by Human Rights Task Force on Cambodia^[1]

INTRODUCTION

Cambodia -- perhaps still known to the rest of the world as the country of the “Killing Fields” -- has for the last few years begun to acquire a new image of being a place where one can have easy and inexpensive access to women and child prostitutes as well as a source and a transit point for trafficking women and children into prostitution. This image started to take shape during 1992 when about 20,000 mostly-male troops and civilian personnel of UNTAC2 suddenly poured into Cambodia and created a huge market for commercial sex services. The permissive attitudes of UNTAC officials and the lax measures they adopted did not help at all in stemming the explosive growth of prostitution in the country. 

When UNTAC started withdrawing in August 1993, demand for commercial sex services slackened and, during the first six months after the last units of UNTAC left, a significant drop in the number of commercial sex establishments and sex workers was quite apparent. By mid-1994, however, NGOs noted that the numbers started to increase again and, since then, have been steadily increasing. But what alarmed NGOs the most was the dramatic growth of child prostitution and the rising number of women and children abducted and/or sold for prostitution. By 1995, it also became apparent that women from some neighbouring countries were being trafficked into or through Cambodia. 

Given these grave and alarming trends and the seeming inability of Cambodian authorities in addressing the issue of trafficking and prostitution, NGOs in Cambodia, both domestic and international, started to take action through increased research and monitoring, intervention and rehabilitative projects, educational programmes, and advocacy campaigns. Co-operative activities were undertaken such as the convening in Phnom Penh of a conference on trafficking and prostitution in May 1995 and formation of an inter-agency working group on trafficking of women and children in a north-west province of Cambodia. 

As part of its mission to strengthen the capability of Cambodian NGOs in responding more effectively to the issue of trafficking and prostitution, the Task Force has been training and coaching several groups on research. As a result, a body of information has now been generated and could be consolidated into a comprehensive report that could then be used for determining strategic actions to combat trafficking and prostitution. 

The following report is the initial attempt to consolidate the information generated by various NGOs since 1994 and is divided into three sections: 1) an overview of the growth of the problem, the social factors that affect the problem, and the areas for consideration in determining strategic actions to the problem; 2) a more detailed report on the extent of the problem, the working and living conditions of women in sex work, and the socialisation and perspectives of women sex workers; and 3) a review and analysis of the human and legal rights issues that affect women in sex work.

OVERVIEW AND CONTEXT OF TRAFFICKING AND PROSTITUTION 

Prostitution is not new in Cambodia especially from 1970 to 1975 when social problems caused by the worsening civil war facilitated its growth. During the Khmer Rouge years, however, prostitution was completely banned and eliminated. But the problem reared its head again after the ouster of the Khmer Rouge. It was only the strict policies and punitive actions by authorities from 1980 to 1989 –– such as the arrest of sex workers and their detention in Koh Kor island for rehabilitation and re-education –– that kept the problem under control. 

After the Vietnamese withdrew in 1989, the strict policies towards prostitution were maintained by the Cambodian Government until 1991 when the Paris Peace Agreement was signed and the island-prison closed. The number of sex workers in Phnom Penh in 1991 was estimated to be about 6,000. 

Growth of Prostitution and Child Prostitution 

After the arrival of UNTAC, prostitution grew dramatically again, not only in Phnom Penh but in all major provincial towns. By the end of 1992, sex workers in Phnom Penh alone was estimated to number more than 20,000. With UNTAC’s departure in 1993, the number of sex workers decreased; in 1994, sex workers in Phnom Penh were estimated to be between 4,000 to 10,000 girls working in about 400 establishments. 

What has been alarming, however, is that while the number of sex workers declined after UNTAC’s departure, the age of sex workers also declined. Surveys by the Cambodian Women’s Development Association (CWDA) showed that while the minimum age of sex workers was 18 years old in October 1992, it dropped to 15 years by April 1993. A February 1994 CWDA survey found nearly 35 per cent of sex workers in Phnom Penh were under 18 years of age. 

Studies by Human Rights Vigilance of Cambodia (Vigilance) showed similar findings. A January 1993 study found 35 percent of sex workers in Phnom Penh to be below 18 years old with the youngest at 14 years old. Their most recent study conducted last March-April 1995 in Phnom Penh and 11 provinces showed that minors (12-17 years old) comprised about 31 percent of the sex workers in these areas. In some provinces, the percentage of minors to the total number of sex workers was more than one-third such as in Takeo where almost 50% of sex workers were below 17 years old. 

It must be noted, however, that the actual number of children engaged in prostitution could be much higher than what the CWDA and Vigilance surveys show. Their studies, for instance, were conducted in establishments where prostitution is practised in a relatively open way. They were not able to get information in a number of places they could not enter for security reasons but which the investigators suspected as harbouring child sex workers or where children are kept before being brought to brothels. 

