PROTEST HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES OF SEX WORKERS IN CAMBODIA!
1:30 PM AT THE CAMBODIAN MISSION TO THE UN
327 E 50TH STREET NEAR SECOND AVENUE
HLM ATTENDEES LEAVE THE UN CAFÉ AT 1 PM
The Cambodian Government under the influence of the US has passed a law
against sex work. Since March, sex workers have been rounded up in raids,
arrested, detained, denied medical services, beaten and raped by police.
At least three sex workers have died in police custody. Others are being
denied life-saving medicines. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!
Background:
Cambodian sex workers face severe raids from police:
Preserving value of women or treat them with respect and dignity?
Each day for the last few weeks the local news has been flashing
reports of more raids on sex workers in brothels in different areas in
Phnom Penh, and some in the provinces. However, raids on sex workers
don't only take place in Phnom Penh but a number of provinces such as
Banteay Meanchey, Siem Reap, Kampong Chhang . The news paints a bad
image of sex workers being the people who carry immoral behaviors
around and destroy Cambodian beautiful values and tradition especially
those of the women. The new law and the push from the US government
that has driven these raids has a different approach though. It
declares sex workers to be trafficked women and victims of sex slavery
who want to be rescued from the sex industry. Those who do not, or who
put up resistance, are criminalized by the new law as traffickers or
as aiding trafficking.
Several sex workers have made clear reports to WNU about their
experiences of being raided by the police, raped and held against
their will without proper process. The facility in which the women
are held is a prison with conditions and routine human rights abuses
reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge regime. In reality, not only sex
workers are being arrested but also beggars, homeless people, drug
users, waste pickers, children who wander around in city at night
time, alone or in a way that invites suspicion.
Phnom Penh based sex workers who were raided noticed that even though
raids from police on brothel and freelance sex workers on the park has
always been happening, the situation become more often and intensive
since February 2008. In Phnom Penh, target areas include Wat Phnom,
along the river front, on the famous park such as along the
independent monument, Psar Chas, and in slum areas where very poor
women live.
In the process the police and detention centre guards openly abuse the
women. Their money, jewelery, and other valuables such as phones are
routinely stolen by the police. Women are being subject to severe
physical abuse, beatings and raped by the police. HIV Positive sex
workers who are put into the center cannot have the regular ARVs they
are required to take everyday. Some women have already fallen ill as a
result of the abuses and the violence committed by the security
guards. No care or medical treatment has been made available to any
women for their injuries or medical conditions.
Some sex workers who are HIV positive have asked for release
explaining that they cannot miss their ARV medication when they are in
the center but their pleas have not been listened to. To be get out
of the center, they have to pay money which is called compensation and
promise that they are not to return to their work as sex workers
again. These are direct quotes from sex workers who have been raided
and put into the center :
"If you have the money with you while you are caught and forced to get
on the van, you may manage to bribe the police and get off somewhere
but it has to be done secretly. Once you reach the center and locked
up in that center, you need to pay a lot more money to get out of it."
"Early March 2008, I was caught while working along the park. They
brought me to the center outside of Phnom Penh, a place called Prey
Speu center. I was locked up there for three days and only got out
when my husband and my mother brought the money to get me out. They
had to spend USD150 to get me out. We were forced to sell our hut,
which worth 500USD, for USD150 in order to get me out. Now I rent a
room for 5000R ( $ 1.50) for myself and my children."
Perhaps most shocking is the fact that almost every sex worker has
been raped either by the police or when they are put into the center.
If the police that conduct the raid demand sex from the girls and they
refuse, they are beaten up and raped by them. Rape by security guards
at the detention centre is routine. Some women do not to resist in
order to avoid physical pain from the security guards while others,
especially the one who being arrested for the first time, are
reporting more severe violence and rape. Attempts by the women to get
the rapists to use condoms are usually ignored and we can assume that
many of the police and guards are HIV and transmitting the virus
through these criminal activities.
