News
Cambodia, states clash at UN session
Cambodia traded shots with the international community in a heated exchange at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday evening, with states condemning the Kingdom’s ongoing crackdown on the political opposition and civil society, and an increasingly agitated Cambodia accusing member states of ...
Leonie Kijewski
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodia-states-clash-un-session
Mission hits back at UN criticism of Cambodia’s ‘deteriorating’ political climate
The Permanent Mission of Cambodia to the United Nations in Geneva shot back at the UN human rights office (OHCHR) yesterday for criticising what it characterised as the Kingdom’s deteriorating political climate, claiming the criticism was “unverified” and “politically motivated”. // // ...
Leonie Kijewski
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/mission-hits-back-un-criticism-cambodias-deteriorating-political-climate
After rights review, groups press gov’t to act
Nearly a month after Cambodia’s second universal periodic review (UPR) of its human rights situation at the U.N. in Geneva, rights groups met in Phnom Penh on Thursday to discuss how they can work with the government to ensure that the 163 recommendations it accepted ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-rights-review-groups-press-govt-to-act-64438/
Cambodia’s Defense of Rights Record at UN Review Slammed
Foreign donors should push Cambodia’s government to end its human rights abuses as part of its bid to maintain political control of the nation, a rights group said Wednesday, after Phnom Penh allegedly snubbed recommendations by foreign governments to improve the country’s rights record. Representatives of ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/review-07022014161641.html
Lawmaker defends rejection of human rights proposals
National Assembly spokesman Chheang Vun on Friday defended Cambodia’s decision to reject four human rights proposals and merely take note of another 38 during the adoption of its second universal periodic review report in Geneva on Thursday. In all, Cambodia accepted 163 of the 205 recommendations ...
Kang Sothear
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawmaker-defends-rejection-of-four-human-rights-proposals-62697/
Gov’t rejects 4 human rights recommendations
Cambodia on Thursday rejected four recommendations for improving its human rights situation that it initially accepted earlier this year during its second universal periodic review at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. It also “noted” 38 recommendations—meaning it has not committed to implementing them—some relating ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-rejects-4-human-rights-recommendations-62584/
Cambodia delays human rights hearing for one week
A request by the Cambodian government for a delay in its universal periodic review (UPR) hearing at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, which was supposed to be Thursday, has been accepted, according to a rights group that was to deliver a statement on the ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-delays-human-rights-hearing-for-one-week-61863/
Health progress lauded
Cambodia’s progress in reducing maternal mortality was recognised internationally this week at the 67th World Health Assembly in Switzerland. Efforts to increase the number of skilled birth attendants and an increase in the number of 24-hour emergency centres available to pregnant women were both credited with ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/health-progress-lauded
Cambodia: Rainsy returns as court keeps protesters in jail
Anguished cries from supporters and family members echoed outside the Appeals Court in Phnom Penh yesterday as they received the news bail had been denied. They had been hoping for the release of 21 people detained since a brutal government crackdown in early January. On ...
Daniel Quinlan
http://asiancorrespondent.com/119494/cambodia-rainsy-returns-as-court-keeps-protesters-in-jail/
No Results in Protest Shooting Investigations
At 10 a.m. on January 3, about 2,000 members of the security forces, mostly military police, advanced down Phnom Penh’s factory-lined Veng Sreng Street, spraying AK-47 assault rifle fire into a crowd of about 100 protesters who had been throwing stones and crude Molotov cocktails. ...
Khuon Narim and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-results-in-protest-shooting-investigations-51325/
Activists Say Human Rights Delegate Lied to United Nations
Mak Sambath, deputy chairman of the government’s Human Rights Committee, came under fire Monday from activists who accused him of lying to the U.N. in Geneva regarding land issues and the displacement of affected people. The criticism of Mr. Sambath’s report to the U.N.’s Human Rights ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/activists-say-human-rights-delegate-lied-to-united-nations-51341/
UN Concerned Over Suppression of Rights
The U.N.’s General Assembly released its latest round of recommendations to improve the human rights situation in Cambodia on Thursday following a review held last week in Geneva. The statements made by delegations from 76 countries during the review urged Cambodia to fulfill its promise to ...