The surveys also do not reflect the significant number of street children frequenting certain public places (e.g. swimming pool at the Olympic Stadium and the park fronting Wat Botum, both in Phnom Penh) where they are picked up for sex by pedophiles. Also not reflected in survey reports are children who are in touch with or are maintained by pimps working in public service establishments which serve as the pimps’ front as well as the contact points for clients (e.g., barbers and traditional masseurs). The existence of these places or systems is reflected in reports prepared by various NGOs such as Krousar Thmey, Licadho, Little Friends, Save the Children Fund-UK, and World Vision International.

Growth of Local and Cross-Border Sex Trafficking 

CWDA and Vigilance surveys also confirmed the rise in the abduction or deception of women and children for sale to brothels or sex trade merchants. Their 1993-1994 studies showed that 50 percent of the sex workers were sold to the brothels; of this group, a staggering 86 percent were sold by parents, relatives, neighbours or friends that the girls trusted. The other half joined prostitution without coercion or deception by somebody else. But the April 1995 study of Vigilance showed an alarming increase in the number of girls abducted or deceived before being sold to prostitution (45 percent) while the rest were sold by parents (40%), fiancee (10%), or friends (5%). 

Compounding the situation is the threat of women and children smuggled in and out of the country by international sex traders. This is not surprising since Cambodia shares long and weakly supervised borders with Thailand and Vietnam. Reports by various NGOs who are part of the Child Welfare Group and of the Cambodia chapter of End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT) identified the town of Poipet in Banteay Meanchey and the southern port of Koh Kong as the main transit points for the trading of children and women to Thailand. 

The problem of sex trafficking in Cambodia does not only concern Cambodian children and women. Vietnamese women and children (with recent reports also indicating women from China) are being brought into Cambodia from Vietnam (or from South China through Vietnam) for prostitution. It is not unlikely that many of them are also trafficked to Thailand.

Weak Response In a Country Still Unsettled 

Alarming as it is, responses to these problems have been weak and largely uncoordinated. Official action has been more punitive towards the victims rather than to those responsible for trafficking and forcing women and children to become sex slaves. Public scorn towards sex workers does not help create the conditions leading towards more decisive and progressive actions towards the problem. 

A major factor for the current state of affairs is the transitional nature of Cambodian society at present. It has only been recently that a new Government has been formed after more than two decades of internal strife and foreign invasion. Despite improvements in the overall condition, several serious issues and restraints still remain: the continuing insurgency of the Khmer Rouge, the unsettled and still volatile nature of the present political climate, corruption, a still-weak economy, and high incidence of lawlessness in all parts of the country 

Meanwhile, many parts of the country are still waiting to be rehabilitated and to be reached by basic social services. Hundreds of thousands of people are still unsettled and migrating from one place to another because of the instability in many parts of the country affected by civil war and banditry, the unavailability of land due mainly to mines that litter large portions of rich agricultural land, and the inadequacy of jobs and other income-earning opportunities. Government resources are inadequate to deal with the variety of social problems that have arisen in the last few years.

A sense of free-for-all and lawlessness reigns in many parts of the country. The people are generally left to fend for themselves. The essential legal and other structures and processes needed to protect human rights and maintain the rule of law are still very weak and subverted by endemic corruption at all levels. While a Constitution has been promulgated, the National Assembly — plagued by political in-fighting — has yet to pass critical laws that can effectively protect and promote the rights and welfare of the people. 

In the absence of new laws, the legal framework by which to address outstanding problems is a collage of laws promulgated during the pre-UNTAC Cambodian Government, the UNTAC period, and the current Royal Government. Some of these laws, particularly those relating to women and children, are either weak in terms of clear implementing provisions, contradictory to each other, or not consistent with basic human rights principles. 

Areas for Consideration in Determining Strategies and Developing Intervention Actions 

However, the problem is still at its early stage in Cambodia. It has been only two years since the dramatic growth of prostitution in the country and probably one year since the rise of child prostitution and sex trafficking. There is still time to arrest the growth of the problem and put in place the systems and mechanisms for preventive, emergency, punitive-corrective, and rehabilitation measures. 

