Global Issues

Cambodia

• Source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.

• Cambodian men, women, and children migrate to Thailand, Malaysia, and other countries for work. Many are subsequently subjected to sex trafficking.

• Vietnamese criminal gangs move Vietnamese women and girls through Cambodia to onward destinations in Thailand and Malaysia for forced and child prostitution.

• Violence against women, including domestic violence and rape, common

• Women and girls—including transgender women—involved in sex work face beatings, rape, sexual harassment, extortion, arbitrary arrest, and detention by police and government-hired security guards.

• 12.8% of women in Cambodia report intimate partner physical violence in their lifetime.

• 2.7% of women report sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime.

• 22.3 of women report intimate partner and/or non-partner physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.

• 2.8% report forced first sex

• 3.1% report abuse during pregnancy

 

Advocacy:

• The Women’s Network For Unity is grassroots representative collective of Phnom Penh-based Sex Workers.

• Government supports NGOs providing training for poor women vulnerable to spousal abuse, prostitution, and trafficking.

• Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers is a coalition of sex worker groups and projects working on issues of HIV and human rights for female, male and transgender sex workers across Asia and the Pacific.

 

Sources: UN Women Violence against Women Prevalence Data:  Surveys  by  Country 2011; Human Rights Watch World Report 2012; U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report, U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011