News

Eighteen families in a remote region of Koh Kong province have been ordered to move, in order to make way for the development of a Chinese-funded luxury tourist outpost. The families received notice on June 5, ordering them to leave their homes within one month. ...

A controversial draft law to regulate Cambodia’s NGOs has passed a major hurdle and will be moved on to the National Assembly for legislative debate. Om Chandara, a spokesman for the council, told VOA Khmer that two articles were withdrawn at the behest of Prime ...

Human rights activists are calling for more transparency in any potential agreement to send Cambodian workers to Qatar. ...

Eight men who were arrested last week for their alleged involvement in the arson of a decorative gateway built for the Angkor Sankranta New Year festival in Siem Reap City were charged Friday and sent to the provincial prison, officials said Sunday. ...

Pung Chhiv Kek, the president of rights group Licadho who on Tuesday turned down her nomination to the National Election Committee (NEC), said Wednesday that the ban on dual nationals sitting on the body made it difficult for her to accept the role. ...

Pung Chhiv Kek, the president of rights group Licadho, has declined her nomination as the “neutral” member of the bipartisan National Election Committee (NEC), forcing the CPP and CNRP to select a new candidate for the key final position on the body. ...

Cambodia should urgently disclose all information about land ownership and rethink its “wholesale sell-off” of the country’s natural resources, a local rights group said yesterday. The call to release information about Cambodia’s land sector, including a declaration of revenues, came as Licadho released an analysis of ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday questioned three defrocked monks over charges of “joining a criminal association,” an NGO worker said. ...

Keo Chkriya was pregnant when she was sentenced to prison, on charges of drug distribution. By the time she left, she had been caring for her son in a cell for nearly two years. ...

The former chief of anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), who was jailed Friday by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on charges of indecently assaulting children, claimed the allegations were fabricated by APLE founder Thierry Darnaudet as revenge for reporting his ex-boss to authorities ...

A 20-year-old woman suffered serious burns to her face and body after being doused with acid in Phnom Penh on Friday in an attack allegedly carried out by a jealous wife who suspected the victim was sleeping with her husband. ...

In a move seemingly incongruent with the government’s plans to offer clemency to a number of female inmates on International Women’s Day on Sunday, a local rights group announced yesterday that new restrictions introduced by authorities have forced them to cancel prison activities marking the ...

A defrocked monk who was handed a one-year jail sentence for obstructing officials during a wave of arrests of activists and opposition figures in Phnom Penh last year was on Wednesday questioned over an additional charge of “joining a criminal association,” a human rights monitor ...

The government has failed to meet its obligations in upholding civil and political rights, human rights groups have alleged. A report, released yesterday ahead of a UN Human Rights Committee session later this month, documents what the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and local rights ...

For the second time in as many weeks, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction has asked rights group Licadho to provide data collected on the identity of land dispute complainants. ...

After heaping criticism on rights group Licadho for allegedly exaggerating the seriousness of Cambodia’s land rights crisis last month, the government has released its own annual report on land disputes. In a letter the following day, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction ...

Local rights group Licadho yesterday praised the government’s plan to release a number of incarcerated women who are pregnant or have their children with them in prison within the next week, but said deeper reforms are needed. In a statement, the NGO said it welcomed an ...

The Koh Koh Provincial Court has summoned an environmental activist living in the Areng Valley for questioning over allegations that he felled trees in a forest in order to build a community center, rights workers said Sunday. ...

Prison overcrowding continues to be a major issue plaguing Cambodia, Ministry of Interior officials said on Monday, as they revealed a 3 per cent increase in population at correctional facilities and prisons nationwide. In 2014, the number of prisoners rose from 14,702 in 2013 to 15,165 ...

The day after the government deported a foreign activist opposed to a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday invited activists in the valley to secede from Cambodia, but warned that rocket launchers could be deployed if ...

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that his government will seek the pardon and release of female convicts who are pregnant or have children living with them inside prisons, following a report by a human rights group which took authorities to task for neglecting ...

Dismissing a recent report showing a sharp increase in land disputes, the government has said such conflicts are in fact decreasing and formally called on rights group Licadho to release its findings. Licadho reported last week that it recorded about three times as many new land ...

The number of families newly affected by land disputes last year was three times that of 2013, according to figures documented by local rights group Licadho. In a statement released yesterday, the group “strongly expresse[d] its concern” at the surge in disputes, noting that in 2014 ...

Three female garment workers who were shot by former Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith during a February 2012 factory demonstration called on the government yesterday to imprison the former politician, who has been on the run for three years as of today. ...