As night falls thousands of weary workers stream from textile factories that fan out across Phnom Penh’s outskirts.
The clothing industry’s desire for cheap labour having created an abundance of jobs but as the number of international clothes companies tapping into Cambodia’s workforce grows, so does anger at the low wages and tough conditions that come with such employment in the global garment industry. …
Overwork, malnutrition and poor ventilation are to blame for staff fainting in factories since 2010, according to Moeun Tola, program manager at the Community Legal Education Centre, which provides advocacy for workers. …
The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia program (BFC) must employ more transparency in their monitoring of Cambodia’s factories in order to effectively bring change to the country’s working and wage conditions, a report launched yesterday says. …
According to “Monitoring in the Dark” a new report by researchers from Stanford Law School, wages and basic job security have actually declined for Cambodian garment workers in the past decade, and during the time the BFC has been in operation. …
Government and U.N. officials yesterday completed the draft of a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) that is designed to guarantee the fair treatment and safety of Cambodian domestic workers in Malaysia.
The new draft MoU is an amendment to an earlier, much-criticized version create by Malaysia, which did not include details on issues such as minimum wage or vacation time. …
Transparency International Cambodia is set to step up its presence in the Kingdom with the launch of a $2.5 million three-year program to monitor and record corruption. …
On a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean), Cambodia ranks 2.1, according to the organisation, and has been following a downward trend over the past few years. …
The abuse of Cambodian maids overseas has become one of the most documented human rights violation here. But as the Government, media, NGOs and aid agencies focus their energies on domestic laborer living abroad, advocates have begun to urge that closer attention be paid to maids working in the Kingdom.
That’s the aim of the newly formed Cambodian Domestic Worker Network, whose more than 100 members on Sunday established the nation’s first group to focus on the interests of maids in Cambodia.
“I decided to form the network because domestic workers in Cambodia did not have any institution or union to protect them from rights abuses and negotiate benefits for them” said Vorn Pao, president of the Independant Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA). …
Government spending next year will total more than $3 billion, a 16.2 percent increase from the $2.6 billion set aside for 2012, according to a draft of the national budget obtained Friday. …
The budget states that the government will allocate some $400 million, or 13.32 percent of all spending, toward the defense and security sectors, a 17.3 percent increase over last year’s allocation. Of that amount, the Ministry of Defense will receive $245 million, with the rest of the spending going toward the Interior Ministry. …
The government approved the Lower Sesan 2 dam project in Stung Treng province without any prior consultation with the most affected communities in Sesan district, where at least 5,000 people stand to be displaced, rights groups and villagers said yesterday. …
A study published earlier this year by a group of international scientists said that tributary dams, most notably the Lower Sesan 2, would have “catastrophic impacts on fish productivity and biodiversity.” The scientists estimated that the Lower Sesan 2 dam would cause a 9.2 percent drop in fish stock through the entire Mekong Basin. …
The American Center for International Labor Solidarity has set its sights on the Herculean task of unionizing Cambodia’s civil service, a move that, were it successful, could have profound implications for the country’s political landscape.
The term civil service in Cambodia has unusually broad application, referring to bureaucrats, teachers, doctors, police and nurses – professions that are, at least officially, all rewarded with remuneration that makes garment workers look positively well-off.
Their wages are virtually unlivable though skilled professionals, civil servants, excluding soldiers, earn an average of $48 a month along with a small supplementary living allowance and possible overtime, opposition Sam Rainsy Party financial data shows. …
In 2010, the government cancelled a program that allowed international donors to pay performance-based salary supplements to civil servants, arguing it had been terminated because the program could jeopardize attempts at broader civil service reforms. …
The government on Friday pledged a 20 per cent increase to the base salary of civil servants year-on-year in a move one government official insisted was based on economics, not politics.
The announcement was made in a statement released over the weekend outlining government spending for 2013, which it said would rise from this year’s planned $2.6 billion in spending to $3 billion for the next annual budget. …
Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday that no such taxes would be necessary and explained the money for such a raise had been found from upwardly revised predictions of GDP growth. …
The government has previously claimed that the salaries of civil servants have increased 540 per cent on average since 2001.
The government has allocated more than $3 billion for total government spending in 2013, an increase of 19.2 percent on the $2.6 billion the government planned to spend in 2012, according to a statement issued by the Council of Ministers on Friday.
The statement did not give a detailed breakdown as to how the money will be allocated in terms of sectors and ministries but noted that attention would be paid to improving health and education.
The budget- which comes in an election year- will also pay for a 20-percent raise for civil servants and armed forces, according to the statement. …
Twelve journalists have been killed in Cambodia since 1993, according to a report from the rights group Adhoc, which believes much of the bloodshed was politically motivated.
