 APNSW Commends the Cambodia Assessment in U.S. State Department's 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report
PHNOM
PENH, Cambodia (June 17, 2009) -- The Asia and the Pacific Network of
Sex Workers (APNSW) would like to commend the U.S. Department of State
on their 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, with specific
reference to their recognition of Cambodia's failure to properly
implement and enforce minimum international standards with it's law on
the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.
The
TIP Report acknowledges a number of the issues arising from the
conflation of sex work and trafficking in Cambodia, as well as the
misguided enforcement of the law. The root of this being that "Not all
government officials have appeared to distinguish between the law's
articles on trafficking offences and non-trafficking crimes such as
prostitution ... as a result law enforcement has focused on prostitution-related crimes...".
As
noted in the TIP report "Following the passage of the law Cambodian
police conducted numerous raids on brothels and detained a large number
of women in prostitution while failing to arrest, investigate or charge
any large number of persons for human trafficking offences." APNSW
hopes that the focus of the enforcement of the law will be shifted from
the policing, arrest and detention of sex workers as "traffickers" to
the investigation and prosecution of major traffickers, in line with
the recommendations given by the U.S. Department of State in the TIP
Report.
As a result of these detentions, a number of human
rights abuses against sex workers have been reported upon their
release. Some of which are mentioned in the TIP report including rape,
physical beatings and extortion, all said to have been committed by
some police and Ministry of Social Affairs officials. Due to this
failed enforcement and lack of trafficking convictions Cambodia has
been placed back on the Tier 2 Watch List for trafficking.
APNSW
and Women's Network for Unity have advocated strongly for the
recognition of this issue and it is with cautious optimism that we
welcome the report. It is good to see the US government at last
treating seriously the issues that sex workers have raised.
Given
Secretary Clinton's commitment to assessing US anti-trafficking efforts
and the millions of dollars in anti-trafficking funds committed by the
US Department of State to anti-trafficking efforts in Cambodia; it
would be useful for the US government to look into why their programs
to improve standards have clearly failed.(1)
We look forward
to working with the Cambodian and US governments to develop programs to
address sex workers health and human rights which are based in evidence
and rights.
# # #
Contact:
Sara Bradford, Technical Advisor APNSW
sara00729 AT yahoo DOT com
(+855) 12-393-714
See APNSW film on Cambodian law
See
APNSW article on Cambodian Law
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Onsdag 24.juni kl 16.00 åpner fotoutstillingen "From our point of view" i kulturteltet i Pride-parken på Rådhusplassen. Utstillingen vil vare fram til 27.juni, og er et samarbeidsprosjekt mellom brukerne på SWING i Bangkok, Thailand - en organisasjon for menn og transpersoner som jobber i sexbransjen, og kunstneren Rolf Flatmo.
