Cambodian government should prioritize the passage of a law that would provide better guidance on the treatment of juveniles by the court system. ...

The Ministry of Land Management has again accused rights group Licadho of spreading false data that shows that the number of families embroiled in new or intensifying land disputes jumped threefold last year. ...

Hundreds of people gathered in provinces around the country Wednesday to demonstrate against a pending NGO law that opponents fear will be used to muzzle groups that criticize the ruling CPP. ...

The National Assembly may have approved the contentious Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO), but some young people are still urging the government to scrap it. ...

With CPP lawmakers expected to pass a highly controversial law regulating NGOs and associations Monday, City Hall said Sunday that it would use “many measures” to ensure that protesters are not able to rally outside the National Assembly. ...

NGOs remained united Tuesday in their staunch opposition to a draft law that would force all non-government groups in the country to register with the state, but were split on whether to take up the ruling CPP on its offer for an 11th-hour consultation ahead ...

Hang Sal has 2 hectares of fertile land he cannot farm. ...

As the only finalist in its category at Thursday’s Cambodia Information and Communications Technology awards, the Commerce Ministry looks likely to take home first prize for its newly overhauled website. ...

Eighteen families in a remote region of Koh Kong province have been ordered to move, in order to make way for the development of a Chinese-funded luxury tourist outpost. The families received notice on June 5, ordering them to leave their homes within one month. ...

A controversial draft law to regulate Cambodia’s NGOs has passed a major hurdle and will be moved on to the National Assembly for legislative debate. Om Chandara, a spokesman for the council, told VOA Khmer that two articles were withdrawn at the behest of Prime ...

Human rights activists are calling for more transparency in any potential agreement to send Cambodian workers to Qatar. ...