Category: Cambodia

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread disruption in Southeast Asia, in terms of the number of deaths, the livelihoods lost, and the major interruptions to supply chains. Moreover, the recent rise in inflation, which has…

2021 did not augur well for many in Southeast Asia. One month in, a military coup occurred in Myanmar, implemented by generals who were humiliated at the ballot box the previous November, ousting the democratically-elected…

The ongoing crisis in Myanmar has exacerbated concerns about ASEAN’s relevance and competence to police crises within its member states. As of May 27, 828 people have been killed so far in Myanmar since February…

There will be no Cambodian Spring anytime soon. This is the sobering reality to a question so tempting to ask – particularly in the shadow of what’s happening in Thailand and now in Lao PDR.…

Last week, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, speaking at the opening of a US$85 million amusement park funded by a Chinese company in Kandal Province (and repeated in a barely-noticed tweet, posed a simple question,…

Thailand’s military rulers have long had difficulties sharing uncomfortable stories. The painful anniversary of the massacre at Thammasat University on October 6, 1976 has never been reconciled, buried in a kind of “organised forgetting.” As…

During a speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council on October 2, Luon Sovath, a Buddhist monk and human rights activist was repeatedly interrupted by Cambodia’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, An Sokkhoeurn, who questioned…

On September 21, the United Nations will celebrate its 75th birthday. Founded in 1945 after 50 countries met in San Francisco to draw up the UN Charter, it was conceived as an international institution that…

A string of recent arrests of activists by Cambodian authorities has human rights groups and the United Nations calling for restraint and the right to free expression. The conviction of a former official in the…

After more than a year of discussion, the European Union decided to suspend Cambodia’s trade privileges under the “Everything But Arms” (EBA) scheme. The EU suspension is scheduled to affect more than 20 percent of…