But since the push and pull factors that engender sex trafficking and prostitution are varied, a multi-disciplinary and co-ordinated approach is absolutely necessary if the problem is to be effectively dealt with at all. Some of the major social, economic, political, and cultural factors for consideration in determining strategies and developing intervention actions are:

• poverty: insufficient employment opportunities, inadequate infrastructure and support services for agricultural production, inaccessibility to productive land because of mines and the continuing civil war, a weak manufacturing base;

• weak social service sector: lack of resources, services severely lacking, inadequate professional skills of staff, low salaries of staff, corruption, limited or unclear mandate of offices that can act on problems, weak co-ordination among these offices;

• involvement of public/law enforcement officials and their relatives: soldiers and police involved in abduction, officials protect prostitution establishments and sex trafficking rings;

• weak legal framework: laws to deal with problems are inadequate, implementing procedures weak, corruption;

• fragmentation of families and psycho-social factors: individual and collective trauma during the past two decades, dismemberment and separation of families, mistrust among neighbours and weakening of community spirit, dependent existence in refugee camps, social discord because of repression and social divisions in the past, continuing displacements because of the continuing civil war;

• negative public attitude: prejudice towards victims, mistrust towards public officials; and

• practices and beliefs that reinforce exploitation, discrimination, and oppression of women and children: children are free of AIDS, sex with children rejuvenates adults, secondary position of women vis-à-vis men, sex outside marriage damns women forever, women’s role to please men. 

Aside from social, economic, political and cultural factors, consideration must also be given to the current level of work being done in relation to the problem and what areas of work still need to be improved and strengthened. Some areas for consideration include:

• a need for increased monitoring, investigation, and research simultaneous with intervention action programs

• developing intervention action programs following a continuum that covers:

o preventive actions (e.g., education and awareness-raising programs, family support programs, community development programs, shelter programs for women and children who ran away from home, as well as advocacy for policy and legislative reforms);

o emergency responses (e.g. monitoring and urgent action program such as rescue-police action operations, counselling-therapy program for victims and their families, family-tracing program, medical aid, shelter for women and children escaping from sex slavery, legal assistance);

o rehabilitation of victims and those involved in the sex trade (e.g. education programs, socio-economic and employment generation programs for victims, community awareness and development programs);

• upgrading the knowledge, skills and overall capability of the staff of government and non-government agencies in preventive, emergency and rehabilitation actions;

• strengthening inter-agency co-ordination mechanisms for information-exchange and more effective advocacy and social mobilisation campaigns, etc.);

• strengthening inter-country co-ordination for monitoring and investigation, border control, tracing and repatriation, regional/international campaigns for preventing sex trafficking and prosecution of perpetrators of sex crimes, etc.)


SITUATION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN SEX WORK^[3]

Extent of the Problem of Prostitution 

The relatively open or known places for sex in Cambodia are brothels, coffee shops, massage parlours, bars, hotels, restaurants, and small rest houses for rent. A survey conducted by the Human Rights Vigilance of Cambodia (Vigilance) in Phnom Penh and 11 provinces showed a total of 1,231 establishments: 

In the same Vigilance survey, minors aged 12 to 17 years old comprise about 30.74 percent (or 1,878 girls) of the estimated 6,110 sex workers working in the above establishments. Breakdown by areas is as follows:

In terms of total number of sex workers, Phnom Penh and Battambang top the list. Four out of every ten sex workers in these areas are from Phnom Penh; seven out of every 10 are from Phnom Penh and Battambang. The order of the other provinces in terms of number of sex workers is: Kandal, Banteay Meanchey, Svay Rieng, Kompong Cham, Pursat, Kampot, Kratie, Takeo, Kompong Chhnang, Prey Veng, and Kompong Speu. It will be noted that prostitution activity is highest in the provinces easily accessible from Phnom Penh and those near the borders with Thailand and Vietnam. 

Sex workers working in one area usually come from another province and are also usually cut off from their relatives. Interviews revealed that most of the sex workers come from Kompong Cham, Battambang, Svay Rieng, Phnom Penh, Prey Veng, Kandal, and Takeo. 

Extent of and Circumstances in Trafficking for Prostitution 

All sex workers did not want to join the sex trade and prefer to have another job if given the chance. They cite many reasons for being in the trade with poverty and deception (particularly by people they trust) figuring prominently in their responses. Their initial entry into the sex trade, however, can be divided into two general categories: forced and unforced. 

Those who were forced to join cited several reasons: sold by parents; ran away from home due to beatings by step-mothers and then deceived by employer or recruiter; ran away from home due to beatings by husband and deceived later by employer/recruiter; ran away after rape by step-father or brother-in-law; deceived and sold by brother-in-law; deceived by fiancee or friend and sold; deceived by recruiter (from the village or visiting the village) and sold; and abducted and sold. 
Those who were not forced by violence or deception in joining the sex trade cited the following reasons: very poor living conditions in the family and community; had to help pay debts of the family; many siblings that have to be supported; depression or feelings of social shame due to problems or break up with fiancee; and social shame and inadequate income to support children after divorce. 

