News

Workers protest outside the Hand Seven Apparel factory in Phnom Penh's Pur Senchey district on December 15, 2022. (Hean Rangsey/VOD)

Phnom Penh Factory Delays Closure After Protests

Around 200 workers from the Hand Seven Apparel in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district say the factory was shutting down to move to a new location while forcing workers to resign from their positions so it can sidestep compensation requirements.

Five Suspects Arrested Over NagaWorld Cake-Grenade

Authorities have arrested five suspects in relation to a grenade that detonated outside NagaWorld after being found inside a cake by a street cleaner, but would not share more details about the case.

People exercise on the boardwalk at the Phnom Penh riverside in 2022. (Chanrith Natvathnak/Future Forum)

Beyond Beautification: Riverside Must Adapt to Climate’s Heat

In order to make the riverside comfortable at all hours of the day, the bottom line is that the area needs more trees in the long-term, and awnings, umbrellas and canopies to protect from the sun, writes Future Forum’s Prak Norak in part four of a campaign to pedestrianize Sisowath Quay.

Photos from one year of the NagaWorld strike.

Thousands of Workers Swept Up in a Year of Union Busting

The NagaWorld workers’ strike began on Saturday, December 18, 2021, over alleged union-busting at the well-connected casino. The year since has seen the trampling of labor movements there and elsewhere in Cambodia with violence, obstruction and imprisonment.

Grenade Found in Cake Outside NagaWorld, Explodes

A grenade was wired to a detonator, hidden in a cake and placed on the roadside this morning outside NagaWorld casino — then picked up by a street cleaner who moved it onto a grassy road median, where it exploded two hours later.

Hun Sen on December 15, 2022 (Hun Sen's Facebook page).

Protesters in Brussels Demand Human Rights as Hun Sen Pushes Free Trade

Prime Minister Hun Sen said politics and human rights should not get in the way of an Asean-E.U. free trade deal as at least 100 Cambodian protesters demonstrated in Brussels upon his visit and demanded the release of political prisoners and the protection of human rights.

Traffic on the Phnom Penh riverside in 2022. (Chanrith Natvathnak/Future Forum)

Opinion: Placemaking Possibilities Are Endless if Riverside Is Transformed

Phnom Penh’s riverside is already rich in community and history. Pedestrianizing it would open up new possibilities for people-led “placemaking,” perhaps with a garden, viewpoints or room for temporary art spaces, writes Future Forum’s Keth Piseth in part three of a campaign for a car-free Sisowath Quay.

Monkey cages line around 300 warehouses at Vanny Bio Research. (Tran Techseng/VOD)

US Monkey Importer Says It No Longer Gets Animals From Cambodia

A publicly traded American importer of laboratory monkeys says its supply from Cambodia has stopped after the U.S. indicted a Cambodian supplier for allegedly trafficking wild macaques, delaying its fourth-quarter earnings report as two of its subsidiaries face grand jury subpoenas related to the case. 

Rows of houses and interweaving roads built as part of the World Bank's Lased II land redistribution project in Kampong Thom province's Doung commune on November 29, 2022. (Danielle Keeton-Olsen/VOD)

World Bank Land Giveaway Marred by Problems

On one side of Kampong Thom province, the government ended a community forest program for a World Bank project village. On the other side, farmers had land taken away to make way for an earlier version of the project.

Members of Cambodian youth group Khmer Thavrak protest outside the offices of Prasac and AMK, two of the country’s largest microfinance lenders, in Battambang province on May 9, 2020 (Licadho)

Three NGOs Allege Investor Ignored Own Evidence of Microfinance Abuse

Three human rights organizations have filed a complaint against a Netherlands-based microfinance investor on the grounds that it violated international responsible business standards and for years ignored its own evidence of harms linked to predatory lending practices.