News

Not enough priority is given to research in Cambodia, threatening its long term development, economists and other experts say. Larry Strange, executive director of the Cambodian Development Research Institute, says the country cannot plan for major reform, build its economy, or reduce poverty without proper analysis ...

The Prime Minister ordered 49 family’s houses to be rebuild [sic] at Keo Pus Village, in the Steung Hav District of Sihanoukville, after they had been demolished by authorities earlier this month. He also ordered Bin Chhin, Chairman of the National Authority for Land Dispute ...

People applying for land titles in urban areas are at a huge disadvantage compared to their rural counterparts due to the higher percentage of property disputes with powerful officials and businesspeople in the country’s cities, a new report on land registration has found. To improve ...

The head of the country’s National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution on Wednesday said his authority was unable to resolve land disputes and that the responsibility for settling such disputes rested with the ministries responsible for handing out economic land concessions (ELCs) in the first ...

A mother of four, with the youngest on her hip, said she was not impressed by the palatial government buildings where Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Council of Ministers have their offices. Her own home is a wood-and-tin shack now partially buried under the ...

Economic land concessions remain a major concern, with more than 230 people arrested in 2012, an increase of more than 150 percent from the year before, according to an annual report by the rights group Adhoc. That means land conflicts have increased, Thun Saray, president ...

Laws protecting ethnic minorities’ communal land rights are good, but their implementation has a long way to go, said participants in a forum of minorities from Mondulkiri and Kratie provinces yesterday. After July’s parliamentary elections, legislators should take the opportunity of a newly constituted government to ...

More than 200 people were arrested while defending their land in 2012 – a year human rights groups described yesterday as Cambodia’s “worst” for land disputes. Of the 201 people arrested – a figure that more than doubled the 2011 total – 29 were imprisoned, mostly ...

One hot day in June, 2009, Ven Samin, a member of the ethnic Suoy minority in Kampong Speu province, grabbed her digital camera and headed out of the house. The 44-year-old arrived at a collection of damaged rice paddies in Oral district and began taking photos. ...

Phnom Penh’s anti eviction protesters yesterday staged a 100 strong demonstration outside the CPP Headquarters on Norodom Boulevard, calling for the ruling party to release a jailed community activist and help families acquire land titles. They also requested that the government include 61 families left ...

Even as the skyline of Phnom Penh grows with the symbols of modern architecture, Cambodia’s economy still faces a host of challenges. On the surface, Cambodia’s economy is certainly improving. In September, the IMF raised its 2012 GDP growth forecast from 6.3 to 6.5 percent ...

After 28 years in the capital, eating like “a king” and enjoying the perks one receives as the son of high-ranking CPP officials, Sophal’s* move to the countryside was as jarring as it was eye-opening. Until the day in June when he traded his designer threads ...

Lawmakers from Cambodia’s ruling party on Monday refused to accept a petition from hundreds of people who held a rally calling for the government’s help in resolving land disputes, drawing criticism from activists who questioned the effectiveness of the country’s parliament. The appeal, which contained more ...

On the second day of his two-day visit to Ratanakkiri, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday cajoled indigenous minority members about their ready adoption of new technology amid the shift away from traditional ways of life, and extolled the benefits of rubber plantations over their ...

Eight representatives of Phnom Penh communities involved in land disputes were allowed to present their petitions to the Council of Ministers yesterday after authorities blocked about 200 of their fellow petitioners from gathering in front of the Peace Palace. During a meeting with the representatives, Bun ...

About 60 land activists including children marched to the Peace Palace Monday to welcome Prime Minister Hun Sen’s position on outside involvement in land disputes. The residents of two property development sites and Thmor Kol community near Phnom Penh International Airport also presented a list of ...

Land disputes are expected to be a hot issue in next year’s election, overshadowing perennial issues such as illegal immigration, destruction of forests, corruption, and unemployment. Prime Minister Hun Sen himself has acknowledged that the government’s failure to resolve the issue will mean handing ammunition to ...

Rights groups said they will continue to advocate in land grabbing and eviction cases, and villagers involved in such disputes said they will continue to turn to NGOs for help despite a warning by Prime Minister Hun Sen for civil society to stay clear of ...

The U.S. will address human rights abuses in Cambodia and urge Prime Minister Hun Sen to conduct free and fair elections and end a culture of land grabbing during President Barack Obama’s visit to Phnom Penh next week. Samantha Power, senior director for Multilateral Affairs and ...

As more than 100 protesters continued to spend their days camped outside the US embassy appealing for the release of two land activists, a delegation from Amnesty International visited the Boeung Kak Community yesterday to offer support for their fight Amnesty International would continue to monitor ...

About 100 residents embroiled in land disputes in Phnom Penh submitted a petition to the U.S. Embassy yesterday requesting that President Barack Obama raise the issue of evictions and reform of the country’s land concession policy when he visits Cambodia later this month. The plea comes ...

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 ...

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 ...

Families in Koh Kong province will today file a complaint with the U.S. government against American Sugar Refining (ASR) over farmland they claim they were violently evicted from to make way for two sugar plantations that supply the New York-based company. The 207 Koh Kong ...