Fifty-five percent (55%) of sex workers forced to join the sex trade were deceived and/or sold by persons they trust. The rest (45%) were deceived by pimps or abducted into prostitution. 

PERSONS SELLING Percentage
Recriters or abductors 45%
Parents or immediate relatives 40%
Boyfriends, fiancee 10%
Friends 5%

About one-fourth of girls may eventually be brought and sold to another country after being brought and sold to their first owner. The rest (75%) would eventually be sold to another brothel owner in the same area or in another province. 

The pricing system in the trading of women and children has a hierarchy or range depending on the physical attributes (e.g. virginity, age, prettiness) of the girls. Although prices may vary, the current range is presented below: 

PERSONS TRADING Price Range(in US $)
Parents or immediate relatives N.A.
Recruiter/pimp selling children 0- 0
Recruiter/pimp selling women 0- ,500
Boyfriend or friend selling to brothel - 0
Girls/Women sold to first dient 0- 0 for one week
Brothel owner to another brothel owner -
Girls/women sold to another country N.A.
N.A.=Not Available

Working and Living Conditions of Women in Sex Work 

Information about income and working and living conditions of sex workers were gathered only from those working in brothels. They can be divided into two main groups: 1) those not controlled or owned by brothel operators and 2) those controlled or owned by operators. This division is based primarily on whether the girls — from the time they started working in the brothel — have been able to generate income to pay off the amount that the operator paid for buying them. In other words, all girls must first be under the full control of the operator before they can pass on to the second category where they are relatively “free” from the operator.

The number of clients of those in the first category vary from day to day. On lean days, they may have only one or two clients at the most and, on “good” days, about ten. On average, they have about 6-7 clients per day. They get paid 3,000-5,000 Riel (.25-.10) from each client for short-term services. They then pay 40%-50% of this income to the operator for the use of the room and for a condom. Their average daily income is about 8,000-10,000 Riel (.33-.17). 

Health problems revolve mainly on getting infected with sexually-transmitted diseases, on bodily injuries, and on general malaise and body weakness. STDs usually reported are gonorrhoea, syphilis, and uterus or vaginal infection usually accompanied by white discharges or bleeding. Some girls have known of former co-sex workers who have been infected with HIV. Physical injuries come mainly from beatings and other forms of physical abuse they receive from clients and brothel operators. The general malaise that all of the girls complain about are due to poor working conditions such as poor/cramped living quarters, not having enough sleep, not eating on time, and food which is not nutritious. The stress they feel due to the social isolation and ostracism they suffer from also contributes to their feelings of malaise that usually come in the form of feelings of weakness, headaches, body aches, and slight fevers and colds. 

Girls belonging to the second category can be further sub-divided into two groups. The first are those who have just arrived in the brothel and/or have not yet been sold to a client. Girls in the second group are those who have already been prostituted. Those in the first group are better-fed, given new clothes, given more freedom of movement, and usually assigned to household work. But after they are sold to their first client, they virtually become prisoners: locked up in their room and not permitted to go out anywhere without somebody to guard them. These restrictions remain in force until they have been able to pay back their “purchasing price.” 

Those in the second category generally have more clients than those in the first category. This is not only because they are new but also because operators force them to serve eight to ten (and sometimes even more) clients per day. Refusal to entertain clients usually means beatings or denial of food. They do not receive income and all payments go to the brothel operators. There is no accounting of how much they have already paid for the original purchasing price. They are therefore at the complete mercy of the operator as to when they can be “freed” from the purchasing bondage. 

They also suffer from the health problems encountered by girls in the first category. But unlike the latter who have the latitude of personally seeking medical attention, the girls in the second category are completely dependent on the brothel operator who may or may not choose to seek medical services for the girls. 

Social Situation and Perspectives of Women in Sex Work 

The social isolation suffered by sex workers and their being cut off from their relatives or natural support systems mean that the available or immediate support system can only be found in the establishment they work with. A lot of dependency exists among sex workers themselves and between sex workers and owners of the establishment. At the same time, this network or system of support is constantly weakened or threatened by the high competition among the sex workers and by the basically exploitative relationship they have with brothel operators. In other words, the girls are constantly living in a high state of stress that continually undermines their emotional, mental, and physical health. 

The majority (84%) of sex workers interviewed wanted to stop working in prostitution. Reasons include: desire to return to their home village and reunite with their families; ashamed of the job and want to start a new life by engaging in a small business or work in a more decent occupation; do not want to grow old in the business and would want to have other income-generating skills; want to find a husband which she could not achieve if she continues to work in prostitution; and want to continue her studies. It should be noted that all child sex workers belong to this group who still have some hopes for the future. 

