Land Rights Are Women's Human Rights

By Mu Sochua

"Women are the backbones of our economy" yet, they are continually met with new roadblocks constructed by a government that pillages and abuses women instead of offering help and support. Economic Land Concessions bleed our women of their homes and economic lifeblood. The head of the government continues to sign away people's rightful land, as recognized under the Cambodian Land law,to private companies leaving the affected destitute. These companies are directly related to members of the ruling party. Across Cambodia, over one million citizens have been forcibly evicted from their lands, in the name of development.

Women are the first victims and such victimization can have life-long impact.

Women stand together to STOP eviction

Across the country women are now standing up for their rights to housing as guaranteed under the Cambodian Land Law, and other UN Conventions, including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In their united resistance against the authorities, our women have been met by state violence in the form of unjust arrests, detention and unfair trials. Yet, the struggle goes on, almost on a daily basis, from the heart of Phnom Penh, to the remote corners of the North East.

Police violence must be condemned

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be in Cambodia for the November ASEAN Summit.The US should bring to the ASEAN Summit a clear message that ignoring the people's fight for land is ignoring the potential for instability in Cambodia. The US top leaders should repeat the US demand for a transparent and fair system to allow people to be part of the decision-making process in land concessions.

Give me back my land- give me back my life.

(Photo: John Vink, Magnum Photos. Women crying for the loss of her property during the final eviction of the Borei Keila Community)

Women in the forefront of the resistance movement against illegal land evictions call upon the government to:

1. Immediately stop all forms of economic land concessions that are carried out without the consultation and consent of the people.
2. Make accessible and distribute official land papers to all entitled residents in accordance with Article 30 of the Cambodian Land Law.
3. Restore all land possessed as a result of forced evictions to the victims.
4. Appropriately and fairly remunerate victims for all losses.
5. Release from prison all victims of land conflict
6. Stop state violence against women.

Land is life.

And the right to land is fundamental to a life with dignity.

Follow the blog: sochua.wordpress

Twitter: MuSochua

Mu Sochua, MP

Former Minister for Women's Affairs

Turning the Tables on Domestic Violence in Asia

Mouey now holds the purse strings -- and the power -- in her home. (Lotus Outreach)

9/9/11
Michaela Haas
The Huffington Post

In America, every 15 seconds a woman is beaten by her husband or domestic partner. Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44 -- more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined. I always thought these figures were shocking, especially since they have been slow to change over the years.

However, I was even more stunned when I recently learned that 30 percent of women in Cambodia suffer from domestic violence. Every third woman in Cambodia gets abused? How could that be?

I put this question to Erika Keaveney, the executive director of the SoCal based non-profit Lotus Outreach, which has been working in the poorest regions of Cambodia and other parts of Asia for almost two decades. "Many women in Cambodia don't even know that they have rights," she explained. "Divorce carries an enormous social stigma in Cambodia, and so many woman literally have no way to escape a dangerous situation."

But she also told me the story of Goong Mouey, a beneficiary of the organizations's Consoling Through Counseling project, which highlights just how far a small amount can go to help women escape from domestic violence.

Cambodian lawmaker focuses on rights for women

Wednesday, November 17, 2010
By Bonnie Adler
Minuteman News Center (Connecticut, USA)

Nobel Prize nominee Mu Sochua, an advocate for rule of law and rights for women in Cambodia, is a remarkable study in contrasts.

At 55, she is an exotic beauty, slender, soft-spoken, graceful and charming. She is also alarmingly brave and intensely committed. As the most outspoken female leader of the opposition party in an impoverished post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia, she risks her life in calling publicly for the cessation of sex trafficking, equality for women and an end to the corruption that is endemic to all levels of Cambodian society.

Mu Sochua made numerous appearances in Westport last week, raising awareness about her work as a Cambodian lawmaker to promote greater equality and freedom for women in her country and to publicize the deeply disturbing film documentary “Redlight,” an expose about the global issue of sex trafficking of children.

Mu Sochua is featured in the film, which focuses on the personal stories of the victims of child sexploitation and the efforts made thus far to try to stop the crime, which is so prevalent in Cambodia. “Redlight” was directed by an award-winning Israeli filmmaker, Guy Jacobsen, and was shown in Westport and Ridgefield last week with personal appearances by both Mu Sochua and Guy Jacobson.

