Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday ordered government ministries to monitor rice millers to ensure that they used government-funded loans to help rice farmers profit rather than lower the price of rice, following the announcement of a $50-million government rice subsidy last week.
Unionists predicted muted International Human Rights Day celebrations in the years ahead, as the final time it was to be marked as a national holiday reignited debate over whether foreign pressure was justified to protect universal human rights.
The E.U. is asking too much — it’s pushing the government to break the country’s laws — so Cambodia will merely update the bloc about the easing of restrictions for on trial opposition leader Kem Sokha and other concessions, the governmental Human Rights Committee said this week.
News media should dare to speak the truth — especially against the “fake news” spread by “the outlawed rebel group and opportunists with foreigners behind them,” Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a letter to the Cambodian Editor Forum.
The U.N. and government are partnering to promote youth activism in line with the law, not politics, for a Human Rights Day celebration, the governmental Human Rights Committee spokesman said on Thursday.
A newly launched government service for free legal consultations could be part of the solution to the country’s judicial woes, experts said, though they also cautioned that the committee overseeing it would need to be transparent and take further steps in the future.
At least three CNRP supporters charged in relation to opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s return-to-Cambodia campaign were freed on bail on Thursday, their lawyer said.
Two VOD journalists were detained for three hours at the Poipet military police headquarters on Saturday after reporting on border security in the area.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday sentenced opposition activist May Hongsreang to a year and a half in prison for incitement to commit a felony over Facebook posts criticizing government officials.
Some 50 unions and civil society groups on Monday said they wanted the government to reinstate a ban on foreigners working in certain self-employed jobs after the ban was reversed this weekend just over a month after being issued, according to a statement.
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