A lesser percentage of girls (16%) have given up hope for being freed from prostitution. They cite the following reasons: shame in going back home to their families and villages; have no other skills by which to live by; cannot marry anymore because of their background; and that it is easier to find income in prostitution compared to other jobs they have had. 

Status of Responses and Recommendations 

Responses from the Government to the problem have largely been not uniform, unsystematic, and intermittent. In a number of provinces (e.g. Pursat, Kandal, and Phnom Penh), the Government, with the help of the provincial women’s association, provided some medical assistance to sex workers from time to time. There have also been some rescue operations conducted by authorities. In Phnom Penh, 40 children were rescued from a secret place near the Ministry of Defence compound. In Kompong Cham, aided by an alert taxi driver who drove the victims and a recruiter straight to police headquarters, seven children were rescued and sent back to their families and one recruiter was arrested. 

Intervention actions by non-government organisations (NGOs) fall into various categories: education programs on general health and hygiene, HIV/AIDS, and condom use; health services in conjunction with health education; vocational skills training programs and employment generation; centres/shelters for street children some of whom are in prostitution; and monitoring-investigation including rescue (e.g. buying out girls) operations. Such NGO programs could be found in Phnom Penh, Kampot, Kompong Cham, Kandal, Pursat, and Battambang. 

Problems noted in intervention work are: networks for monitoring and investigating cases (especially in the provinces) are weak or non-existent; inadequate skills and resources for investigation, follow up, and rescue; protection of brothels or sex trafficking syndicates by high-ranking officials or police/military officers (who are also, in some cases, are the ones maintaining the establishments or syndicates); and unclear policies, legislation, and implementing rules in dealing with the problem. 

Recommendations to the Government are: declare a policy of total eradication of child prostitution and trafficking and enact the necessary laws and guidelines to effectively implement the policy; take more active and forceful measures to investigate cases of child abduction and trafficking; establish closer relations with NGOs who have had more experience so far in combating the problem; establish more effective policies and systems to monitor closely the entry of foreigners, especially pedophiles; establish more effective policies and systems for registering and monitoring establishments that offer sex; and implement programs to offer on-site, low-cost medical assistance to sex workers. 

Recommendations to NGOs are: upgrade and ensure relevancy and appropriateness of skills training and employment generation programs to ensure the success and sustainability of new jobs of sex workers who have gone out of prostitution; co-ordinate more closely with local authorities and the police, including strengthening advocacy within the local government; provide training on investigation to police forces while maintaining monitoring and investigating programs; help the Government in formulating policies, laws and implementing guidelines to combat sex trafficking and child prostitution; and expand education and information-dissemination programs on the role of the public in relation to prostitution and sex trafficking.

HUMAN AND LEGAL RIGHTS ISSUES AFFECTING WOMEN -- VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING AND PROSTITUTION 

General Concerns 

Although the problem is still at its early stage, having appeared in its more organised form only within the last two to three years, the trafficking and prostitution of women is spreading fast. This is illustrated by the increased number of areas where verified reports about the abduction and sale of women and minors for prostitution have originated. Cambodian provinces affected by the activities of sex trafficking groups now include Kampong Cham, Prey Veng, Svay Reng, Kandal, Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom, Takeo, Kampong Chhnang, Battambang, and Kratie. Women are also trafficked into and out of Cambodia from Vietnam, Thailand, and China. 

Despite the rapid growth of trafficking and prostitution, there is still no clear policy and programmes to deal with it. Although there are intermittent raids on prostitution dens and confirmation of abduction cases among the sex workers rescued from these establishments, there have been no prosecutions of brothel owners, agents, procurers, pimps, or customers. Instead, most of these intervention actions have only led to the harassment of sex workers, reinforcing further the conception that they are the culprits and not the victims as they really are. 

There are also very few programmes, mostly NGOs, that address the education, training, health, social, new employment opportunity, and legal needs of trafficked women and others in sex work. This inadequacy is also true with public education programmes directed not only at women but also at changing public attitudes, especially of men and the families and relatives of sex workers and victims of trafficking. A number of harmful misconceptions about women in sex work, including migrant workers, need to be clarified as these pose significant constraints for the development of just and humane policies and programmes on trafficking and commercial sex work.

Violations of the Human and Health Rights of Women in Sex Work 

The inadequacy of laws and the legal system to provide protection to women in sex work and the almost-absolute control of brothel or sex-ring operators over the women have given rise to several serious violations of the human and health rights of women in sex work. Major issues include: 

TORTURE AND INHUMAN TREATMENT

o beating by brothel owners and clients with electric wires, electric shock, torture with liquid acid, and forced confinement in locked dark rooms; some commercial sex workers have been beaten to death;

o the forced intake of drugs so that they will service many clients;

o malnutrition because the workers only have 1,000 riels (.04) per day for meals.