Mu Sochua also made a day-long appearance at Staples High School, speaking with students in the about the situation in her country. She also made a special presentation to the Staples High School chapter of Teen Vital Voices, where Westport teens are learning about women empowering other women.

Mu Sochua is sponsored by Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international non-profit organization that trains and empowers emerging women leaders and entrepreneurs around the world, with the goal of creating a better world for those in impoverished and underserved countries.

The Connecticut Chapter of Vital Voices brought Mu Sochua to Westport and Ridgefield, where she participated in a number of events aimed at highlighting the devastating effects of poverty and lawlessness in her country. Her demands, made in her firm but soft-spoken voice, are for laws which Americans take for granted, such as the enforcement of the laws which make illegal the practice of sex slavery by children.

In an interview with the Minuteman, Mu Sochua said, “There is a Cambodian proverb which says, ‘Men are gold, women are just a white piece of cloth.’ Gold can be worn forever. It is always solid, but a white piece of cloth can be stained forever. In Cambodia, if you are raped, you are ruined forever. If you are divorced you are ruined forever. Society will not accept you. If you are independent of your husband you are a ‘bad woman.’

“As a Cambodian Cabinet Minister, I committed myself to changing this proverb to ‘men are gold, but women are precious gems.’ Now my supporters are known throughout Cambodia as ‘precious gems.’

“We have a large problem with domestic violence. When I was minister, we did not blame the men, but gave a picture of a family where the gold and precious gems to work together in order for the family to be intact with a sense of harmony. We did not ask women to demand equal rights, but tried to make the men understand that a sense of harmony is for the family, and that men and women should share the same responsibility to raise the family.” Continued...

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At 18, Mu Sochua’s family sent her abroad to escape the Khmer Rouge and to get an education. She received a Masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was deeply influenced by the women’s movement. Those were also the years the Khmer Rouge swept through Cambodia, killing millions in just three and a half years, including Mu Sochua’s parents.

“The scar of the Khmer Rouge is so deep, it is carved into our minds, our souls. I suffer the pain of an outsider, the loss of my parents, and of course, having to grow up outside the country and reconstruct my life from then on.”

Remarkably, she says she holds no grudges and it is with that kind of attitude that she has positioned herself as leader and lawmaker and a role model to young women in Cambodia.

When Mu Sochua returned to Cambodia 18 years after she left, she was appointed to lead the Ministry for Women’s Affairs. She took the job, which she describes as “being in charge of 52 percent of the population,” far more seriously than those who appointed her ever imagined.

“I wanted to bring in western values of feminism and equality. Slowly, I slipped the ideas through, mainstreaming them into family life and culture, but at the same time saying that education is a right, quality of life and free health care are rights and women can be in charge of their own bodies.”

According to Mu Sochua, Cambodia is 85 percent rural, with an extremely high poverty rate. Four million of the 14 million population live on less than a dollar a day, a fundamental cause of the everyday violence and the rampant sex trade.

“The government is corrupt. We have the legacy of the Khmer Rouge, with violence agains women and a culture of impunity. Our present is still haunted by the genocide of the past, which occurred thirty years ago,” said Mu Sochua.

Undaunted by the enormity of the task, she fights each day to improve the situation. “As an opposition lawmaker we know things could be better. We demand a strong rule of law, accountability and the end of violence against women and the end of social stigmatization of victims.”

Not surprisingly, this kind of public opposition was met head on by the Prime Minister of Cambodia. The two clashed in a battle of words and the Prime Minister started a public campaign against her.

“His speeches against me were broadcast on the radio across the country,” she said. “He even said he would finish my political life.” The battle went on for months, and although Mu Sochua lost the lawsuit, she gained much more public recognition and took advantage of the opportunity to defend her right to justice and a fair trial, and what she calls “the right of a woman to be seen and to be considered as a human rights defender.” Continued...

123See Full StoryReader Comments »View reader comments (0) » Comment on this story »

She was nearly imprisoned, but the government ultimately backed off when it appeared that the publicity generated by the imprisonment would be too visible and help Mu Sochua’s cause. Instead she was fined $4,000, a king’s ransom in a country where teachers make $50 a month.

