Violence and exposure to HIV among sex workers in Phnom Penh

The evidence in this report from USAID reveals that the successful national HIV/AIDS programme in Cambodia has failed to protect the rights of sex workers as women and as citizens.

This study, conducted among a sample of 1,000 female and transgender sex workers in Phnom Penh identifies that:

• Half of those surveyed reported being beaten by police.
• About a third were gang-raped by police.
• Slightly more than one-third were gang-raped by gangsters.
• About three-quarters were gang-raped by clients or men pretending to be clients.
• Most of these rapes occurred at gunpoint or with knives or other weapons.
• Over 90 percent of the sex workers surveyed in this sample were raped at least once last year.

Recommendations are extensive and include:

•  Institutional rigorous and regular training of police on gender issues, including gender based violence, human rights, and how the law is supposed to uphold these rights for all citizens.
• The penalisation of police and justice system employees who do not follow the laws and obstruct the registration of rape complaints and the persecution of perpetrators is recommended.
• Donors and NGOs should support the reform of the police and justice system with the aim of ensuring rape, violence, and sexual abuse are properly managed according to the law for all citizens of Cambodia, as declared in the national constitution.