VIOLATIONS OF PERSONAL SECURITY AND BODILY INTEGRITY

o forced sex even during times of menstruation or sickness;

o forcing women to undergo unhygienic and dangerous surgical procedures to restore their hymens in order to create the illusion that they are virgins;

o the freedom of the male workers who work at the brothel to rape a sex worker after being sold to the first client

o rape by local authorities without payment. 

ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION

o overwork from morning until night without time to rest ;

o half of the income of the commercial sex workers is taken by their brothel owners, leaving them little money for personal necessities;

o lack of medical care for the treatment of STD’s and HIV/AIDS and banishment from the brothel for the contraction of these diseases;

o sex workers have no right to protest against their client or brothel owners’ practices

o after paying off their debts, commercial sex workers have only two choices: either to give half of their future income to the brothel owner or to leave in search of another position, which will most likely be another prostitution position. 

FORCED TO ENGAGE IN UNPROTECTED SEX AND BE VULNERABLE TO STDS AND HIV-AIDS

o since high risk behaviour of unprotected sex is the real culprit in the spread of HIV-AIDS and other STDs, the rights of sex workers themselves are compromised when clients, oftentimes with the forcible assistance of the sex-establishment’s owner, insist on unprotected sex;

o although the work various NGOs in educating sex workers about HIV/AIDS has resulted in a relatively high percentage of women in sex work being keen on having clients use condoms, this gain is daily being negated since many of them are forced by brothel owners to give in to the demands of their clients for unprotected sex

o refusal of demands of clients, even for unprotected sex, usually means harsh measures including various forms of physical and mental torture. 

Social Factors Affecting the Rights of Women in Sex Work 

Aside from inadequacies in the law and legal system, the serious violations to the health and human rights of women in sex work stem from a number of other factors, including: 

o STEREOTYPING OF WOMEN as providers of pleasure to men, a role that is reinforced by the media’s depiction of women as sex objects 

o UNEQUAL ACCESS OF WOMEN TO EDUCATION resulting in the marginalisation of women to those kinds of work, such as prostitution, where educational qualification is not necessary of pleasure to men, a role that is reinforced by the media’s depiction of women as sex objects 

o SOCIETAL OSTRACISM of commercial sex workers, making it difficult for them to seek assistance for their health and security needs 

WOMEN SEX WORKERS AND THE ISSUE OF HIV-AIDS

One critical social issue and the resulting responses from the authorities and public that threaten the rights of women in sex work is the rapidly growing incidence of HIV-AIDS in Cambodia. This threat is related to the unfair attribution of the spread of HIV-AIDS to sex workers. 

The link between HIV-AIDS and prostitution exists since a significant number of sex workers may be infected with the HIV virus. For instance, a National AIDS Program report states that 10 to 40 percent of Cambodia’s 30,000 sex workers are carrying the HIV virus. A 1995 WHO report also showed high percentages of HIV infection in some provinces (although these are not representative of the entire Cambodian provincial population) such as Koh Kong (39% of sex workers, 23% of bar girls, 13% of military personnel , 10.5 % of police) and Sihanoukville (38% of sex workers, 23% of bar girls, 11.5% of military personnel, 21.5% of police). 

What is usually forgotten, however, is that it is not the women sex workers themselves nor their work but the high risk behaviour of their clients that has caused the spread of HIV-AIDS and other STDs. Although the prevalent view is that sex workers are a high risk group and major carriers of HIV-AIDS and STDs, it must be emphasised that it was a client, by not using condoms, that infected a sex worker in the first place. Subsequent transmission of HIV and STD viruses is also due to the clients’ non-observance of protected sex. In other words, it is the high risk behaviour of clients engaging in unprotected sex, and not sex workers themselves, that caused the initial infection and cause subsequent infections. 

But the prevalent, misguided view of a causative link between HIV-AIDS and prostitution has been reinforced by the tendency to highlight sex workers as carrying the HIV-AIDS virus, as shown in the highly-publicised reports mentioned above. This has had the effect of rationalising actions that violate or threaten to violate the rights of sex workers. This could be seen, for instance, in the lack of empathy and sympathy for women when authorities themselves commit discriminatory and harassment acts against women sex workers or propose to consider prostitutes as criminals. 

Concerns on Policies and on the Legal System Related to Trafficking and Prostitution 

There are three major issues that need to be confronted in relation to protecting the human rights of women in sex work and to ensure equal access and non-discrimination in the law. These concerns are especially relevant to the current attempt by the Government to enact a law on kidnapping and trafficking. 

