Mu Sochua to speak at 2011 Asia Pacific Rule of Law Conference (APAC)

Thursday, December 2, 2010
Source: http://www.apac2011wjp.org/mu-sochua-to-speak-at-apac

Mu Sochua, a Cambodian Parliament member, will be a panelist at the Asia Pacific Rule of Law Conference. Sochua has been an outspoken advocate for a diverse array of human rights issues in Cambodia, including a campaign against sex trafficking, the prevention of domestic violence and the promotion of labor rights for women. For more information on Mu Sochua and other prominent speakers at the Asia Pacific Rule of Law Conference, please visit our speaker page.

-----------

Speaker Biography

Mu Sochua

Member of Parliament, Cambodia

Mu Sochua, a member of the Cambodian Parliament and advocate for human rights, gained her freedom from the Khmer Rouge as a girl when her parents put her on a plane to Paris in 1972. After 18 years of exile and a successful career in the U.S. as a social worker, Sochua returned to Cambodia and found her country transformed into what Time magazine called "a pervert’s paradise", where women and girls were so devalued that becoming a sex worker was a common fate.

As Cambodia’s first woman seated as Minister of Women’s Affairs, Sochua negotiated an agreement with Thailand allowing Cambodian women trafficked as sex workers there to return to their home country in lieu of being jailed. As the author and defender of the Domestic Violence Law in the Cambodian Parliament, Sochua has served the women of her nation as an unrelenting advocate for the preservation and full practice of women’s rights. She also launched a campaign to bring NGOs, law enforcement officials and rural women into a national dialogue and education program to help protect women and girls victimized by trafficking and to boost prevention efforts nationwide. In 2005, when Vital Voices honored Mu Sochua in Washington, D.C. for her efforts in combating child trafficking in her native Cambodia, she said her mind remained with the women and children of Cambodia and called for international attention to government corruption and human rights abuses in her government, conditions she says create a climate where traffickers flourish. Sochua continues to be steadfast in her call for action toward the formation of an authentically democratic Cambodia where women’s rights are revered as human rights.