ODC English Site

It took angry motorists rather than government officials or police officers to persuade more than 200 protesting villagers to clear road 48 in Koh Kong province yesterday morning after they blocked it for almost 24 hours, a human rights group representative said. The villagers, involved in ...

In order to pacify concerns that filling in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake would lead to flooding, it was claimed by officials that 10 hectares of the 90-hectare lake would be preserved to absorb heavy rainfall. Now, four years after sand began streaming into Boeng Kak, ...

U.N. human rights envoy to Cambodia Surya Subedi wrapped up his seventh mission to Cambodia on Friday, saying that his own assessments of land concessions confirmed that they are being unfairly granted and leaving many communities out in the cold. Mr. Subedi said that meetings held ...

Cambodia needs to improve the skills of its workforce if it is to compete and benefit from Asean’s plan for greater integration and the free flow of skilled labor within the region by 2015, Minister of Labor Vong Sauth said on Friday at the Asean ...

Mondol Seima district, Koh Kong province – It was a gesture the late conservationist and outspoken anti-logging activist would have appreciated. After blessing the site where Chut Wutty was shot dead just over two weeks ago under still mysterious circumstances in this remote patch of the ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday repeated a call for Asean countries to put a stop to the exploitation of migrant workers and urged the acceleration of efforts to provide protection for such workers. At the Asean Summit last month, Mr. Hun Sen said that protecting the ...

One of the first things UN Special Rapporteur Surya Subedi did on his week-long fact-finding mission in Cambodia was visit the grave of slain environmentalist Chut Wutty. It wasn’t on the itinerary, but Subedi, rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, said he wanted ...

Australian mining firm OZ Minerals announced yesterday that it has successfully sold its Cambodian mining assets to Renaissance Minerals Limited for AU$17.8 million, or $19.2 million, after years of disappointing gold exploration results here. According to the statement, Renaissance now controls the 1,100-square-km core of the ...

Forestry Administration officials reportedly blocked vehicles in three provinces from travelling to Koh Kong town yesterday on their way to the site where prominent environmental activist Chut Wutty was shot last month. But hundreds of others from six provinces in a convoy of 27 vans made it ...

More than 600 people, including 50 Buddhist monks, who have been affected by illegal logging across the country arrived in Koh Kong province yesterday ahead of a memorial service to be held today at the site where well-known forestry activist Chut Wutty was shot dead ...

Informal workers, a class that includes beer promoters, tuk tuk drivers and farmers, are among those who stand to benefit most from the upcoming trade-union law, observers say – and workers say it can’t come soon enough. Dave Welsh, country director of the American Center for ...

Hundreds of would-be illegal loggers have been stopped this year by provincial authorities in Preah Vihear, Oddar Meanchey and Banteay Meanchey who have stopped them from crossing the border into Thailand, where Thai soldiers have killed 17 Cambodians so far this year. In Preah Vihear alone, ...

Surya Subedi, the UN’s human rights envoy to Cambodia, expressed concern Friday over land concessions provided to private companies that are forcing people from their land in the provinces. “the royal government has the primary responsibility for respecting, protecting and fulfilling the rights of its ...

A Thai seafood factory supplying retail giant Walmart is continuing to violate its labor arrangements with hundreds of Cambodian workers there and could leave up to 100 of them stranded and jobless by next week, the Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC) said in a new ...

Dry, parched ground – evidence of severe dry season drought – stretches for miles in Siem Reap’s Srei Snam district. In a couple of months, the rains will flood these fields. Both conditions make it equally impossible to produce a good harvest. Srei Snam was a ...

The majority shareholder of Timbergreen, a firm that has been the centre of illegal logging allegations, has denied the company is in any way involved in the illicit trade of timber. The company has gained significant attention since prominent environmental activist Chut Wutty, who had made ...

The Ministry of Tourism will shift its focus to ecotourism development in the Kingdom’s northeast after efforts to promote travel to Cambodia’s coastline proved successful. ...

Representatives from four political parties yesterday signed a campaign finance voluntary disclosure pact, promising transparency in how their election funds are spent and identifying the sources of their funding. The disclosure agreement was reached by the SRP, Human Rights Party (HRP), Funcinpec and Movement for Democracy in the absence of ...

Chea Sokheng, general director of Arizon Group Ltd, a potential investor in Cambodia’s education and real estate sectors, said that investment in education is a main contributor to developing human resources and growth of the national economy. Though he mentioned the opportunity to invest in the ...

Ministry officials were silent yesterday on how exactly they planned to implement Prime Minister Hun Sen’s suspension of any new economic land concession grants and review of existing ELCs. Provincial authorities involved in granting the now-suspended land concessions yesterday said they were ready to implement ...

Eight months after the anti-graft provisions of the Anti-Corruption Law came into effect, the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) announced yesterday that it would start a widespread campaign to introduce standardized fees for government services in every commune office—though it will likely be months before any visible steps are taken. More than 2,000 ...

An estimated 600 people will travel to parts of the Cardamom Mountains in Koh Kong province to investigate illegal logging and commemorate the death of slain environment activist Chut Wutty tomorrow. Communities from eight provinces that have been affected by deforestation will travel to Koh Kong ...

An estimated 600 people who say their livelihoods have been affected by illegal logging and deforestation across the country are scheduled to gather in Koh Kong province on Friday at the site where environmental activist Chut Wutty was shot dead on April 26. The group will ...

The families of two maids working in Malaysia asked Preah Vihear’s anti-human trafficking office and the human rights group Adhoc yesterday to intervene on behalf of their daughters, whom they haven’t seen or heard from since last year, officials said. ...