News
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
Ministry Questions Unions Over Role in Kandal Garment Protest
The Interior Ministry has summoned six union representatives for questioning following a complaint from Jack Liu, director-general of Tainan Enterprises (Cambodia) Co., Ltd., alleging that they incited violence at his Kandal province garment factory in late December. A letter dated Thursday, signed by the Interior Ministry’s ...
Sonando next to test capital ban
Beehive Radio president Mam Sonando has said he and his supporters will defy the capital’s ban on demonstrations at the Ministry of Interior this morning after the government refused to issue his station a licence for increased bandwidth. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sonando-next-test-capital-ban
Interior Ministry Says No to Freedom Park Rally
The government will consider a planned union rally on Sunday of several thousand people at Freedom Park in Phnom Penh an attempt to “overthrow the government,” Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said on Friday. Phnom Penh municipality rejected the request to hold the rally, but ...
Sinary Sany
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/interior-ministry-says-no-to-freedom-park-rally-51032/
Legal actions to be taken against protest leaders: Interior Ministry
Ministry of Interior warned that legal measures would be taken against those who would hold protests, defying a ban imposed by the government. The warning was made yesterday after the leaders of nine labor unions insisted that they would hold protests, which are scheduled for January ...
The Cambodia Herald
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NTdmZGU2OGFmMmR
Unions to Proceed With Mass Rally in Freedom Park Despite Ban
Unions planning a mass rally at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Sunday to call for the release of 23 detainees and a higher minimum wage in the garment industry say they will proceed with the event despite City Hall’s decision Thursday to deny permission. The nine ...
After Arrests, NGOs Continue Petitioning to ‘Free the 23′
Following the arrest of 11 activists on Tuesday as they attempted to deliver a petition to the U.S. and French embassies seeking the release of 23 jailed protesters, NGO representatives quietly delivered similar petitions to the Japanese Embassy and European Union headquarters Wednesday. The petitioners, representing ...
Aun Pheap and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-arrests-ngos-continue-petitioning-to-free-the-23-50966/
Untrained guards rule at protests
Security guards that have forcibly detained protesters in the capital in recent weeks include large numbers of men who have received no government security training, Phnom Penh municipal spokesman Long Dimanche said yesterday. In an effort to recruit civilian “public order” officers, Dimanche told the Post, the ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/untrained-guards-rule-protests
11 Activists Arrested for Views That ‘Impact Public Order’
Eleven political activists were pulled off the street by helmeted security guards Tuesday morning during a peaceful march to foreign embassies to deliver petitions calling for an end to government violence and the release of 23 imprisoned activists and strikers. The 11 protesters—10 land rights activists ...
Phorn Bopha and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eleven-activists-arrested-for-views-that-impact-public-order-50934/
The Assassination of Union Leader Chea Vichea—A Decade On
Ten years after his assassination, friends and associates remember Chea Vichea, the founding president of the Free Trade Union, as a quiet man but a charismatic leader, passionate about labor issues and the right for workers to collectively bargain for higher wages and better conditions. ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/the-assassination-of-union-leader-chea-vichea-a-decade-on-50951/
Ministry to Question Rong Chhun Over Teachers Association
Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA), said Friday that he feels the teachers’ movement is under threat after he received a notice from the Ministry of Interior, summoning him to explain his work on Monday. The letter, dated Thursday and signed by ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-to-question-rong-chhun-over-teachers-association-50854/
Subedi Calls for Accountability in Meeting With Hun Sen
In a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen and 10 of the government’s highest-ranking officials in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi called for the perpetrators of recent state-sanctioned killings to be held accountable for their actions. Mr. Subedi spent three-and-a-half hours ...
Lauren Crothers and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/subedi-calls-for-accountability-in-meeting-with-hun-sen-50675/
Road Safety Hit by Suspension of Law Enforcement
The continuing suspension of traffic-law enforcement by traffic police since the run-up to July’s national election has had a detrimental effect on road safety practices, a senior Ministry of Interior official admitted Tuesday. Road safety groups have already expressed concern that the decision to halt enforcement ...