“Now I am seen totally differently, even by the Prime Minister. I am a very straightforward lawmaker, although sometimes outrageous, but I do make sense to the people. I am now widely recognized and I still continue to take these causes very seriously.”

Even as she has gained a measure of renown in her own country, Mu Sochua is broadening her battle. She is seeking funding from the United States government to help the growth of democracy in Cambodia. She is hopes to obtain funds for more entrepreneurial opportunity for women in the form of microbusinesses run by women in local villages in order to decrease the level of poverty. She hopes for greater educational opportunity and access, and funding for more radio and television access. Dreams of technology are still far off, as less than one percent of the population is computer literate. Recently, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Cambodia, with a message of support for the protection of human rights. “I want delivery on that promise,” she said.

123See Full StoryReader Comments »View reader comments (0) » Comment on this story »

1234See Full StoryReader Comments »View reader comments (0) » Comment on this story »

By Bonnie Adler

Nobel Prize nominee Mu Sochua, an advocate for rule of law and rights for women in Cambodia, is a remarkable study in contrasts.

At 55, she is an exotic beauty, slender, soft-spoken, graceful and charming. She is also alarmingly brave and intensely committed. As the most outspoken female leader of the opposition party in an impoverished post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia, she risks her life in calling publicly for the cessation of sex trafficking, equality for women and an end to the corruption that is endemic to all levels of Cambodian society.

Mu Sochua made numerous appearances in Westport last week, raising awareness about her work as a Cambodian lawmaker to promote greater equality and freedom for women in her country and to publicize the deeply disturbing film documentary “Redlight,” an expose about the global issue of sex trafficking of children.

Mu Sochua is featured in the film, which focuses on the personal stories of the victims of child sexploitation and the efforts made thus far to try to stop the crime, which is so prevalent in Cambodia. “Redlight” was directed by an award-winning Israeli filmmaker, Guy Jacobsen, and was shown in Westport and Ridgefield last week with personal appearances by both Mu Sochua and Guy Jacobson.

Mu Sochua also made a day-long appearance at Staples High School, speaking with students in the about the situation in her country. She also made a special presentation to the Staples High School chapter of Teen Vital Voices, where Westport teens are learning about women empowering other women.

Mu Sochua is sponsored by Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international non-profit organization that trains and empowers emerging women leaders and entrepreneurs around the world, with the goal of creating a better world for those in impoverished and underserved countries.

The Connecticut Chapter of Vital Voices brought Mu Sochua to Westport and Ridgefield, where she participated in a number of events aimed at highlighting the devastating effects of poverty and lawlessness in her country. Her demands, made in her firm but soft-spoken voice, are for laws which Americans take for granted, such as the enforcement of the laws which make illegal the practice of sex slavery by children.

In an interview with the Minuteman, Mu Sochua said, “There is a Cambodian proverb which says, ‘Men are gold, women are just a white piece of cloth.’ Gold can be worn forever. It is always solid, but a white piece of cloth can be stained forever. In Cambodia, if you are raped, you are ruined forever. If you are divorced you are ruined forever. Society will not accept you. If you are independent of your husband you are a ‘bad woman.’

“As a Cambodian Cabinet Minister, I committed myself to changing this proverb to ‘men are gold, but women are precious gems.’ Now my supporters are known throughout Cambodia as ‘precious gems.’

“We have a large problem with domestic violence. When I was minister, we did not blame the men, but gave a picture of a family where the gold and precious gems to work together in order for the family to be intact with a sense of harmony. We did not ask women to demand equal rights, but tried to make the men understand that a sense of harmony is for the family, and that men and women should share the same responsibility to raise the family.”

At 18, Mu Sochua’s family sent her abroad to escape the Khmer Rouge and to get an education. She received a Masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was deeply influenced by the women’s movement. Those were also the years the Khmer Rouge swept through Cambodia, killing millions in just three and a half years, including Mu Sochua’s parents.

“The scar of the Khmer Rouge is so deep, it is carved into our minds, our souls. I suffer the pain of an outsider, the loss of my parents, and of course, having to grow up outside the country and reconstruct my life from then on.”

Remarkably, she says she holds no grudges and it is with that kind of attitude that she has positioned herself as leader and lawmaker and a role model to young women in Cambodia.