The first is concerned with the current inadequacy of laws and weaknesses in the law-enforcement mechanisms dealing with the trafficking and prostitution of women. These inadequacies and weaknesses include: 

o the lack of clear policies and guidelines related to commercial sex work, although the tendency of law enforcers is to punish and harass women in sex work; 

o lack of legal mechanisms to combat sex trafficking; a law on kidnapping and trafficking is still being drafted; 

o currently operative laws related to commercial work permit brothel owners, agents, procurers, pimps, customers, and all others that aid and abet the kidnapping and prostitution of women and minors to go unpunished; 

o mechanisms and procedures related to existing laws that could be used in combating the trafficking of women remain under-utilised; 

o corruption within law enforcement institutions. 
The second concern is related to the tendency to criminalize sex work and to consider prostitution as an “imported problem.” The first tendency is reinforced by the belief that women in sex work are the ones primarily responsible for the spread of HIV-AIDS and for the corruption of morals in society. The logical consequence of this is to favour measures that control and punish women in sex work, an approach that has already been shown as ineffective, a constraint to HIV-AIDS prevention programmes, and resulting to the harassment and violations of human rights of women in sex work. The second tendency, rooted mainly to prejudices against Vietnamese migrant workers, has the net effect of obscuring the real reasons for the sex industry’s growth and could only weaken the government’s ability to deal with the problem. 

These tendencies have brought about several cases of violations of the human rights of sex workers and have also permitted the real perpetrators to operate with impunity. It is often forgotten by both the authorities and the public that sex workers are victims who are unwilling participants in the sex trade and to remember that these women are constantly at risk from the following ill-effects, and sometimes fatal consequences, of sex work: 

• poor health including increased susceptibility to HIV/AIDS and other STDs and the general threats to their physical and mental health; 

• psychological harm including feelings of shame and reluctance of sex workers to return to their homes; 

• discrimination by family, friends, relatives; 

• isolation and/or abandonment by family and friends; 

• diminished social prospects such as reduced possibilities to get married and/or to start a new life. 

The third concern is about the tendency to treat the trafficking and prostitution of women and minors as being the same and therefore can be dealt with in similar ways. Although equally serious, this approach have tended to obscure the distinctions between these two issues and could then lead to inappropriate responses. There are of course certain similarities in the pattern of trafficking and prostitution of women and minors. But the determinants of the problem, needs of the victims, and strategies required in dealing with each are different. Placing them together also obscures their specific human rights and, as far as women are concerned, only reinforces the stereotypical presentation of women as mothers. 

The impact of the above inadequacies and tendencies has been the weakening of protection and assistance to women in sex work. Major practical issues and difficulties faced by women include: 

LACK OF LEGAL PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO WOMEN IN SEX WORK AND THOSE WHO ARE VICTIMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING

o women in sex work have no legal recourse to protect themselves against arbitrary detentions and other forms of harassment due to the prejudice against them created by the view that they are responsible for the spread of HIV-AIDS in the country;

o women have no legal rights to negotiate sexual relations with clients to protect themselves from infection

o women migrants in sex work, including those who are victims of sex trafficking, are rounded up and summarily deported without due consideration to the a basic premise in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights regarding the right of women, regardless of nationality, to leave and return to their own country; while this may be difficult to accept from a national point of view, we urge consideration to the fact that there are also Cambodian women trafficked to other countries and who, we would expect, should also be afforded the same right to voluntarily return to Cambodia at least within the time necessary to prosecute those responsible for being trafficked to that country 

LACK OF ACCESS TO COUNSELLING, HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES AND INADEQUATE EDUCATION PROGRAMMES 

o the policy of not informing persons tested positive with HIV about the fact negates their right to know and to appropriate counselling and health-social services 

o inadequate education programmes to help the public understand better that a) there are no high risk groups or persons, only high risk behaviour, responsible for the spread of HIV-AIDS, b) that no one’s rights need to be violated in the effort to control HIV-AIDS, and c) that HIV-AIDS sufferers also have the same human rights as any other person including the right to counselling, legal, and appropriate health and social care services. 

