Torture & Ill-Treatment: Testimony from Inside Cambodia’s Police Stations and Prisons

Cambodia ratified the Optional Protocol to the United Nations (UN) Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) in March 2007. Among other things, this protocol requires State Parties to establish an independent National Preventative Mechanism (NPM) within one year of ratification. The primary purpose of NPMs is to monitor and prevent torture and ill-treatment in places of detention. More than seven years after the ratification, Cambodian authorities have failed to establish such a body. Instead, an inter-ministerial committee made up of various government officials was created. This body is neither independent nor capable of performing the functions of an effective NPM. Moreover, since its establishment in 2009, it has done very little of actual substance.