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-concerned-over-suppression-of-rights-51220/
Mixed message to UN
A call for the Cambodian government to lift its controversial ban on public assembly is among 34 such recommendations it has chosen to defer in the wake of last week’s second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights situation. The UN on Saturday released a ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/mixed-message-un
UN Rights Officials Want Serious Rights Reforms, Opposition Says
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy says the international community is now pushing hard for serious human rights reforms in Cambodia. Sam Rainsy, head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, was this week in Geneva, where a UN human rights review of Cambodia took place. The UN’s Human Rights ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/un-rights-officials-want-serious-rights-reforms-opposition-says/1841074.html
New Cambodian Land Disputes Despite Moratorium on Key Concessions
At least 41 new land disputes were reported in Cambodia last year despite a government moratorium on the widespread grant of so-called economic land concessions, a rights group said Thursday. The new cases in 17 locations—including the capital Phnom Penh—added to the 223 land conflicts previously ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/disputes-01302014194318.html
Work Remains for Cambodia After UN Rights Hearing
Though Cambodia had four years to implement 91 recommendations on how to improve its human rights record, U.N. member states still had to push for action in a number of key areas during its second Universal Periodic Review hearing in Geneva on Tuesday. In a speech ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/work-remains-for-cambodia-after-un-rights-hearing-51129/
Cambodia at UN To Defend Rights Record
Cambodia’s opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, is currently in Geneva, where the UN Human Rights Committee is reviewing the country’s rights record. Cambodian government officials are defending their rights record for the second time in four years at the Universal Periodic Review. Sam Rainsy, who heads the Cambodia ...
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/cambodia-at-un-to-defend-rights-record/1839449.html
New deadlock but old tactics, analysts say
Ahead of today’s hearing on Cambodia’s record at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, opposition figures and analysts said the ruling Cambodian People’s Party has reverted to familiar tactics of post-election suppression. Analysts yesterday said that the breaking up of Cambodia National Rescue Party-led protests ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-deadlock-old-tactics-analysts-say
UN asked to ‘address crisis’
Amnesty International and rights group Licadho in a joint statement yesterday called on UN member states to “address the country’s human rights crisis” at a UN Human Rights Council hearing in Geneva on Tuesday. The statement, which was sent to foreign embassies, the Cambodian government and ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/un-asked-%E2%80%98address-crisis%E2%80%99
Rainsy eyes seat at UN rights review meeting
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy left for Europe yesterday evening to attend a UN Human Rights Council review on Cambodia in Geneva and to lobby European Union officials to take a stronger stance against the government, he said before departure. Rainsy plans on attending the Universal Periodic ...
Meas Sokchea and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rainsy-eyes-seat-un-rights-review-meeting
Global Fund backs off threatened cuts to grants
The Global Fund has backed down on its threat to cut or reduce health grants to Cambodia worth more than $100 million, saying they considered the fraction of misused funds that have been returned thus far a sign of sufficient good will. In a letter sent ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/global-fund-backs-threatened-cuts-grants
Regional peers urge gov’t to probe deaths
An organisation made up of current and former elected representatives from across Southeast Asia has called on the United Nations to investigate the deaths of two people shot by police during protests over the past three months. In a statement released yesterday, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/regional-peers-urge-gov%E2%80%99t-probe-deaths
Gov’t rights report to be sent to UN
The government will today submit its second report to the UN Human Rights Council as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process that takes stock of human rights progress in each UN member state. Governments are required to report to the council every four and ...
Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-rights-report-be-sent-un
Women’s Rights Assessed by UN Committee in Geneva
Rights groups on Monday shared their concerns about the treatment of women in Cambodia with member states of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Geneva. Cambodia last updated the committee—which meets three times a year to assess how member states ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/womens-rights-assessed-by-un-committee-in-geneva-44581/