Nearly 300 people living near Prey Lang forest, in the north of the country, have formed a community policing effort to stop what they believe is illegal deforestation, an environmental activist said Thursday.
Dozens of land protesters have been detained and hundreds were charged in the courts in the first nine months of this year, indicating an increase in pressure by the judiciary in land disputes, rights groups said Wednesday. In separate calculations on cases related to land disputes, Adhoc said it recorded 46 detentions and 173 court charges, Licadho said it counted 35 detentions and 163 charges and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights said it counted 26 court charges, all from January to September.
Cambodia’s history shows that a lack of freedoms and equal rights have led to unrest in the past, a pattern that could repeat itself, a leading political analyst said Thursday, adding that Cambodia today is lacking in morals, making it harder for the country to develop.
More jobs at home and better skills training could keep Cambodia’s poor from being exploited as migrant workers, a leading opposition lawmaker says. An increasing number of workers are seeking jobs abroad, but the work can be rife with danger, including slave labor on fishing vessels, sex trafficking and others. Women are especially at risk, with the problem of migrant labor underscored last month when Cambodia banned workers from traveling to work as maids in Malaysia, pending an investigation into abuses there and the practice of the hiring of underage girls by recruitment firms
German judge Siegfried Blunk says he has resigned from Cambodia’s U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, apparently after a series of comments about the court by government ministers. His resignation comes a week after Human Rights Watch said he and his Cambodian counterpart should quit.
With the end of voter registration for commune council elections next year just 10 days away, political parties and election observers say the registries are still in disarray. Some of the lists have the same name twice, while some retain “ghost” names of inexistent people, these observers say
New York-based Human Rights Watch on Monday called on the investigating judges at the Khmer Rouge tribunal to “resign,” saying they had violated the legal and judicial duties set out by the UN-backed court in their investigation of two controversial cases.
A high number of Cambodian voters do not understand the electoral process, while others distrust the electoral system, observers say, as registration for next year’s local elections continue. In forums conducted last year in three provinces and the capital, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights found a high number of people were not convinced elections ensured equal participation and were wary of the National Election Committee. Cambodia is preparing for commune elections in 2012 and national parliamentary elections the year after.
A contentious law aimed at regulating Cambodia’s non-governmental sector has been sent back to the Ministry of Interior, following international concern that the draft as it stood could damage the country’s development. The NGO law was approved last month by the Council of Ministers, despite widespread disapproval from local and international organizations, who said provisions in the draft would make it hard for them to operate and could leave them vulnerable to arbitrary punitive action by government officials.
Cambodia remains vulnerable to climate change, and its limited adaptability could mean more woes for the poor, an environmental expert said Monday. The country’s perpetually weak infrastructure means there is little it can do to mitigate the flooding and other natural disasters associated with a changing climate, said Lay Khim, an environment specialist for UNDP, as a guest on “Hello VOA.” “In addition, there is insufficient information about the weather that could be used by farmers for cultivation,” he said. The UNDP and Ministry of Environment issued a report last week that identified four key areas that will require coordinated efforts if the country is to build up its resilience to climate fluctuations, including the management of water resources and agriculture and protection of the nation’s forests and fisheries