LIBRARY

1 May 2015

This morning, in celebration of International Workers’ Day, marches and rallies were held at three sites around Phnom Penh. One group of around 500, representing amongst others, garment workers, farmers, and informal sector workers marched and rode in tuk-tuks from the Olympic Stadium to the Ministry of Labour where they delivered a statement calling for greater respect for workers’ rights. As they marched, they carried posters calling for draft legislation on unions and NGOs and associations to be dropped. The group was joined by some of the Boeung Kak activists recently released from prison. The march took place despite Phnom Penh city hall denying permission.

Another group of around 1,000 workers gathered at the National Assembly. The group listened to speeches and made several demands including for an increase in the minimum wage to $177. At Freedom Park another group of over 500 workers held a rally and listened to speeches on worker conditions, the minimum wage and freedom of expression.

15 December 2014

To celebrate International Human Rights Day (IHRD) this year, 600 monks marched alongside land activists, associations, unions, rural and urban residents, and NGOs, on six national roads towards Phnom Penh from December 5 to December 10. This year’s IHRD theme was “Respecting Human Rights Leads to Peace!” For the first time, indigenous communities in Ratanakiri province participated in IHRD by organizing their own march on National Road 7, which began on December 4.

12 October 2014

This morning around 1000 garment workers from six unions – CUMW, NIFTUC, WFUF, NTUC, TUFW & IDYTU – gathered at Freedom Park to call for an increase in the minimum wage. Despite warnings from government authorities not to leave the Freedom Park area, the protestors peacefully marched to the National Assembly, US and EU embassies, to submit petitions.

Around 50 riot police stood by at Wat Phnom as the protestors marched, while a large group of military police and riot police were present in front of the EU embassy.

Today's protest takes place in addition to last month’s launch of a labor campaign calling for the minimum wage to be increased to $177.

18 September 2014

Today, CLEC and LICADHO release a legal analysis of the latest draft of the Law on Unions of Enterprises (Trade Union Law) obtained at the end of May, this year. As unions yesterday began a nationwide campaign for a $177 per month minimum wage, the draft Trade Union Law underlines the government’s intent to interfere with and infringe upon union formation and activities.

17 September 2014

At approximately 11am, labour unions in and around Phnom Penh launched the $177 minimum wage campaign in front of garment factories as workers were going on their lunch break. In the Canadia Industrial Park alone, over a thousand workers gathered next to factories to demand a humane minimum wage. Military soldiers were stationed along Veng Sreng road and inside Canadia Industrial Park to intimidate workers.

17 September 2014

This morning, soldiers from military brigades 70 and 99, as well as an artillery unit, have been stationed along Veng Sreng road and inside Canadia Industrial Park ahead of this morning’s planned union events to launch the $177 minimum wage campaign.

Military helicopters have also been spotted flying over the factories on Veng Sreng road.

Earlier this morning CCAWDU federation members, Sot Seap and Kun Sokom, were arrested by police in front of the Kamchay Mea factory in Smorng Kangcheung commune, Kamchay Mea district, Prey Veng province. They were released shortly after midday having spent several hours in custody.

30 May 2014

We the undersigned civil society groups welcome the decision this morning of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to suspend the sentences of the 23 men and two minors arrested on November 12 2013 and January 2 and 3 2014, thereby releasing the remaining 22 detainees. However, we express our extreme disappointment at the convictions of all 25 and the heavy fines imposed on some of them, following what was to all independent observers a deeply flawed trial process.

24 May 2014

Today, hundreds of workers gathered in Takeo’s provincial town to show their support for eight union leaders and union members who were arrested yesterday afternoon during a garment factory strike at the JSD Textile (Cambodia) Co. Ltd factory. The strikers were seeking a minimum wage of $160 and improved working conditions. Armed security forces have blocked the way to the court with barbed wire and to the provincial police station, where the arrested unionists are being held.

The eight unionists include six union leaders from the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers' Democratic Union (CCAWDU) and two CCAWDU staff, who came to assist the striking workers. As of now those arrested are being held at the provincial police station in Takeo’s provincial town where lawyers, unions and NGOs have been denied access to them.

12 May 2014

This morning starting at 7:00 am, more than 200 workers at 17 Caltex gas stations in Phnom Penh began a strike demanding a monthly wage of at least $160 and other staff benefits. Most Caltex workers currently earn $110/month. Workers plan to continue the strike until their demands are met.

