News
Japan welcomes next generation of political leaders; shares democratic processes
A group of 10 politically active young Cambodians will visit Japan as part of the Japanese government’s support for Cambodia’s democratic development. ...
No closure yet for slain anti-logging fighter Chut Wutty after 12 years, activists call for reinvestigation
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and activists called on the government to reinvestigate the case of anti-logging activist Chut Wutty who was shot dead on April 26, 2012. ...
Resounding call to release human rights defender Koet Saray charged for incitement in Preah Vihear
About 50 civil society groups and unions called for the release of human rights activist Koet Saray, president of Khmer Student Intelligent League Association (KSILA), who has been placed in pre-trial detention. ...
Son Chhay meets opposition activists in prison
Candlelight Party politician Son Chhay met on Wednesday with 23 jailed opposition officials and activists at Prey Sar prison and asked for them to be released on bail, characterizing their arrests as political cases. ...
Nat Sopheap
https://vodenglish.news/son-chhay-meets-opposition-activists-in-prison/
Oral forest activists protest legal case against them over land dispute
Six forest community representatives in Kampong Speu province’s Oral district were questioned by the Provincial Court on Wednesday for intentionally causing damage, threatening, publicly insulting, and incitement. ...
Som Sarath
https://cambojanews.com/oral-forest-activists-protest-legal-case-against-them-over-land-dispute/
Police block Beoung Kak protesters
More than 100 police and security guards, including riot squad members, were deployed to the capital’s Boeung Kak lake community yesterday to block a protest that, at times, involved only three shouting women. About 50 members of the Boeung Kak community tried to march from Village ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013061866329/National/police-block-beoung-kak-protesters.html
Vietnam and Cambodia hit back
Vietnam urged Laos to halt construction of a $3.5 billion hydropower dam pending further study, environmental activists said on Friday after a meeting of the Mekong River Commission. The activists said Cambodia, also downriver from the Xayaburi dam, accused Laos during heated discussions on Wednesday and ...
http://bdnews24.com/environment/2013/01/21/vietnam-and-cambodia-hit-back
Anti-Eviction Protesters Appeal to Obama
As Barack Obama was declared president of the United States for a second term yesterday, about 50 anti-eviction protesters for the Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities camped out in front of the U.S. Embassy and appealed for the president’s help in addressing land rights ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/anti-eviction-protesters-appeal-to-obama-5315/
Advocacy Group Slams Murder Case 'Hush Up'
Reporters Without Borders has joined mounting criticism of the government’s handling of the April 26 murder of environmental activist Chut Wutty. On Monday, a security guard was convicted of accidentally killing the officer officially blamed for the activist’s death. “How convenient,” the Paris-based advocacy group said in a ...
Global Witness Adds to Criticism of Chut Wutty Murder Case
Environment rights group Global Witness yesterday joined the call for an independent investigation into the April 26 murder of conservation activist Chut Wutty following the conviction of a security guard in the case. On Monday the Koh Rong Provincial Court sentenced Rann Boroth, a security guard ...
Wutty Case wraps with sentencing
At the close of a case that remained shrouded in controversy until the end, Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday found former security guard Ran Boroth guilty of the unintentional killing of military police officer In Rattana, the man on whom authorities pinned the murder of ...
Rights Workers in Court Over Intimidation
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has summoned for questioning two human rights workers who have lodged court complaints against local officials for disrupting their land-rights workshop in July. Pen Bonnar, provincial coordinator for Adhoc, and Chhim Savuth, a project coordinator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), filed ...
Rights Activist Denies Phnom Penh Move Is Due to Charges
A Ratanakkiri-based human rights worker charged by the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court with inciting ethnic minority villagers to protest during a 2009 land dispute with a private agro-industry company has been transferred to work in Phnom Penh. Pen Bonnar, Ratanakkiri provincial coordinator for Adhoc , said yesterday ...
Backers ask King to set Sonando free
Members of the Association of Democrats, the group led by jailed activist and Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando, rallied in front of the Royal Palace yesterday to deliver petitions appealing for his release. Huon Phannary, the deputy secretary-general of the association, said yesterday that nearly 100 ...
'Outsider' criticism of verdict blasted by NGO
In a bluntly worded statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has shot back at critics of the Mam Sonando verdict, stressing that there were no political motivations to the case and accusing “outsiders” of trying to pressure a sovereign court. “Mr. Mam Sonando is the mastermind of ...
'Outsiders' Accused of Interference in Sonando Case
The Foreign Affairs Ministry has fired back at criticism over the conviction of independent radio station owner Mam Sonando on insurrection charges, accusing “outsiders” of seeking to interfere in the judicial system. Supporters say the case against Mr. Sonando for allegedly leading an anti-government movement ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/outsiders-accused-of-interference-in-sonando-case/
Court Drops Investigation Into Killing of Activist Chut Wutty
The Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday said it had dropped its investigation into the killing of environmental activist Chut Wutty, allegedly by a now-deceased military police officer in April. The court made the surprise announcement during the tril of Rann Boroth, who took the stand yesterday for the ...
Activists Stage Flash “Faint-Ins” at H&M, Gap to Protest Sweatshop Conditions
Dozens of human-rights activists are staging flash “faint-ins” at high-street retailers across Europe to illustrate the high incidence of mass fainting in Cambodia’s apparel factories. Protestors from the Clean Clothes Campaign, an alliance of organizations in 15 European countries dedicated to improving working conditions in ...
http://www.ecouterre.com/activists-stage-flash-faint-ins-at-hm-gap-to-protest-sweatshop-conditions/
Cambodian Activists Call for International Sugar Boycott
Human rights monitoring groups and Cambodian activists are calling for an international boycott of Tate & Lyle and Domino Sugar, who do business with sugar suppliers accused of participating in government-sanctioned land grabs and illegal evictions throughout rural Cambodia. According to the Cambodian League for the ...
Court Detains Two More Land Activists
Protesters from both neighborhoods gathered in front of the Phnom Penh Court on Wednesday to demand the release of the three. Phnom Penh Municipal Court is holding two more land protesters, following the detention of one woman on Tuesday. The two activists, from the Borei Keila neighborhood, ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/court-detain-two-more-land-activists/1502315.html
Landless Cambodians see nothing sweet in EU sugar deal
An EU scheme to boost trade with developing nations is fuelling land grabs in Cambodia, activists say, with thousands evicted from their property to make way for a booming sugar industry. Campaigners are taking their fight to European supermarkets, encouraging a boycott of Cambodian sugar, which ...
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1211528/1/.html
Hundreds Protest Lao Dam Project
The Venerable Sann Leang, executive director of NGO Environmental More than 500 villagers held a march in eastern Cambodia Friday to protest a controversial dam project on the Mekong River in Laos they say is undergoing construction despite a pledge to halt progress while officials ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/dam-06292012165509.html
Cambodian villagers protest controversial Laos dam
Cambodian villagers demonstrated on Friday against a controversial Lao hydropower dam that activists say is being built in defiance of an agreement to assess its potentially damaging impact on millions of people first. About 200 villagers whose livelihoods depend on the Mekong River urged a halt ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/29/us-cambodia-laos-idUSBRE85S0FX20120629
Global death toll of environmental activists rising, report says
In April, Chut Wutty was shot to death in the Cambodian forests he was so outspoken in defending, a slaying that outraged human rights activists suspicious of the conflicting explanations given by police. His death appears to be part of a chilling trend. Growing numbers of activists ...