When Mu Sochua returned to Cambodia 18 years after she left, she was appointed to lead the Ministry for Women’s Affairs. She took the job, which she describes as “being in charge of 52 percent of the population,” far more seriously than those who appointed her ever imagined.

“I wanted to bring in western values of feminism and equality. Slowly, I slipped the ideas through, mainstreaming them into family life and culture, but at the same time saying that education is a right, quality of life and free health care are rights and women can be in charge of their own bodies.”

According to Mu Sochua, Cambodia is 85 percent rural, with an extremely high poverty rate. Four million of the 14 million population live on less than a dollar a day, a fundamental cause of the everyday violence and the rampant sex trade.

“The government is corrupt. We have the legacy of the Khmer Rouge, with violence agains women and a culture of impunity. Our present is still haunted by the genocide of the past, which occurred thirty years ago,” said Mu Sochua.

Undaunted by the enormity of the task, she fights each day to improve the situation. “As an opposition lawmaker we know things could be better. We demand a strong rule of law, accountability and the end of violence against women and the end of social stigmatization of victims.”

Not surprisingly, this kind of public opposition was met head on by the Prime Minister of Cambodia. The two clashed in a battle of words and the Prime Minister started a public campaign against her.

“His speeches against me were broadcast on the radio across the country,” she said. “He even said he would finish my political life.” The battle went on for months, and although Mu Sochua lost the lawsuit, she gained much more public recognition and took advantage of the opportunity to defend her right to justice and a fair trial, and what she calls “the right of a woman to be seen and to be considered as a human rights defender.”

She was nearly imprisoned, but the government ultimately backed off when it appeared that the publicity generated by the imprisonment would be too visible and help Mu Sochua’s cause. Instead she was fined $4,000, a king’s ransom in a country where teachers make $50 a month.

“Now I am seen totally differently, even by the Prime Minister. I am a very straightforward lawmaker, although sometimes outrageous, but I do make sense to the people. I am now widely recognized and I still continue to take these causes very seriously.”

Even as she has gained a measure of renown in her own country, Mu Sochua is broadening her battle. She is seeking funding from the United States government to help the growth of democracy in Cambodia. She is hopes to obtain funds for more entrepreneurial opportunity for women in the form of microbusinesses run by women in local villages in order to decrease the level of poverty. She hopes for greater educational opportunity and access, and funding for more radio and television access. Dreams of technology are still far off, as less than one percent of the population is computer literate. Recently, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Cambodia, with a message of support for the protection of human rights. “I want delivery on that promise,” she said.

Cambodian Activist Chooses Jail in Standoff with Prime Minister

Cambodian opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua says she would rather go to jail than pay the prime minister for defamation. (Photo: Heng Sinith)

Kate Woodsome, Voice of America
Washington 09 July 2010

“It is about the opposition party making all its efforts to fight a prime minister who acts as a dictator. And it is about time to make a move for change.” - Mu Sochua, Cambodian opposition parliamentarian

To be a critic of the Cambodian government is difficult and, sometimes, dangerous work. But to be a female activist is even more challenging in the male-dominated society. Mu Sochua, an opposition party parliamentarian, is one of the country’s most powerful women. She is now counting down the days until her arrest on charges of defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Strong legs

It all started when Mu Sochua sued the prime minister for defamation. Last year, Mr. Hun Sen called Mu Sochua “cheung klang,” which means strong legs. Mu Sochua says “cheung klang” was used in a disparaging way to disrespect her gender and intimidate the opposition. She sued him for the equivalent of 12 cents in what she called a symbolic protest. The prime minister responded with his own defamation suit, alleging that her lawsuit unfairly disparaged him.

Cambodia’s courts struck down Mu Sochua’s case but upheld the prime minister’s. She has until July 15th to pay about $4,000 in fines. But she says she would rather go to prison.

“It is my conscience that tells me I have not committed any crime. It is my conscience that tells me that we have to stop living in fear, and fear of one man who has ruled Cambodia for over 30 years,” Mu Sochua says. “And for me, it’s a gender issue as well. Because if I allow it to happen, if I pay the fine, what does it mean to the value of women who represent more than half of the people of Cambodia?”