One sex worker said, "I was put on the van and brought to the center
but they told me not to get down when we reached the center. Four of
them raped me one after another and then they allowed me to get away
from the place. It was really horrible."
"If they asked you question or ask you to do something and you refuse,
then you will be brought out and beaten by the security guard. The
stick is big and I witnessed with my own eye other sex workers who
were seriously beaten and always fainted. It is very cruel and
terrible. So I remain silent because I don't want to die; I have my
children at home."
Sex workers said they have never been told the reason they have been
raided and put into this 'detention ' center. Police tell them they
should not stand on public parks or that will destroy the beauty of
Phnom Penh city.
"If they continue to raid on sex workers and we continue to run away,
how will we make our living? How can we feed our children? Our work
makes us survive from day to day."
This behavior taking place in a government facility makes a mockery of
the progressive national HIV prevention program that the Cambodian
government boasts they are being implementing through various
international and local organizations. Similarly it does not fit well
that the Cambodian government is on one hand attempting to bring to
justice those who abused human rights during the Khmer Rouge while
sanctioning or ignoring similar abuses taking place in the streets of
Phnom Penh today.
WNU is calling on those organizations working on Human Rights and on
HIV in Cambodia to join us in speaking out against the new law and the
abuses that have resulted from it.
WNU and the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers demand that
- STOP THE RAIDS ON SEX WORKERS
- PROVIDE ARV's TO HIV+ SEX WORKERS IMMEDIATELY OR RELEASE THEM.
- STOPS RAPE AND BRING RAPISTS TO JUSTICE
- ENSURE RIGHT TO EMPLOYMENT
- STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
- TREAT CHILDREN, OLD AGED, HIV POSITIVE PEOPLE, AND PREGNANT
WOMEN WITH DIGNITY
- STOP EXTORTION BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION IN THE POLICE FORCE
- REPEAL THE TRAFFICKING LAW THAT THE CAMBODIAN GOVERNMENT
PASSED ON ORDERS OF THE UNITED STATES
1:30 PM AT THE CAMBODIAN MISSION TO THE UN
327 E 50TH STREET NEAR SECOND AVENUE
HLM ATTENDEES LEAVE THE UN CAFÉ AT 1 PM
The Cambodian Government under the influence of the US has passed a law
against sex work. Since March, sex workers have been rounded up in raids,
arrested, detained, denied medical services, beaten and raped by police.
At least three sex workers have died in police custody. Others are being
denied life-saving medicines. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!
Background:
Cambodian sex workers face severe raids from police:
Preserving value of women or treat them with respect and dignity?
Each day for the last few weeks the local news has been flashing
reports of more raids on sex workers in brothels in different areas in
Phnom Penh, and some in the provinces. However, raids on sex workers
don't only take place in Phnom Penh but a number of provinces such as
Banteay Meanchey, Siem Reap, Kampong Chhang . The news paints a bad
image of sex workers being the people who carry immoral behaviors
around and destroy Cambodian beautiful values and tradition especially
those of the women. The new law and the push from the US government
that has driven these raids has a different approach though. It
declares sex workers to be trafficked women and victims of sex slavery
who want to be rescued from the sex industry. Those who do not, or who
put up resistance, are criminalized by the new law as traffickers or
as aiding trafficking.
Several sex workers have made clear reports to WNU about their
experiences of being raided by the police, raped and held against
their will without proper process. The facility in which the women
are held is a prison with conditions and routine human rights abuses
reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge regime. In reality, not only sex
workers are being arrested but also beggars, homeless people, drug
users, waste pickers, children who wander around in city at night
time, alone or in a way that invites suspicion.
Phnom Penh based sex workers who were raided noticed that even though
raids from police on brothel and freelance sex workers on the park has
always been happening, the situation become more often and intensive
since February 2008. In Phnom Penh, target areas include Wat Phnom,
along the river front, on the famous park such as along the
independent monument, Psar Chas, and in slum areas where very poor
women live.
