How Cambodian Laws Discriminate Against Women

A CAMBOW Report
November 2007

In 1992, Cambodia ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This international bill of rights for women contains provisions to reduce and eliminate violence against women. By ratifying this instrument, Cambodia committed itself to protecting Cambodian women from violence and eliminating discrimination against women.

Cambodia's laws relating to specific forms of exploitation and discrimination against women, such as domestic violence, rape and human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, are severely lacking in protective measures and guarantees of equality for women in Cambodia. In effect, these laws contravene the CEDAW by discriminating against women.

In 2007, the government has yet to pass new laws to adequately protect women when they suffer from violence. In addition, the existing laws are not being implemented on a nationwide basis and many people including legal and judicial officials, local authorities and the general public - including, most importantly, women - do not understand these laws and their attempt to protect women's rights in Cambodia.

Domestic Violence

The Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence and the Protection of Victims affords some measure of protection to victims of domestic violence and reflects the Government's attempt to introduce legislation to address this problem. However, significant changes are needed to this law in order for it to adequately eradicate domestic violence. In its current form, the law contains ambiguous meanings in key provisions such as the definition of domestic violence, marital rape and the authorities responsible for protecting victims of domestic violence.

Marriage

The Law on Marriage and Family is very comprehensive and one of its stated aims is to ensure the equality of partners in a marriage. However, its complicated and drawn out procedures for divorce - which require that the courts attempt to "reconcile" husband and wife to remain together - are extremely problematic for women who are victims of domestic violence.

Rape

Existing rape legislation fails to adequately define the offense of rape, most significantly by not referring in any way to the issue of consent. Rape is defined in the law as sexual penetration committed through "cruelty, coercion or surprise" - which in practice leads the courts to consider that rape must involve serious violence and injuries. This ignores the fact that many rapes are committed without major injury; rapist in Cambodia are often armed with a weapon, and make threats of violence or death, which may prevent victims from struggling with their attackers, for fear of being further injured or killed. The deficiencies in the legal provisions against rape in some ways reinforce societal attitudes which tend to blame or shame women who are raped

Human Trafficking

Cambodia is a source, transit and destination country for the trafficking of women. Although there are no clear statistics on the numbers of women being trafficked within Cambodia and out of the country, it is clear that this is a problem which affects a large number of women. Existing  trafficking legislation fails to adequately define the offence of trafficking by not taking into account the multitude of complex acts that can be considered trafficking. Furthermore trafficking legislation does not provide for the protection or rehabilitation of domestic and international trafficking victims.

Conclusion

Cambodia's law relating to violence against women are failing to protect Cambodian women from violence, exploitation in any form, and discrimination. The laws need to amended, drafted and implemented in accordance with the principles of the CEDAW.