Women's rights

Mu Sochua was not always a member of the opposition. From 1998 to 2004, she served in the government as the minister of women’s affairs. Since then, many more women have joined the government. Mu Sochua says the social image of women has improved somewhat, but that the changes have not been institutionalized.

“The women who are elected from the ruling party, the party of the prime minister, unfortunately do not serve their constituency because they serve their party first,” she says. “Which means that they don’t challenge, they don’t monitor the implementation of the laws.”

Mu Sochua says she is unwilling to stay silent while Prime Minister Hun Sen intimidates the Cambodian people, including those in his own party.

“It’s not about me and the prime minister,” Mu Sochua says. “It is about the opposition party making all its efforts to fight a prime minister who acts as a dictator. And it is about time to make a move for change.”

Detention

Authorities have not said how long Mu Sochua would spend in prison if arrested. She says she is mentally preparing to be behind bars for six months. Her case is not unprecedented. In 2005, several human rights activists were also jailed for defamation but released in less than a month largely because of international pressure.

The world may be watching Mu Sochua’s case, as well. The Cambodian parliamentarian is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and a U.S. citizen. But she says she is not using her status to try to avoid arrest. She says if going to prison will help illuminate Cambodia’s problems, then she is willing to do whatever it takes.

Western nations often raise concerns about democracy and human rights in Cambodia, but critics say they do not do enough to hold the Hun Sen government accountable. In June, foreign donors awarded Cambodia more than $1 billion in development aid on the same day the Supreme Court upheld the prime minister’s case against Mu Sochua.

Women Look To New Law for a Fair Shake

Cambodian women line up to vote at a polling station in a previous election, in Kampong Speu province. (Photo: AP)

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Wednesday, 05 May 2010

"The mother has the right to look after a four-year-old."

Bou Somaly, a 43-year-old mother of one, recently divorced her husband. In the process, she lost her son. Phnom Penh Municipal Court awarded custody of the boy, La Sany, to his father, in what Bou Somaly says was an arbitrary decision.

Bou Somaly, who has filed a complaint with the rights group Licadho seeking help in her case, says she was asked to bring her son to the court. She did, and when La Sany saw his father, he ran to him and hugged him.

“The judge asked him, ‘Do you like your father?’” Bou Somaly recalled in a phone interview recently.

When the boy nodded, the court gave him over to his dad.

It may be too late for Bou Somaly to regain custody of her son, but she says other women might be spared such separation under a new draft law for separations and other disputes.

The drafted Family Dispute Law clarifies divorce procedures in the courts. It allows property to be divvied out by judges, or seized before it is sold off.

It also clarifies how the courts should determine child custody.

“The mother has the right to look after a four-year-old,” Bou Somaly said.

According to the new law, the courts should award a child to the mother up to the age of six, about the time he or she enters school, or the age when a child “knows right from wrong.”

Bou Somaly said she hopes to have a chance to appeal her case under those rules.

The draft was passed by the National Assembly April 26 and has yet to be signed into law. It must also be promulgated through the courts. But already it has some women hoping they will get a fair shake in a system that is typically skewed toward husbands and fathers.

Lam Arun, a 31-year-old mother of two who has filed for divorce at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, to leave her allegedly abusive husband, says she wants to have a hearing under the new law. With it, she hopes to have custody of her children and a fair share of the couple’s property.

“The new law will help provide justice to my case,” she told VOA Khmer as she waited outside court Tuesday.

Meas Sokunthea, a divorce lawyer for the Cambodian Defenders Project, said the new law is better than the past law because it provides “full, clear meaning” for parties and judges.

The law may be just in time, as some evidence points to growing dissatisfaction with divorce proceedings.

In 2009, Licadho received 155 reports from women who felt they’d been treated unfairly in their divorces. In the first three months of this year alone, the group has received 55.

Am Sam Ath, a lead investigator for Licadho, said that under the new law, those numbers could decline.

“The parties in divorces will receive fairness from the new law,” he said. “Because the court has the right to decisions in suspending property sales and can punish someone who violates the court order.”

Thong Saron, a Ratanakkiri provincial judge who has had to make divorce decisions in the past, said this week the new law will “make it comfortable and clear to judges, in order to make decisions in divorce cases more fairly than before.”

