News

A family of Montagnard asylum seekers, including two young children and a 9-month-old baby, has been deported to Vietnam, where the father was reportedly beaten by authorities for attempting to escape. But Moeng Sineath, spokesman for Ratanakkiri Provincial Hall, confirmed for the first time yesterday ...

Remaining five hill tribe Montagnards emerged from northeast Cambodia’s jungle on Saturday night after hiding for more than seven weeks since illegally entering Cambodia from Vietnam, a senior human rights activist said Sunday. ...

Thirteen hill tribespeople known as  “Montagnards” have left their jungle hideout in Cambodia and will apply for asylum after crossing from Vietnam to flee persecution, it was announced Sunday. The minority group had for more than seven weeks sought refuge in the jungle in Cambodia’s northeastern ...

Provincial authorities in Ratanakkiri province on the Vietnam border have yet to allow a team of UN workers to actively seek out a group of Montagnards potentially seeking asylum. UN refugee workers met with provincial officials for more than an hour on Wednesday, but no permission ...

A UN delegation met with Ratanakkiri province’s deputy police chief yesterday afternoon to discuss the fate of 13 Montagnard asylum seekers who have been hiding in the province in recent weeks. The provincial administration, however, has continued to call for the group’s deportation. Deputy police chief ...

Two ethnic Jarai Montagnards claiming to have fled religious persecution in Vietnam may have been arrested by local police in Ratanakkiri province, a rights worker has said. The UN is seeking to intervene in the case and has requested government cooperation while several more Christian Montagnards ...

Citing Cambodia’s vulnerability to climate change, civil society groups have called for global responses to the issue as the United Nations prepares for its annual climate change convention in Lima, Peru. ...

Cambodia has drastically reduced the amount of human rights recommendations it will implement as part of the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review, saying they were overly repetitive. While Cambodia was criticised for deferring recommendations, which dealt with issues such as freedom of expression and the ...

Local and international NGOs yesterday rallied behind the inaugural United Nations-declared International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists by urging the government to bring perpetrators to justice. Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday that the government was not responsible for any ...

Cambodia may be on the verge of a new era in human rights protection, an independent United Nations human rights expert declared today, adding that while the political momentum in the country was headed in a “positive direction,” a strong human rights infrastructure was still ...

Australia has reportedly installed a key immigration bureaucrat in its Phnom Penh embassy as the government prepares to send up to 1000 asylum seekers in its care on Nauru to Cambodia. Greg Kelly, who formerly headed the detention operations division of the Immigration Department and managed ...

Cambodia’s GDP per capita is expected to reach 1,130 U.S. dollars this year, an estimated increase of 8 percent from 1,043 U.S. dollars last year, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday. ...

The Abbott government has sent a senior official to Phnom Penh to take charge of a controversial scheme to resettle refugees from Australia, even before Cambodia signs an agreement to accept them. Australia has also boosted the staff of its embassy in the Cambodian capital by ...

A Thai sugar company with major shares in Cambodian sugar cane is being investigated for human rights violations in operations along the border between the two countries. The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand recently investigated allegations that villagers were forced from their homes to make ...

Cambodia will send a detachment of 216 peacekeepers to the United Nations stabilisation mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), the Information Ministry has said. The Kingdom already sent a delivery of tanks, trucks and other materiel there on Friday. ...

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 ...

About 500 ethnic minority Khmer Krom monks and activists on Monday staged a fresh protest here to demand a Vietnamese diplomat to recognize the “true history” of the former Kampuchea Krom provinces. It was the third rally in the last two months after Trung Van Thong, ...

A controversial deal to allow Australia to send refugees to Cambodia is imminent and could be signed as early as this week, sources have told Fairfax Media. The Australian and Cambodian governments have been negotiating for months over a deal to resettle up to 1000 refugees ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday applauded the recent creation of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), saying it could ease Cambodia’s dependence on institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). BRICS member nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa announced ...

United Nations human rights expert for Cambodia Surya Subedi has welcomed the political breakthrough reached between the two main political parties in Cambodia. “I welcome the agreement reached between both parties that finally breaks the deadlock that has gripped the country for almost a year,” said ...

Nearly a month after Cambodia’s second universal periodic review (UPR) of its human rights situation at the U.N. in Geneva, rights groups met in Phnom Penh on Thursday to discuss how they can work with the government to ensure that the 163 recommendations it accepted ...

International legal experts are expressing deep concern over proposed changes to Cambodia’s legal system that critics say hand over too much power to the executive.  At a meeting in Phnom Penh Tuesday, a group recommended the three judicial reform laws should be returned to parliament ...

United Nations rights envoy for Cambodia Surya Subedi on Wednesday urged all sides to immediately exercise utmost calm and restraint in the wake of alarming reports of violence following opposition protests in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. “Democracy depends on respect, not violence,” he said in a ...

United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights Surya Subedi has called on politically connected development company KDC International to halt its project in Kampong Chhnang province. Following violent clashes between KDC security guards and protesters on Monday, Subedi released a statement yesterday that calls on all ...