The Situation of Children and Women in Cambodia

Girls and Women in Cambodia
Protecting Women's and Children's Rights in Cambodia
Challenges in Protection of Women's and Children's Rights

There is a proverb in Cambodia that asserts that men are like gold, women like a fresh white piece of linen. Even if gold is put in the fire, it remains ever the same. A white piece of linen, as soon as it has one blemish, is no longer of any use to anyone. The idea that girls and women are disposable commodities still prevails in Cambodian society, aggravated by the disproportionate value placed on virginity. Even if a girl is drugged and raped, her value as a desirable wife becomes practically nil. The victim is held responsible; her sense of shame and of having caused dishonour to the family is great.

This, combined with a level of education that remains inadequate, means that many girls and young women face the continual danger of being sold or duped into the sex industry or making choices where no alternatives are available.

Poverty, illiteracy, family problems, and gender discrimination provide fertile breeding grounds for vulnerabilities resulting in trafficking, exploitation, rape and abuse.

Often, prostitution takes a covert form: it takes place not only in multiple brothels in Cambodia and in neighbouring Thailand but also in massage parlours, karaokes and other outlets. Moreover, more and more women and girls are in demand in sex and other industries in Cambodia and Thailand. In the migration from rural to urban areas and across the border to Thailand, violation of rights occurs.

Too often this develops into what is termed ‘debt-bondage’. The girl is sold and all of her earnings kept from her, ostensibly to pay back her family debt as well as earning money for brothel owners and employers.

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A particular difficulty in Cambodia involves the enforcement of the rule of law as it applies to children and women. Much help is needed to develop effective planning and implementation of law, especially in the realms of domestic violence, human trafficking, rape and abuse.

Children and women, the most vulnerable sector of society, should be entitled to some kind of special protection by the government and the community. This protection should particularly work against all forms of discrimination, violence, oppression, sexual abuse, exploitation, and abandonment. Ideally, children and women should have access to all the rights and protections written into law by international United Nations statutes.

Cambodia has signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). For more information on these, please visit the CEDAW and CRC websites.

LSCW hopes to provide protection to children and women victims of the above-mentioned abuses, and of others, through legal support and through awareness-raising. LSCW aims to do this through collaboration and cooperation with NGOs, governments and civil society actors on a national and international level.

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Existing laws in Cambodia have been protecting some children and women, but children and women still face many obstacles and have had their rights abused, for example:

• Young girls are frequently forced into premature marriage. In addition, it is not uncommon for parents to force young victims of rape into marrying their abuser. Unfortunately, in Cambodia public image is of the greatest import.
• The complicating factor of poverty can push girls and women to bring financial support to the family. For example, some find themselves prone to deceit and tricks by traffickers when migrating in search of work away from home. Public opinion deems that ‘good girls’ would never engage in this kind of activity, so these girls are usually subject to discrimination, humiliation, denigration and abandonment, and thus become more vulnerable to being lured away into trafficking for the purpose of prostitution, most frequently with false promises of more respectable work in another location.

• Children who commit criminal offences are not given treatment that takes their age or other extenuating factors, such as freedom of choice, into consideration. Women offenders fare just as badly and should naturally have access to the full protection provided by international law.
• Some fathers/husbands treat their children/wives badly. Children and women who do not know their rights and/or are unable to exercise their rights believe it is natural and proper for men to lead the family and that men may do whatever they wish. Incest is all too common in many families, with the father believing he is entitled to rape his daughter because he has invested in her.

Perpetrators of these abuses can use any means for trafficking children and women (e.g. luring, deception, threats, abduction, fraud, soliciting, drugging, bribery of parents) for many different purposes where there is a demand for cheap unregulated labour. These children and women are unable to exercise their rights, and become misplaced members of society.