The body count was included in a round-up of abuses against the media in a report the group released on Wednesday. …
Members of the media had also been killed or threatened for daring to probe government corruption, deforestation and the illegal sale of natural resources, he said.
In recent years, fatal violence has ebbed and lawsuits that put journalists in prison have risen. …
Despite the government embarking on a nationwide land-titling program, there is still little space for communities affected by economic land concessions to voice their concerns with the government, members of civil society said at a conference in Phnom Penh yesterday.
“We’ve observed that there is limited space for meaningful dialogue or consultation with the affected people and civil society,” Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum, said in a speech at the 2nd Asia Land Forum. …
Despite the concerns raised at the forum, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Land Management Chan Saphan said the government was in favor of cooperating closely with NGOs. …
The recent deluge of comments critical toward the Cambodian government is an attempt to sow political chaos, a senior official said yesterday.
At a press conference held at the Council of Ministers, Keo Remy, deputy chairman of the Press and Quick Reaction Unit, blasted several individuals and rights groups including UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Surya Subedi, Human Rights Watch’s Brad Adams, opposition party members and the many vocal supporters of recently convicted Beehive radio owner Mam Sonando. …
Civil society groups praised the 2012 commune election process, pointed out Remy, who suggested observers like Subedi were only now complaining about issues such as the political composition of the National Election Committee in order to create problems with the election next July. …
Cambodia’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has received about 800 corruption-related complaints in the first eight months of this year, exceeding the whole last year of only 700 cases, Om Yintieng, ACU’s Chairman, said Thursday…
Cambodia is riddled with bribery and corruption. The Government of Cambodia sees corruption as obstacles to economic development, rule of law, democracy, social stability, as well as the main cause of poverty….
The World Bank urged the Cambodian government Wednesday to accelerate reforms while taking a participatory approach to its National Strategic Development Plan.
Speaking at a meeting of the Development Partner Coordination Committee, World Bank Country Director Annette Dixon congratulated the government on its current development plan from 2009 to 2013. …
Boeung Kak and Borei Keila villagers embroiled in longstanding land disputes with two private companies in Phnom Penh say the authorities are protecting business interests over the public, as thousands of families lose their homes under forced evictions.
This has turned the protesters and government officials into adversaries, leading to increased tensions, the residents say….
A packet of local Cambodian ARA cigarettes costs 1400Riel, around £0.22. Government tobacco tax on local products is currently 10%. Smoking and drinking is endemic in the poor youth of Cambodia and tax hike is proposed to cut the addiction.
Ayda Yurekli, an academic from the World Health Organization, told a conference in the capital yesterday that: “Increasing tobacco retail tax would deter smokers and increase government revenue,” and that “Cambodia has a huge young population, and the government has to prevent them becoming smokers. There is a lot of room to increase government revenue by raising taxes.”
The Cambodian government is enforcing a circular drafted earlier this year which requires internet cafes to set up surveillance cameras and to register callers. Based on an unofficial translation made by Jinja, the government said the circular was made in response to the rising number of cyber crimes in the country:..
The circular is seen by some netizens as a threat to internet freedom. Clothilde Le Coz interviews several Cambodian writers who expressed their concern over attempts by the government to regulate online behavior. Cambodian Law Blog confirms news reports that the government is drafting an anti-cybercrime law:
“The Cambodian government seems to have had enough of false information on the internet. It is drafting a law that will make it illegal to lie on the internet.
Does a writer need to know the information is false? Does he have to intend to cause harm through the false information?
False speech is a problem that every government will need to address at some point or another.
It will be interesting to see how the Cambodian government deals with this difficult issue”….
Following a government push for Cambodia’s largest state-owned firms to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange, Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) said yesterday that it plans to float on the newly launched bourse.
The port would join Telecom Cambodia and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, both of which are targeting initial public offerings but have yet to announce official dates. Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority listed in April after months of delays and is still the only publicly traded firm in the country.
Several private companies have also expressed interest in listing during the past three months. …
A law on the management of farmland currently being drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture is a threat to private landowners as it imposes criminal penalties for farmers who do not abide by new powers the government would have to demarcate land, a human rights group said in a report released yesterday.
According to the draft law, the government will be able to demarcate land—be it state or private—for a so-called “agricultural development area” as long as “a substantial majority of the smallholders” are in agreement.
But Licadho said that the law could be used to legalize land grabs, as those who do not agree with a decision to demarcate the land would end up in jail.
“The draft law as currently written could be used as a legal cover for land-grabbing and for those who wish to exploit and personally profit from Cambodia’s land and resources,” Licadho said in the report. “Most alarmingly, the law creates felony criminal liability for any actions that violate the law’s far reaching provisions.”…
