Economic, social and cultural rights
Livelihood rights
Australia praises Cambodia on refugees
An Australian government minister on March 16 praised Cambodia for taking in refugees from the island nation of Nauru, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry. Mr. Sounry spoke to the media after private talks between Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and Australia’s International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. He ...
Home-stay tourism in Vietnam aims to tap huge foreign potential
Home-stay services are becoming popular across Vietnam, with many people turning their houses into tourist dwellings to welcome foreign visitors. Tran Thanh Hung, 45, of the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, has spent 800 million dong (Bt1.24 million) to upgrade and expand his house. Located ...
Call for ban on Mekong dams
A group of 50 youth, community and civil society representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand gathered to celebrate the International Day of Action for Rivers in Kratie province on March 14. They used the event in Sambo district to urge the government and the ...
Villagers affected by dam meet with government officials
Villagers from Stung Treng whose homes stand to be flooded by the Lower Sesan II dam met with representatives of the Ministry of Mines and Energy at an NGO Forum-sponsored meeting in Phnom Penh on March 9, in hopes of establishing a dialogue towards a ...
Floating villages to be grounded
A government minister has sounded the death knell for Tonle Sap picturesque floating villages after outlining a long-term plan to rehome all those living on the lake. Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon on March 9 told Khmer Times he wants to relocate thousands of families living on ...
Agreement to conserve Mekong River fish
Cambodia and Laos have formed a joint committee aimed at preserving and increasing the population of freshwater fish in the Mekong River. The committee was formed because of declining fish stocks in part due to illegal fishing and the construction of hydropower dams. In a ...
World Bank aid for poor
The World Bank has approved provision of $20 million to help poor and vulnerable families in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh increase their income, build skills and construct small-scale community infrastructure. The bank’s board of executive directors approved the funding for the Livelihood Enhancement and Association ...
Concerns accounted for in Xayaboury hydropower development, EU told
All concerns have been taken into account in the development of the Xayaboury run-off-river hydropower plant the project developer recently relayed to European Union Ambassador to Laos, Leon Paul Faber. The ambassador, who took office in September last year, and his delegates visited the construction ...
Abandoned veterans’ land-grab nightmare
The scheme sounded good for the 240 disabled and retired army and police veterans and their families. The government built homes for them and promised a plot nearby on which to plant crops and support themselves. But five years later they are still without their land. ...
Malaysian aid ship docks in Bangladesh
A Malaysian aid ship arrived in Bangladesh on February 13 carrying aid for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled from Arakan State, many citing abuses by the Myanmar’s security forces. A representative of the mission on the ship said it would unload ...