Searching Result
Found: 15,658
-
Turkey Sets High Hopes for Trade With Cambodia
Turkey’s Foreign Minister announced a bold plan Monday to boost trade with Cambodia by more than 400 percent over the next five years, aiming to reach $500 million in bilateral trade by 2020, up from about $124 million last year.
Read More -
Families Call for Chief’s Ouster Over Land Sale
More than 160 families in Banteay Meanchey province’s O’Chrou district filed a complaint on Monday with local officials calling for the removal of their village chief, whom they blame for the loss of 835 hectares of farmland to a rubber plantation. Ouk Taing, 73, a resident of Thnol Bot village in O’Beichoan commune who signed the complaint, said the families accuse village chief Tha Tun of plotting with a land dealer, Sam Phannarith, to sell their farms to a local company, Sea Hongheng.
Read More -
Election laws to get ‘no more’ discussion
Two new laws governing elections and the functioning of the National Election Committee are expected to be passed without further debate during a session of parliament later this week. Representatives of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party announced the decision yesterday, despite opposition to the current drafts from election watchdogs.
Read More -
Kandal MP’s sentence ‘illegal’
The sentencing of an opposition member of parliament in Kandal province on Friday was not legal and just the latest application of pressure on the opposition ahead of the passage of two sensitive electoral reform laws, a legal expert and analysts have said. A Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker for Kandal, Chan Cheng, was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for “aiding and abetting” a local official’s “escape” from custody in 2011.
Read More -
Immunity for Lawmaker Will Expire, Assembly Spokesman Says
National Assembly spokesman Chheang Vun said on Sunday that an opposition lawmaker who was on Friday found guilty of aiding a prison break could be arrested and jailed once he has exhausted his avenues of appeal, automatically extinguishing his immunity as a lawmaker. CNRP lawmaker Chan Cheng was one of two people sentenced in absentia to two years in jail after being found guilty of providing transportation to a CNRP district councilor accused of escaping from the Kandal provincial prison in 2011.
Read More -
Ministry refutes HRW report
Calling a recently released report by Human Rights Watch about systematic Labour Law violations and corruption in Cambodia’s garment sector “groundless”, the Ministry of Labour said in a statement that its monitoring of the industry is transparent and competent. The ministry’s statement calls into question HRW’s professionalism, and says the ministry’s work with the International Labour Organization’s Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) proves its sincerity in holding factories accountable.
Read More -
Charcoal trade unlawful: NGO
Between 40 and 80 tonnes of charcoal, made from trees logged inside protected areas of community forests in Battambang’s Samlot district, have been illegally exported to Thailand over the last year, an NGO officer said yesterday.
Read More -
Cambodia: Proposed Election Laws Violate Rights
(New York) – Cambodia’s draft election laws violate basic human rights and democratic norms and should be substantially revised before being presented to the National Assembly for a vote, Human Rights Watch said today. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) proposed rights-violating provisions on the staging of elections and the National Election Committee (NEC), which were agreed to by the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP). The National Assembly is scheduled to begin discussion of the bills on March 19, 2015.
Read More -
Government Rejects Report Alleging Abuse of Workers
The Labor Ministry has rejected a scathing new report from U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) listing a litany of labor abuses by the country’s garment factories, insisting that government inspectors keep a close watch over employers. On Thursday, HRW released the results of its interviews with hundreds of garment workers over the past year, as well as with government and factory officials. In a 140-page report, it says that forced overtime, child labor, union busting and the abuse of short-term contracts and shadowy subcontractors remained rife.
Read More -
Court Charges Swiss Man for Having Sex With Boys
The Siem Reap Provincial Court on Friday charged a Swiss national with having sex with three underage boys in Siem Reap City earlier this year, according to police and anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE). Chea Heng, deputy chief of the Siem Reap City police’s anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection bureau, said police arrested Pirmin Ramel, 32, on Thursday at the Villa Shanti hotel in Svay Dangkum commune, which he runs, after the parents of the alleged victims filed complaints earlier in the week accusing him of having sex with their sons.
