ការអភិវឌ្ឍសង្គម
សិទ្ធិមនុស្ស
Cambodian Appeals Court Upholds Detention of Land Activists
Two land activists from forced evictions in Phnom Penh will not be released on bail as they await trial on incitement charges widely seen as an attack on free speech. The two women, Yorm Bopha and Tim Sak Mony, were arrested in early September and accused ...
Coalition Party Could Take 30 Percent of Vote in 2013 Elections
The Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), a coalition of the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party, stands to gain about 30 percent of the vote if it decides to stand against the ruling CPP in next year’s national elections, the Committee for Free ...
Lauren Crothers, P.15
http://www.cambodiadaily.com
Families complain to volunteers
Twelve families from Koh Kong province on Nov. 6 filed a complaint with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s youth volunteers and the Department of Land Management, requesting assistance in a land dispute with businessman, Heng Huy. Pok Yon, the families’ representative, said that earlier this year, Heng ...
Union Tells EU, US to Not Inspect Activist Case
More than 100 moto-taxi and tuk tuk drivers who are part of a little-known workers union submitted a letter to the U.S. Embassy and the European Union Delegation yesterday, asking them not to intervene in the case of Boeng Kak activist Yorm Bopha. It is not ...
NGOs Call for Asean Rights Document Delay
With less than two weeks until Asean leaders meet in Phnom Penh to consider approval of the region’s first human rights declaration, international NGOs yesterday urged them to postpone passing what they are calling a “deeply flawed” document. “In the current form, the [Asean Human Rights] ...
National Election Committee Dismisses Criticism of Reform
At the ceremony yesterday making the official start of the National Election Committee’s new mandate, NEC chairman Im Suosdey criticized the U.N. human rights envoy to Cambodia for taking an exceedingly harsh view of the country’s much derided electoral system. In a July report to the ...
A Dam Conundrum: Xayaburi Project Could Help Laos And Thailand, Hurt Cambodia And Vietnam
Officials in Laos announced that construction of the controversial Xayaburi dam will begin with a kickoff ceremony at the construction site Wednesday. Protests from human rights activists and environmental groups have delayed the project for 18 months, but the joint Laotian and Thai project is apparently ...
Cambodia Accuses Europe of Interference
In its first official response to a highly critical resolution on Cambodia from the European Parliament, the government has rejected all criticism and instead accused the Parliament in Brussels of playing politics and interfering in Phnom Penh’s affairs. In its resolution approved October 26, the European ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-accuses-europe-of-interference-5183/
Sesan Dam Approval Angers Villagers, Human Rights Groups
The government approved the Lower Sesan 2 dam project in Stung Treng province without any prior consultation with the most affected communities in Sesan district, where at least 5,000 people stand to be displaced, rights groups and villagers said yesterday. A study published earlier this ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sesan-dam-approval-angers-villagers-rights-groups-5231/
Ministry fires back over EU resolution
A week after the European Parliament issued a damning resolution on Cambodia’s human-rights situation and called for a revoking of trade privileges, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has shot back. “It is essential for the EU parliament to study and better understand the situation before passing ...
Award for Boeung Kak lake activist
Boeung Kak lake land evictions protester Tep Vanny has been honoured for years of activism by receiving an award from an international organisation that recognises the role of women in promoting human rights. Vanny, 32, who has been imprisoned, assaulted and threatened for fighting evictions at ...
Asian bloggers discuss Internet freedom at Cambodia conference
Bloggers from across Asia came together in the Cambodian city of Siem Reap this weekend to discuss blogging, technology and Internet freedom at 2012’s Blogfest Asia festival, a gathering of over 160 opinionated and distinctly geeky participants. Tops on the agenda? Internet freedom. The Cambodian contingent ...
Bunong Minority Villagers Protest Against Rubber Company
About 80 ethnic Bunong villagers living in Mondolkiri’s Pech Chreada district staged a protest against the Socfin-KCD rubber company Monday, demanding that the firm honor its long-standing pledge to return 1,000 hectares of farmland located inside its concession. Socfin-KCD, a join venture between Socfin, a ...
NGO Says Dispatch of Troops Against Protesters Unjustifiable
Soldiers should not have been deployed in support of a warrant to arrest land dispute protesters in Kratie province in May—an operation that led to the killing of a 14-year-old girl by armed forces, a Japanese human rights group said in a new report. The report ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngo-says-dispatch-of-troops-against-protesters-unjustifiable-4971/
Collective approach to 'help poor'
The collective power of agricultural co-operatives could bring huge benefits to poor, small-scale farmers, a Phnom Penh conference for international World Food Day heard on Friday. The sentiments were shared by the director of Cambodia’s General Directorate of Agriculture, So Khan Rithy Kun, who said farming ...
Europe Adopts Resolution on Cambodian Rights Situation
Drawing from a long list of human rights abuses, the European Parliament has urged the Cambodian government to stop forced evictions, called on the European Commission (E.C.) to investigate the country’s controversial land concessions policy, and raised the prospect of sanctions. In a resolution passed Friday ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/europe-adopts-resolution-on-cambodian-rights-situation-4862/
European body sends a message
The European Parliament, representing one of the country’s largest donors, on Friday called for a moratorium on forced evictions, an overhaul of elections and even went so far as to suggest to the European Union that it suspend tariff-free imports of agricultural goods linked to ...
Ratanakiri Court Questions Rights Workers
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday questioned the first of two human rights workers who are suing local officials for allegedly disrupting a July meeting they were hosting for villagers in Lumphat district. Deputy court prosecutor Ros Saram said he questioned Chhim Savuth, program officer for the ...
Record dogs new ACRA chief
The owner of a labor firm repeatedly accused of human trafficking, who is also the sister of one of the country’s top police officials, has been appointed head of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies (ACRA). Grave concerns have been expressed by rights groups over the appointment of Ung Seang ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102459382/National-news/record-dogs-new-acra-chief.html
Study Finds Land Concessions of No Benefit
Government-issued economic land concessions are making the country’s indigenous communities in the northeast provinces worse off, according to a study by the Mekong Institute of Cambodia. Presented yesterday at the 2012 Development Research Forum in Phnom Penh, the study comes on top of mounting criticism of ...
Thailand cracks down on exploitative factory
In a rare intervention, the Thai Labor Ministry has stepped in to stop the exploitation of migrant workers from Cambodia and Myanmar at a seafood factory in the country’s south, correspondence obtained by the Post reveals. The ministry found the Phatthana Seafood factory, in Songkhla province, which employs ...
Killer in Chut Wutty Case Could Be Free Within Days
The Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday convicted a private security guard of accidentally killing the military police officer who allegedly shot dead the country’s most prominent environmental activist, Chut Wutty, and sentenced him to two years in prison. The presiding judge, Kham Sophary, then immediately suspended ...
Window closing on AHRD: NGOs
Time is running out to rid the proposed ASEAN Human Rights Declaration of clauses that would restrict peoples’ rights rather than protect and enhance them, civil society groups said yesterday. Nay Vanda, deputy head of the monitoring section of rights group Adhoc, said civil society groups needed more ...
NGOs Ask Asean for More Say on Human Rights
Less than a month before Asean heads of state are expected to approve the first-ever human rights declaration for the regional group, Cambodian and Indonesian NGOs yesterday urged member states to give their organizations a larger role in the process. In the works for more than ...