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Questo articolo in particolare fa riferimento alla mancanza della Cambogia di rispettare e di applicare le regole minime internazionali richieste sull'eliminazione del traffico degli esseri umani e dello sfruttamento sessuale.
Le rete delle sex workers dell'Asia e del Pacifico approva la relazione e il fatto che siano state evidenziate tali mancanze.
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.
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Contact:
Sara Bradford, Technical Advisor APNSW
(+855) 12-393-714
See APNSW article on Cambodian Law:
the-crocodile-the-campaign-to-suppress-human-trafficking-and-sexual-
exploitation-in-cambodia/
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