The former law had made it difficult for him to make decisions, he said, because Cambodians traditionally keep their money together. Now, he said, the court can confiscate property before either party sells their goods and pockets the money.

ASEAN gets commission for children and women

Thursday, April 8, 2010
Sri Wahyuni
The Jakarta Post
Hanoi

ASEAN officials inaugurated Wednesday the Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC), to augment the human rights body established last year.

The ACWC has a mandate to, among others, develop policies, programs and innovative strategies vis-à-vis the rights of women and children in the region.

“As commissioners we have the task of improving the standard of implementation of the rights of children,” Indonesian ACWC commissioner Ahmad Taufan Damanik said after the inauguration, held a day prior to the bloc’s summit, which kicks off Thursday in Hanoi.

Under the terms of reference of the establishment of the commission, the ACWC comprises representatives from the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Each state is represented by two commissioners, one for women’s rights and the other for children’s rights, who serve three-year terms and may be consecutively reappointed for an additional term.

Child rights activist Damanik, based in North Sumatra, has been appointed the Indonesian commissioner for child rights, while activist Rita Serena Kalibonso, from the Mitra Perempuan women’s crisis center, has been named the country’s commissioner for women’s rights.

“In the next three years, we are mandated to establish a children’s and women’s rights monitoring system in Southeast Asia and will deal with sensitive issues relating to children and women,” Damanik said.

Among the issues are child trafficking, abuse and labor, which he said was experienced almost universally in the 10 ASEAN member states.

Some states also face the problem of child combatants.

Damanik said tackling child trafficking could begin by focusing in the Mekong Delta countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, and between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Indonesian human rights activist Yuyun Wahyuningrum, who works with ASEAN, lauded the inauguration of the ACWC and said the new body had an even bigger mandate than the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR).

“The ACWC has a protection mandate, which the AICHR doesn’t,” she said in Hanoi.

She added the ACWC had the mandate to support the participation of women and children in the dialogue and consultation processes in ASEAN as related to the promotion and protection of their rights.

“This opens up the opportunity for public participation in the processes,” Yuyun said.

Indonesia’s representative to the AICHR, Rafendi Djamin, was upbeat about the rights commission and the ACWC working together and cooperating closely to prevent an of overlap of responsibility or scope of work.

Djauhari Oratmangun, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s director general of ASEAN affairs, said the establishment of the new commission boded well for the region.

“Some five years ago it was difficult to imagine that ASEAN would have special bodies dealing with human rights issues,” he said.

“Now, a year since the ASEAN Charter took effect, we have inaugurated the AICHR and the ACWC.”

From California to Cambodia, Fighting for Women

“When I hit San Francisco I knew that was my city. I began to shine. I let my hair grow. I looked like a hippie.” Mu Sochua
(Photo: Justin Mott for The New York Times)

April 2, 2010
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times
MAK PRAING, Cambodia

IT was at Berkeley in the 1970s that Mu Sochua, a shy teenager fleeing a war in Cambodia, learned the thrill of speaking her mind.

The daughter of a well-to-do merchant in Phnom Penh, she had been sent to the West at the age of 18 to study and to be safe from the fighting that later brought the brutal Khmer Rouge regime to power.

“When I hit San Francisco I knew that was my city,” said Ms. Mu Sochua, who is now 55. “I began to shine. I let my hair grow. I looked like a hippie.” She learned English, she said, by listening to the Beatles.

She earned a master’s degree in social work from Berkeley and transformed herself enthusiastically from a demure traditional Cambodian woman to one who knew her rights and was not shy about demanding them.

That is her problem today as the most prominent female member of Parliament, a leader of the country’s struggling political opposition and a campaigner for women’s rights in a society where women are still expected to walk and speak with a becoming deference.

“I have to be careful not to push things too far,” she said in a recent interview on the campaign trail here in southern Cambodia. “I have to be very, very careful about what I bring from the West, to promote women’s rights within the context of a society that is led by men,” she said.

“In the Cambodian context, it’s women’s lib. It’s feminism. It’s challenging the culture, challenging the men.”

She has this in mind as she campaigns through the villages of Kandal Province, a woman with power but a woman nonetheless. “I walk into a cafe and I have to think twice, how to be polite to the men,” she said. “I have to ask if I can enter. This is their turf.”