Simon Henderson and Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/road-safety-hit-by-suspension-of-law-enforcement-50592/
Group Defies Government Ban to Demand Detainees’ Release
Defying a new ban on public gatherings, more than 50 activists and monks gathered outside the local U.N. human rights office Monday morning to demand the immediate release of 23 men who were arrested earlier this month during violent clashes between police and garment workers. The ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/group-defies-government-ban-to-demand-detainees-release-50483/
Groups Demand Mandatory Minimum Wage, Threaten Protest
About 100 people, including 20 monks, held a ceremony in Phnom Penh on Friday in memory of the five people killed a week beforehand when military police opened fire on protesting garment workers, and demanded that the government introduce a mandatory, sector-wide standard minimum wage. In ...
Khy Sovuthy and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/groups-demand-a-mandatory-minimum-wage-threaten-to-protest-50428/
Committees to ‘Research’ Minimum Wages, ‘Study’ Killings
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday assigned former Finance Minister Keat Chhon as the head of a newly formed committee tasked with researching the government’s capacity to introduce wage increases for civil servants and factory workers. The statement said that Mr. Hun Sen also spoke ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/committees-to-research-minimum-wages-study-killings-50431/
Opposition Youth Sing Against the Ban as Armed Police Patrol
A group of eight opposition CNRP youth supporters sang a single song near Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park before police deployed nearby had a chance to break up their concert on Thursday, a musical test of the new ban on public gatherings in the wake of ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/opposition-youth-sing-against-the-ban-as-armed-police-patrol-50401/
Lawyer to Assess Whether Government Crimes Worthy of ICC
The opposition CNRP announced Tuesday that it had engaged lawyer Richard Rogers, former head of the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Defense Support Section, to analyze evidence of alleged crimes committed by the CPP government and decide whether they justify filing a complaint with the International Criminal ...
Colin Meyn and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawyer-to-assess-whether-government-crimes-worthy-of-icc-50303/
Government Blasted for Eviction of Freedom Park
The U.N. and local human rights groups have condemned the government’s violent eviction of CNRP supporters from Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Saturday, as well as its indefinite ban on public protests in the city. On Saturday, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court also summonsed opposition leaders ...
Colin Meyn and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-blasted-for-eviction-of-freedom-park-50132/
Cambodia calls for calm as protests banned after deadly clash
The Cambodian Ministry of Interior on Saturday called for the people to stay calm as all forms of demonstrations were prohibited so as to restore social security and public order after a deadly clash on Friday. “The ministry urges all the people to keep calm and ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-01/04/c_133018723.htm
Year's crime ranged from brutal to bizarre
Law and order in Cambodia this year has been a strange mix of the brutal and the bizarre. From horrific murders to the police’s decision to deliver crystal meth to phony hostage-takers during a bank heist, crime has continually made headlines in a year when the ...
Shane Worrell and Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/years-crime-ranged-brutal-bizarre
Three New Districts in Phnom Penh Approved
The Ministry of Interior has approved the creation of three new districts in Phnom Penh following a proposal from City Hall to create five new districts before district and city council elections are held in May. Sak Setha, secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior, ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/three-new-districts-in-phnom-penh-approved-49424/
Interior Minister Says Electronic ID Cards to Become Standard
Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Wednesday said that the government had begun formalizing the process for obtaining electronic national identity cards in a bid to reduce graft carried out by local authorities. Speaking on the sidelines of the 10th Government Discussion Forum on Electronic Identity at ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/interior-minister-says-electronic-id-cards-to-become-standard-49161/
Armed Security Doubled for Human Rights Day Rallies
The government will deploy double the usual number of armed security personnel on the streets of Phnom Penh on Tuesday to keep control of the large number of rallies planned in the city to celebrate International Human Rights Day, a military police official said Monday. “We ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/armed-security-doubled-for-human-rights-day-rallies-48954/