Women’s Backers Urge Passage of Draft Law

In honor of Saturday’s 93rd International Women’s Day, concerned members of the government and NGO community are renewing their calls for an end to domestic violence and are urging Cambodians to recognize that the trafficking of women and children is illegal, women’s officials said Thursday.

“Sadly, International Women’s Day is like any other day in Cambodia—a day when countless Cambodian girls and women will be beaten, abused, raped or forced to work as sex slaves,” Licadho President Kek Galabru said in a statement Thursday.

To combat these offenses, the Cambodian Committee of Wo­men is urging the National As­sembly to pass the draft law on do­mestic violence, which came up for debate in February, but debate was not completed before the Assembly adjourned last week.

Minister of Women’s and Veterans’ Affairs Mu Sochua said Thursday she is confident the draft law will be passed before year’s end.

“I got assurance from the Na­tional Assembly that it will reconvene May 25 and the draft law will be discussed. This mandate will be finished and adopted,” Mu Sochua said, specifying that Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh and the Assembly’s Women’s Affairs Commission chair, Men Sam An, said the Assembly would prioritize the draft when it reconvenes.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Au­stralian Ambassador Louise Hand turned over a $2,600 check to Mu Sochua to help fund the recording and broadcasting of a televised public debate on the trafficking of women.

Representatives of the ministries of Interior, Women’s and Veteran’s Affairs and Justice and TVK will participate in the roundtable to be followed by a series of public service announcements, embassy official Karen Lanyon said. The program will air on TVK today and Saturday from 6 to 7 pm, she said.

Also, with support from UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Friends/ Mith Samlanh on Saturday will open a young migrants center on Street 61 in Daun Penh district to assist young provincial girls who are newly arrived to Phnom Penh, Friends technical adviser David Harding said.