Civil society

Rights groups are calling for the release of three opposition activists who have been held in detention since violent clashes with security forces in July. The activists have been held despite a political deal last month between the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the opposition Cambodia ...

Around 80 citizen journalists from around Cambodia held a meeting in Phnom Penh Wednesday, in a first-ever networking event for a new kind of reporter in the country. Professional journalists and other media professionals joined the event, sponsored by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media and ...

Local NGOs are urging the new National Assembly to pass term limits for the prime minister, to prevent a “dictatorship” in Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia in some capacity for 30 years, but following discussions in Phnom Penh, rights groups and development NGOs ...

The number of people charged in land disputes across the country so far this year has already surpassed the number of charges in all of 2013 in what rights group Adhoc on Tuesday called an “alarming” increase in legal action against those wrapped up in ...

A prominent rights group on Monday wrote to Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, calling on him to remind ministries and local authorities that demonstrators do not require their permission to hold public gatherings. ...

Hundreds of housing rights protesters and evictees clashed with security forces outside Phnom Penh on Monday, leaving at least nine people with minor injuries. The clash was one of the first since major violence over Freedom Park in the capital in July. Protesters gathered outside the National ...

Phnom Penh security forces on Sunday blocked activists from riding their bicycles around the city to promote their campaign against the pending construction of a hydropower dam in Koh Kong province, claiming the organizers failed to ask City Hall for permission. The NGO Mother Nature has ...

Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison has been buying truckloads of water for inmates since a road construction crew broke the water pipe leading to the jail last week, officials said Sunday. ...

The UN Children’s Fund in Australia has warned volunteers and tourists to avoid visiting Cambodian orphanages following critical reports from the press in recent weeks. In a post on its website, UNICEF Australia said “these types of tours exploit children and their families for the financial ...

Recent flooding has claimed another victim, a child in Kratie province who drowned, bringing the total death toll to 30, Keo Vy, cabinet director at the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), said yesterday. While water levels are declining across the 12 provinces affected by flooding, ...

Some 500 ethnic minority Khmer Krom monks and activists concluded Wednesday their three-day protest against a Vietnamese diplomat, who reportedly said that South Vietnam, or former Kampuchea Krom provinces, belonged to Vietnam prior to France’s official transfer of the land in 1949. The protest ended without ...

Military police in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district on Monday were duped into letting a detained immigration official walk free just hours after he was arrested for alleged involvement in the cross-border illegal timber trade, police said yesterday. District military police chief Sok Min said yesterday that ...

Three men embroiled in a land dispute with a company owned by the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem were arrested Tuesday while marching with about 50 fellow villagers from Kompong Chhnang province’s Lor Peang village to Phnom Penh. The villagers planned to walk ...

An immigration official at the Ministry of Interior’s office in Ratanakkiri province was arrested yesterday, accused of illegal logging, district police said. O’Yadav police chief Sok Min said provincial court prosecutor Liv Sreng led military and police officials on a car chase that ended with the ...

Five hundred villagers in Preah Vihear province protested yesterday outside the office of FP Malaysia Plantation Company, which they say is attempting to take their land. Rith Sothon, a village representative in Preah Vihear’s Kulen district, said the villagers filed a complaint after the company placed ...

Authorities in Mondolkiri province prevented hundreds of ethnic minority members from marching through Sen Monorom City to mark International Day of the World’s Indigenous People on Saturday, claiming it would confuse tourists. Marches elsewhere were allowed to go ahead. Doung Pen said Sunday that he was ...

An annual vulture census carried out across Cambodia has recorded the second lowest population estimate for ten years. The new figures follow a major vulture poisoning incident that occurred in Cambodia’s Mondulkiri Protected Forest back in february when 13 vultures were found dead. This is the largest ...

Due to discrimination, sexual minorities in the country face high poverty, bullying and elevated dropout rates, with the government’s ambiguous stance on LGBT issues worsening the situation, a UN report says. “Laws and policies in Cambodia are silent on LGBT people and rights,” states Being LGBT ...

The government’s long-pledged health insurance scheme for private sector employees, including factory workers, is just around the corner, officials promised yesterday while refusing to name a more specific date. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Labour held a public forum on the insurance plan, which is expected ...

An NGO partnered with Phnom Penh’s municipal government in a scheme to help poor children get off the street Wednesday blasted the city’s ongoing catch-and-release strategy. In June, City Hall partnered up with two NGOs in a campaign to remove beggars from Phnom Penh’s streets. The ...

While one of the two Phnom Penh families embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the Khun Sear Import Export Company this week accepted a compensation offer, the other says it has no plans to back down. ...

The Mekong River Commission issued flood warnings on Wednesday for Kratie, Kampong Cham and Stung Treng as well as the southern Lao city of Pakse. After surpassing alarm levels in recent days, the Mekong is expected to reach the flood stage in Kratie on Saturday, according ...

Rin Ren thought that her grandchildren had gone to study English with NGO Mith Samlanh and would return to their home along the railroad in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak II commune by nightfall, just as they had done many times before. Instead, friends of the children ...

A survey has found that while only 12 per cent of young Cambodians smoke cigarettes, more than four times that number are exposed to passive smoke every day, and a broad majority back tougher regulation of tobacco products. Mom Kong, executive director at the Cambodian Movement ...