Concerns on Existing and Draft Laws as Related to Trafficking and Prostitution of Women 

NGOs in Cambodia have generally welcomed the passage of a law on kidnapping, trafficking and exploitation of persons which has deleted a previous provision in the draft law which imposes criminal sanctions on sex workers. The NGOs hope that there will be public consultations on the drafting of implementation guidelines and other sub-decrees that will further define unclear terms in the law before enactment and implementation. In particular, NGOs wish to call the government’s attention to give more attention to provisions on community education and human rights protection and on providing social, counselling and legal services. Other concerns of NGOs on the law include:

the draft law does not distinguish between women and children, except for a provision that increases punishment for offenders in cases where victims are under 15 years old –– as mentioned earlier, this lack of distinction could lead to inappropriate responses and tend to reinforce the view of women as mothers;

o offences are not clearly defined; there is no clear definition of “prostitution”, “debauchery” or “obscene acts” --- in the absence of clear definitions, it is likely that judges and police will make their own decisions about the definition leading to either over-reaction or lack of action;

o the law does not authorise police to clamp down on prostitution but could also be interpreted by unscrupulous policemen as their having authority to arrest specific prostitutes –– this unclear provision could lead to extortion or harassment for extortion;

o although the law does not authorise the police to close brothels, it also criminalises persons seeking customers for prostitutes, including brothel-operators –– this could lead to police campaigns for the actual closure of brothels leading sex workers to work “underground” which makes it more difficult to provide them protection and assistance

o the increased punishment for parents or guardians selling children are worrying in that this does not allow for any consideration of the economic situation of parents who are in poverty; instead, a process of education and awareness-raising of parents would be more positive in such circumstances. 
The law on immigration is still being drafted. However, in its present form, there are a number of issues that could threaten the rights of women from other countries trafficked into prostitution in Cambodia or to a third country. These issues include:

o although the law will provide for the control of entry of foreigners into Cambodia, the existing implementation mechanisms for such control are weak, absent and/or corruption-riddled;

the provisions when illegal immigrants are, like the first draft of the trafficking law, focused more on punitive actions such as jailing, fining heavily and forced expulsion of “offenders;” 

o the law does not have provisions that could give protection to women who are in fact victims of trafficking;

o the law suffers from a the basic problem that a nationality law has not yet been passed and that if the immigration law is passed first, this could be used against certain ethnic nationalities, particular Vietnamese. 

In terms of the criminal statutes of Cambodia, the existing law does not explicitly prohibit trafficking of women and children except in one article which prohibits sexual exploitation of a minor. However, in reality, the courts usually just use an article on “illegal confinement” to try trafficking cases. The term itself is not clear. Moreover, in actual practice, although the law imposes a punishment of three to ten years on offenders, persons who have so far been charged under this provision have only been sentenced to a maximum of two years confinement. This points to the problem of the court system in terms of not being able to or not willing to enforce the law to the letter. 

Other experiences point to the inability or unwillingness of the justice and law enforcement system in combating trafficking, prostitution, rape, battering and other violent acts against women. A clear case in point is that of a girl who was abducted, sold and beaten up with electric shocks to force her to have sex with a client. The girl was rescued by the CWDA (with assistance from the police) and a case was filed against the brothel owner. No arrest order has ever been issued and the brothel owner still operates. A similar case happened in Battambang where a girl died due to torture by the brothel owner for not submitting to the demands of a client. No arrest order has been issued against the owner. 



1. The Human Rights Task Force on Cambodia is an international NGO set up by five Asian and one American human rights organisations to provide ongoing training and individual NGO follow up and assistance to Cambodian human rights, social sector (e.g. women) and community groups. Task Force assistance covers the NGOs’ institutional and programme development and their activities in human rights monitoring and protection, research and advocacy, human rights education, inter-agency networking, and resource mobilisation.

Monitoring, research and advocacy work on the issue of sex trafficking and prostitution is one of the areas that the Task Force has provided training and advisory assistance to several Cambodian groups, notably Cambodian Women’s Development Association (CWDA) and Human Rights Vigilance of Cambodia (Vigilance) whose surveys on the issue are the primary sources of information cited in this overview. However, analysis of various aspects of the issue presented in this report was done by representatives of 17 NGOs that compose a Working Group on Cambodian Women’s Rights. 

2. The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was created under the 1991 Paris Peace Accords which ended 12 years of civil war in Cambodia. UNTAC was tasked to implement the provisions of the Peace Accords particularly to oversee the preparations for and conduct of the May 1993 election which established a new Cambodian government. The mandate of UNTAC ended on October 1993 when the election winners, who became members of the Cambodian National Assembly, ratified a new constitution. During the second half of 1992 until the start of its withdrawal in August 1993, UNTAC maintained about 18,000 troops and 3,000 civilian employees in all of the cities and provinces of Cambodia.

3. The information cited in this section was culled from the results of a survey conducted by the Human Rights Vigilance of Cambodia (Vigilance) in April 1995.

Four Cambodians will participate in the Consultation on the Judiciary for the 21st Century, to be held in Sri Lanka from 29th November to 1 December,1996.