PROTEST HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES OF SEX WORKERS IN CAMBODIA!

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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 worki. 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

Women's Network for Unity Cambodia

Melissa Hope Ditmore, Ph.D.

Coordinator

Network of Sex Work Projects

rights [at] nswp [dot] org, secretariat [at] nswp [dot] org

P.O. Box 20853

New York, NY 10009

USA