Ms. Mu Sochua is a member of a new generation of female leaders who are working their way into the political systems of countries across Asia and elsewhere, from local councils to national assemblies and cabinet positions.

A former minister of women’s affairs, she did as much as anybody to put women’s issues on the agenda of a nation emerging in the 1990s from decades of war and mass killings.

During six years as minister, Ms. Mu Sochua campaigned against child abuse, marital rape, violence against women, human trafficking and the exploitation of female workers. She helped draft the country’s Prevention of Domestic Violence law.

In part because of her work, she said, “People are aware about gender. It’s a new Cambodian word: ‘gen-de.’ People are aware that women have rights.”

But she lost her public platform in 2004 when she broke with the government and joined the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, and she is finding it as difficult now to promote her ideas as to gain attention as a candidate.

LIKE dissidents and opposition figures in many countries, she has found herself with a new burden, battling for her own rights. As she has risen in prominence, her political stands have become more of a political liability than her gender.

Most recently, she has been caught in a bizarre tit-for-tat exchange of defamation suits with the country’s domineering prime minister, Hun Sen, in which, to nobody’s surprise, she was the loser.

It started last April here in Kampot Province when Mr. Hun Sen referred to her with the phrase “cheung klang,” or “strong legs,” an insulting term for a woman in Cambodia.

She sued him for defamation; he stripped her of her parliamentary immunity and sued her back. Her suit was dismissed in the politically docile courts. On Aug. 4 she was convicted of defaming the prime minister and fined about $4,000, which she has refused to pay.

“Now I live with the uncertainty about whether I’m going to go to jail,” she said. “I’m not going to pay the fine. Paying the fine is saying to all Cambodian women, ‘What are you worth? A man can call you anything he wants and there is nothing you can do.’ ”

Ms. Mu Sochua was still in California when the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia in 1975 and began mass killings that would take 1.7 million lives over the next four years.

“We were waiting, waiting, waiting to hear from our parents,” she said. “They told us they were on the last plane to Paris. They never made it.”

She headed for the Thai border, where refugees were fleeing by the tens of thousands, and it was there that she met her future husband, an American, when both were working in the refugee camps. They have lived together in Cambodia since 1989, where he works for the United Nations, and have three grown children living in the United States and Britain.

Ms. Mu Sochua makes frequent trips into the countryside around their villa, introducing herself to constituents who may never have seen her face. The next parliamentary election is still three years away, but she is already campaigning because she is almost entirely excluded from government-controlled newspapers and television.

She paused politely the other day at the stoop of a small open-fronted noodle shop in this riverside village, where men sat in the midday heat on red plastic chairs. She let her male assistants enter first.

She had succeeded in halting a sand-dredging project that was eroding riverbanks here, and she wanted the men to know that she had been working on their behalf. “I came here to inform you that you got a result from the government,” she told the men, showing them a legal document. “I want to inform you that you have a voice. If you see something wrong, you can stand up and speak about it.”

Asked afterward what it was like to have a woman fighting his battles, Mol Sa, 37, a fisherman, said, “She speaks up for us, so I don’t think she’s any different from a man. Maybe a different lady couldn’t do it, but she can do it because she is strong and not afraid.”

FEAR was a theme as Ms. Mu Sochua moved through the countryside here.

At another village where cracks were appearing in the sandy embankment, a widow named Pal Nas, 78, said the big dredging boats had scared her.

“I’m afraid that if I speak out they will come after me,” she said. “In the Khmer Rouge time they killed all the men. When night comes I don’t have a man to protect me. It’s more difficult if you are a woman alone.”

Mr. Hun Sen’s ruling party holds power through most of rural Cambodia, and Ms. Mu Sochua said party agents kept an eye on her as she campaigned. At one point a man on a motorbike took photographs of her and her companions with a mobile telephone, then drove away.

Later, as the sun began to set, a farmer greeted her warmly, calling out to his wife and climbing a tree to pick ripe guavas for her.

“I voted for you,” he said as he handed her the fruit. “But don’t tell anyone.”

Meet SRP MP Mu Sochua in San Jose, California, on 04 April 2010

Click on the announcement to zoom in

CAMBODIA: Rape Victims Need Better Protection from New Penal Code

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 9, 2010 (IPS) - Cambodia’s new penal code, which comes into force later this year, should be accompanied by stronger law enforcement measures if the country’s women and girls are to be better protected from rape, says the global rights lobby Amnesty International (AI).

