Trafficking in Persons Report 2019

Cambodia is a source, transit and destination country for trafficked persons. Women and girls are trafficked internally for commercial exploitation. Men who migrate outside of Cambodia for work are sometimes subjected to forced labor, and some women and girls are trafficked abroad for prostitution or domestic work. Children, the disabled and the elderly are trafficked to beg or work on the streets of neighboring countries.

Trafficking in Persons Report 2018

Cambodian trafficking victims include men, women and children, who are exploited for a variety of different purposes including numerous forms of forced labour, as well as for commercial sexual services. Victims are exploited through debt bondage and for domestic servitude, forced begging, for forced labour in the fishing, construction, food processing and agricultural industries, and for sexual services in brothels, massage parlours, salons, beer gardens and karaoke bars. Within Cambodia, trafficking victims are predominantly women and girls who are trafficked for sexual exploitation, as well as for domestic labour.

Trafficking in Persons Report 2017

Cambodia experiences significant internal and cross-border trafficking, and is a country of origin, transit and destination for trafficked persons. Human trafficking patterns and trends in Cambodia vary from small-scale opportunistic endeavours to large-scale organised syndicates with elaborate trafficking networks.

Smoke on the Water

Since 2004, the ING City project has been progressively destroying the Tompoun/Cheung Ek wetlands in Phnom Penh, threatening the livelihoods and homes of more than a thousand families, devastating the wetlands ecosystem, placing more than a million people at increased risk of flooding, worsening food insecurity, and polluting the Mekong and Bassac rivers with untreated sewage and harmful pollutants. The wetlands are a vital flood protection area for Phnom Penh, as well as the city’s only wastewater treatment system. ING City, and other proponents, are currently infilling the wetlands with sand and dirt to create land for real estate.

Human Development Report 2016

The 2016 Human Development Report is the latest in the series of global Human Development Reports published
by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 1990 as independent, analytically and empirically
grounded discussions of major development issues, trends and policies.

Additional resources related to the 2016 Human Development Report can be found online at http://hdr.undp.org,
including digital versions of the Report and translations of the overview in more than 20 languages, an interactive
web version of the Report, a set of background papers and think pieces commissioned for the Report, interactive
maps and databases of human development indicators, full explanations of the sources and methodologies used in
the Report’s composite indices, country profiles and other background materials as well as previous global, regional
and national Human Development Reports. The 2016 Report and the best of Human Development Report Office
content, including publications, data, HDI rankings and related information can also be accessed on Apple iOS and
Android smartphones via a new and easy to use mobile app.

Trafficking in Persons Report 2016

Cambodia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Cambodian adults and children migrate to other countries within the region and increasingly to the Middle East for work; many are subjected to forced labor on fishing vessels, in agriculture, in construction, in factories, and in domestic servitude—often through debt bondage—or to sex trafficking.

Built on Slavery: Debt Bondage and Child Labour in Cambodia’s Brick Factories

The interviews and group discussions covered a range of topics including details of the interviewees’ daily lives and their work; their financial situations and the amount of debt owed by them or their families; how they had come to brick factory work; employment practices; the use of child labour; access to education; and injuries caused by factory machinery.

The Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017

Cambodia ranks 89th, up one position from last year. Among Asian nations, it is the one that has posted the largest GCI score improvement—from 3.5 to 4.0—since 2007. Despite the positive trend, the challenges are many and significant. Cambodia ranks no better than 50th in any of the 12 pillars of the Index; in half of them it sits beyond the 100th mark. Of particular concern is its mediocre performance in three of the four areas that constitute the basic drivers of competitiveness: institutions (104th, up seven), infrastructure (106th, down five), and health and primary education (103rd, down 16). Moreover, Cambodia ranks 124th in higher education and training, its poorest performance in any pillar. It is estimated that secondary education enrollment is around 50 percent. With a median age of 23.8, Cambodia is home to one of the youngest populations in Asia. Ensuring access to quality of education for all should therefore be a policy priority.

Rule of Law Index 2015

The Rule of Law Index 2015 was prepared by The World Justice Project (WJP)’s research team. This research has measured on 8 factors: constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice, and criminal justice. A ninth factor, informal justice, is measured but not included in aggregated scores and rankings. These factors are intended to reflect how people experience rule of law in everyday life. This WJP Rule of Law Index 2015 are derived from more than more than 100,000 household and expert surveys in 102 countries and jurisdictions. The report showed that Cambodia ranked 99 out of 102 countries and dead last in the East Asia and Pacific region.

Discrimination Against Transgender Women in Cambodia’s Urban Centers

This research report documents human rights issues faced by transgender women in Cambodia’s Urban centers, and recommends actions to secure their rights to equality, dignity, health and security.