In the process the police and detention centre guards openly abuse the
women. Their money, jewelery, and other valuables such as phones are
routinely stolen by the police. Women are being subject to severe
physical abuse, beatings and raped by the police. HIV Positive sex
workers who are put into the center cannot have the regular ARVs they
are required to take everyday. Some women have already fallen ill as a
result of the abuses and the violence committed by the security
guards. No care or medical treatment has been made available to any
women for their injuries or medical conditions.
Some sex workers who are HIV positive have asked for release
explaining that they cannot miss their ARV medication when they are in
the center but their pleas have not been listened to. To be get out
of the center, they have to pay money which is called compensation and
promise that they are not to return to their work as sex workers
again. These are direct quotes from sex workers who have been raided
and put into the center :
"If you have the money with you while you are caught and forced to get
on the van, you may manage to bribe the police and get off somewhere
but it has to be done secretly. Once you reach the center and locked
up in that center, you need to pay a lot more money to get out of it."
"Early March 2008, I was caught while working along the park. They
brought me to the center outside of Phnom Penh, a place called Prey
Speu center. I was locked up there for three days and only got out
when my husband and my mother brought the money to get me out. They
had to spend USD150 to get me out. We were forced to sell our hut,
which worth 500USD, for USD150 in order to get me out. Now I rent a
room for 5000R ( $ 1.50) for myself and my children."
Perhaps most shocking is the fact that almost every sex worker has
been raped either by the police or when they are put into the center.
If the police that conduct the raid demand sex from the girls and they
refuse, they are beaten up and raped by them. Rape by security guards
at the detention centre is routine. Some women do not to resist in
order to avoid physical pain from the security guards while others,
especially the one who being arrested for the first time, are
reporting more severe violence and rape. Attempts by the women to get
the rapists to use condoms are usually ignored and we can assume that
many of the police and guards are HIV and transmitting the virus
through these criminal activities.
One sex worker said, "I was put on the van and brought to the center
but they told me not to get down when we reached the center. Four of
them raped me one after another and then they allowed me to get away
from the place. It was really horrible."
"If they asked you question or ask you to do something and you refuse,
then you will be brought out and beaten by the security guard. The
stick is big and I witnessed with my own eye other sex workers who
were seriously beaten and always fainted. It is very cruel and
terrible. So I remain silent because I don't want to die; I have my
children at home."
Sex workers said they have never been told the reason they have been
raided and put into this 'detention ' center. Police tell them they
should not stand on public parks or that will destroy the beauty of
Phnom Penh city.
"If they continue to raid on sex workers and we continue to run away,
how will we make our living? How can we feed our children? Our work
makes us survive from day to day."
This behavior taking place in a government facility makes a mockery of
the progressive national HIV prevention program that the Cambodian
government boasts they are being implementing through various
international and local organizations. Similarly it does not fit well
that the Cambodian government is on one hand attempting to bring to
justice those who abused human rights during the Khmer Rouge while
sanctioning or ignoring similar abuses taking place in the streets of
Phnom Penh today.
WNU is calling on those organizations working on Human Rights and on
HIV in Cambodia to join us in speaking out against the new law and the
abuses that have resulted from it.
WNU and the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers demand that
- STOP THE RAIDS ON SEX WORKERS
- PROVIDE ARV's TO HIV+ SEX WORKERS IMMEDIATELY OR RELEASE THEM.
- STOPS RAPE AND BRING RAPISTS TO JUSTICE
- ENSURE RIGHT TO EMPLOYMENT
- STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
- TREAT CHILDREN, OLD AGED, HIV POSITIVE PEOPLE, AND PREGNANT
WOMEN WITH DIGNITY
- STOP EXTORTION BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION IN THE POLICE FORCE
- REPEAL THE TRAFFICKING LAW THAT THE CAMBODIAN GOVERNMENT
PASSED ON ORDERS OF THE UNITED STATES
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