This strike follows broader labor protests in late 2013, when garment workers began to demand a minimum wage of $160/month. In early January 2014, the government violently suppressed labor protests, resulting in at least four deaths, 38 people hospitalized, and 23 rights defenders and workers arrested.

Despite state clampdowns, workers and unions continue to demand wage increases. On February 6, workers at CINTRI successfully negotiated salary raises after going several days on strike: the salaries of trash collectors increased from $65 to $90, while salaries of garbage truck drivers on night shifts increased from $120 to $140. Similarly, on May 11, workers from Angkor Beer/Cambrew completed a two-day strike that led to an increase of their salary from $120/month to $150/month.

1 May 2014

Today's planned union gatherings in Phnom Penh to mark International Workers’ Day look set to face severe restrictions by authorities. LICADHO will be livestreaming developments as they happen.

23 April 2014

Early this morning, the 21 men detained in Kampong Cham province’s CC3 prison since their arrest during January’s widespread strikes were moved to Phnom Penh and will spend the next two nights in CC1 prison. The government’s clampdown left at least four people dead.

The 21, plus two others who were earlier granted bail, will be tried on Friday, April 25, at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in three separate trials. On the same day, a fourth trial will be held for two men arrested during unrest that followed the SL garment factory strike last November during which one street vendor was killed. One of the two is currently detained in CC1 prison whilst the other was previously released on bail.

LICADHO will be live streaming all four trials on Friday, and coverage will begin tomorrow afternoon.

24 March 2014

2013 was dominated by one event: the National Assembly elections. Throughout the year, Phnom Penh saw some of its largest demonstrations in decades as Cambodian people took to the streets to demand their rights.

However, as documented by LICADHO in the report ‘Human Rights 2013: The Year in Review’, the elections witnessed an unprecedented level of fraud and left the country in a state of political turmoil; conflict over land and natural resources continued to be a major source of human rights violations throughout the year; strikes and labor issues gave rise to discord, often attracting violent action from the authorities; and human rights defenders remained a target of harassment, threats, unjustified criminal charges and violence.

20 March 2014

As the swelling protests were met with increased suppression, the judicial system remained true to form. 2013 saw a number of high-profile cases in court, with mixed results.

19 March 2014

If 2012 was the most violent year ever documented in terms of authorities using lethal force against individual human rights defenders (HRDs), 2013 saw the Cambodian authorities turn that force towards public protests.

8 March 2014

Today, March 8, 2014, factory workers, unions, and other members of civil society are planning to gather at the Freedom Park for a public forum on minimum wage and Women's Right. Follow our livestream as events unfold.

9 February 2014

LICADHO has compiled a timeline summarizing the series of event leading to and following the January 2-3-4, 2014, lethal clampdown on labour and political demonstrations in Cambodia's capital.

26 January 2014

A union and association gathering inside Freedom Park this morning has been violently blocked as hundreds of military police and riot police armed with guns and electric batons joined municipal security guards and thugs wielding slingshots, rocks and batons, with both groups indiscriminately targeting union supporters, journalists and rights observers. So far, at least eight people are known to have been injured.

The peaceful gathering, organised by 9 unions and associations including IDEA, CATU, CITA, CICA, CFSWF, NTUC, BWTUC, FTUWC and CYN, called for the release of 23 workers and rights defenders arrested earlier this month, a rise in the minimum wage to $160 a month, and end to violence against human rights defenders and justice for the deaths during the Jan 2 and 3 clashes. The gathering was blocked by at least 400 riot police and municipal security guards in Freedom Park, who forced hundreds of union organisers and supporters from Freedom Park and surrounding streets to Dragon Bridge, Wat Phnom and Preah Aung Dong hospital. During sporadic bouts of violence from 9.30am, security guards threw rocks in to the crowd and shocked and hit participants with electric batons. Two people believed to be undercover authority have been beaten by the crowd. Two people have reportedly been arrested during the clashes.

6 January 2014

Family members, lawyers and independent medical professionals have been denied information about the location of detention of 23 people arrested during recent brutal crackdowns in Phnom Penh. Those arrested include at least three human rights defenders, Vorn Pao, Theng Soveoun and Chan Putisak.

2 January 2014

The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) and the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC) are outraged by today’s violent crackdown on striking workers by a military special command unit and the consequent violent arrest of union leaders, garment workers and monks.

13 November 2013

Early on the morning of November 12, 2013, a violent clash between striking garment workers and armed forces, followed by two additional clashes between the growing number of armed forces and a crowd of citizens, resulted in the death of one bystander and at least nine injured in Phnom Penh's Meanchey district.