Read More -
Community mulling mining co’s proposal
Following talks with indigenous villagers over the weekend, which saw promises of jobs and English language lessons, there are high hopes that a foreign company looking to extract gold in Ratanakkiri will be awarded the first-ever mining licence in the province. Representatives of Mesco Gold met on Saturday with more than 20 ethnic Jarai villagers from O’yadav district’s Pak village, as well as local authorities and NGOs, to discuss plans to extract gold from the area.
Read More -
Community mulling mining co’s proposal
Following talks with indigenous villagers over the weekend, which saw promises of jobs and English language lessons, there are high hopes that a foreign company looking to extract gold in Ratanakkiri will be awarded the first-ever mining licence in the province. Representatives of Mesco Gold met on Saturday with more than 20 ethnic Jarai villagers from O’yadav district’s Pak village, as well as local authorities and NGOs, to discuss plans to extract gold from the area.
Read More -
Lawmaker, Lawyer Given 2-Year Prison Sentences
The Kandal Provincial Court sentenced an opposition CNRP lawmaker, a lawyer and a CNRP district councilor to between 18 months and two years in prison on Friday, but lawyers for the defendants said they did not expect any arrests unless the decision is upheld on appeal. Chan Cheng, a CNRP lawmaker representing Kandal province, and Choung Choungy, an attorney who often represents opposition officials, were sentenced to two years in jail for providing transportation in what the court has deemed a prison escape by Meas Peng, a CNRP councilor in Kandal’s Kien Svay district who was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Friday.
Read More -
After Visit, Refugee Deal Still Shrouded in Doubt
In 2001, Australia’s then-Conservative government first introduced its “Pacific Solution” as a way of stopping an influx of asylum seekers attempting to reach its shores by boat—and as a way of winning votes during an election defined by wedge politics. The country’s prime minister at the time, John Howard, said during a now-infamous campaign speech that year that Australians “would decide who comes to this country, and the circumstances in which they come.”
Read More -
Trafficking Victims Rescued From Malaysia, Indonesia
A Cambodian couple “trafficked” to work in Malaysia returned home Friday morning after being “rescued” by the Cambodian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, a government official said yesterday. Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said the couple was cheated by a broker and taken to Malaysia in 2012 to work in a factory.
Read More -
Cambodia rebukes "labor abuse" report
PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has rejected a U.S.- based Human Rights Watch's "labor abuse" report, saying the report is groundless, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Labor late on Friday. "Currently, Cambodia has been closely cooperating with the International Labor Organization's Better Factories Cambodia to inspect and assess labor conditions in addition to the ministry's existing inspection mechanism on labor conditions, safety and hygiene," said the statement.
Read More -
Daughter of Land-Dispute Family Questioned Over Cobra Attack
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday questioned the jailed daughter of a family locked in a bitter land dispute with tycoon Khun Sear over a complaint alleging that the businessman’s company was involved in an attack in October 2013, when a canvas bag containing three venomous cobras was tossed into the family’s home.
Read More -
A New Hero
“I always knew that investigating and speaking out against illegal logging was dangerous. But this is my country. No matter how rich they are. No matter how well-connected they are. Cambodia is my country.” These are the words of comic book superhero “Krisna,” better known—in the fictitious version of modern Phnom Penh—as Captain Cambodia.
Read More -
Mam Sonando Blames Union for Protests at Beehive
The owner of an independent radio station engulfed in a bitter dispute with a number of his employees blamed the conflict on a prominent union leader on Friday. As seven Beehive Radio employees demonstrated outside the station, the broadcaster’s owner, prominent government critic Mam Sonando, held a press conference.
Read More -
Systematic’ Labor Abuse at Garment Plants, Group Finds
Forced overtime, child labor, union busting, abuse of short-term contracts and shadowy sub-contracted factories remain rampant in the country’s $5.75 billion garment sector amid “dismal” government oversight, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says in a new report.
Read More
Generously Supported by
