Cambodia

A buffalo grazes on the drenched land in the Cardamom Mountains, southwest Cambodia.

‘It’s a lose-lose situation’: Carbon ‘offset’ project in Cambodia accused of human rights violations

Human rights

Companies around the world try to make up for their carbon emission by purchasing “offsets,” financing projects intended to preserve forests or otherwise compensate for their emissions. In Cambodia, Human Rights Watch recently issued a report about violations against Indigenous people in a carbon offset program in the Cardamom mountains. 

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is interviewed by Neil Cavuto.

Henry Kissinger leaves lasting — and controversial — foreign policy legacy

Obituary
A woman sitting on the floor of a home

Cambodia farmers displaced by sugar plantations proceed with landmark international class action suit

Conflict & Justice
Chhom Nimol is the lead singer of Dengue Fever.

How this Cambodian American singer found her voice

Movement
Portrait photo of a woman

Microfinance was meant to help the world’s poor, but in Cambodia, it’s plunging people deeper into debt

A woman seen washing pots and pans

Despite lack of govt loans for college in Cambodia, these students are making it work

The price of higher ed

Most Cambodians live in rural areas, with many struggling to make a living on small farms. Even with low public school tuition fees, sending a child to college is nearly impossible. Those who want a higher education must be resourceful.

People demonstrate in Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington, June 30, 2023.

Student loans can be ‘simple’ and ‘automatic.’ Other countries offer lessons to the US.

The price of higher ed

In the US, interest on student loans started accruing again on Sept. 1. Soon, more than 40 million borrowers will have to resume their payments. The US is an outlier when it comes to high tuition and the debts that students take on.

Ariya Tok poses with her fellow graduates after they received their certificates at a Cambodian cultural graduation ceremony at Cal State Long Beach.

Cambodian American graduates: More than victims of genocide

Ariya Tok is one of nearly two dozen Cambodian American graduates who took part in the Cal State Long Beach cultural ceremony, an event with special significance to the Cambodian Americans living in an area that has the largest such population in the United States.

A bronze standing Shiva statue is unpacked at the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh after being returned to the kingdom in March 2023.

Looted relics returned to Cambodia receive monks’ blessings

Arts, Culture & Media

Cambodian artifacts were often looted out of the country beginning in the 1970s, under control of the Khmer Rouge. At least 13 antiquities have been returned this month amid a push in the art world from artists and scholars to return looted works to their countries of origin. 

Kea Sokun is a rapper who sings about social justice issues in Cambodia.

‘I cannot give up’: Cambodian rapper says he will sing about injustice despite threats from govt

Justice

Last month, the Cambodian government issued a warning to rapper Kea Sokun over his latest single, “Workers’ Blood,” about a garment workers’ strike, saying that it threatened national security and order.