"The introduction of the new penal code is an ideal opportunity to change the culture and improve the criminal justice system," revealed Brittis Edman, Cambodia researcher for AI. "The problem has always been law enforcement rather than the law itself."

"Rape has to be seen as a criminal issue," she added during a telephone interview from Phnom Penh.

The new law will replace the 1992 law introduced by the United Nations after the country returned to peace following over two decades of brutal conflict, including the Khmer Rouge genocide in the 1970s that was responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people and destruction of the South-east Asian country’s social structures.

Amnesty International’s call for the Cambodian government to address "extrajudicial settlements, weak prosecution and widespread corruption in cases of sexual violence" comes with the London-based body’s launch this week of a report about "rapes of women and girls appear to be increasing."

"From November 2008 to November 2009, police had recorded 468 cases of rape, attempted rape and sexual harassment, a 2.4 percent increase over the previous year," revealed the 60-page report launched Monday in the Cambodian capital. "Data of cases reported to both police and NGOs (non-governmental organisation) indicate that an increasing number of victims are children."

"In 2009, 78 percent of rape victims turning to (a) human rights (NGO) were children, compared to 67 percent in 2008," noted the report, ‘Breaking the Silence – Sexual Violence in Cambodia’. "It is not known if this increase accurately reflects the real situation, or the fact that rape of under-18s is more likely to be reported."

Vanna was among the 30 victims Amnesty researchers interviewed. In 2009, the 15-year-old was raped by a fellow villager. "Her parents reported the crime to the police, who arrested the man," added the report. "However, after court officials and police had negotiated an extrajudicial settlement whereby the perpetrator paid money to the family, he was released."

Her freedom meant that Vanna had to take refuge in a shelter for victims. "I don’t dare to go home. The perpetrator was released because he paid a bribe and that’s not right," she was quoted as having told AI.

Mom was another victim. Two men raped her five times in 2005, when she was 11 years old. "Her mother went to the district police, where the police chief asked her for a 10 U.S.-dollar bribe to pay for ‘the investigation and stationery’," reported AI. "When she did not have the money he requested, the police chief asked her to meet him at a hotel room, suggesting that sex in lieu of money would facilitate the investigation of the rape of the daughter."

"Police initially didn’t help us at all. They are very hard to trust, and you really need NGO assistance to get proper police assistance," the victim’s mother told AI. "We were afraid to turn to the police: we know they harass, intimidate and torture people and extort weak and poor families."

Rape in Cambodia exposes a darker side of the country where "society is still matriarchal, culturally speaking," remarked Chea Vannath, former president of the Centre for Social Development, a Phnom Penh-based think tank. "In majority of families, women are the bosses."

But sexual violence is driven by specific factors, she said during an IPS interview. "Drinking alcohol, pornography, which is widespread, drugs and even poverty are responsible for the violence against women."

Victims from poor families are often unable to get justice, she added, echoing a view maintained by AI, which stated, "Protection of the rights of rape victims in poverty is particularly weak. As the Cambodian justice system displays a bias against the poor, poor women and girls appear to have disproportionately limited access to justice."

AI’s push for stronger laws and enforcement to protect women in Cambodia is also echoed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a region-wide assessment to mark International Women’s Day, celebrated on Mar. 8. "While Asia and the Pacific can take pride in the region’s vibrant economic transformation in recent decades, this has not translated into progress on gender equality," the U.N. agency’s assessment said.

"In South Asia, almost half the countries have no laws at all on domestic violence. In the Pacific the picture is even worse, with more than 60 percent of the countries without domestic violence legislation," said Cherie Hart, UNDP’s regional communications advisor.

"In East Asia, the situation is better with more than three-quarters of the countries with drafted legislation on domestic abuse," she explained. "Some of the countries which have drafted legislation within the past few years include Indonesia, Laos, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Vietnam."

"However, the Asia and Pacific region as a whole falls far behind where it should be on basic issues like protecting women from violence or upholding entitlements to property," she added. "One barrier is from the laws themselves, which may be discriminatory. A second barrier is restricted access to the legal system."

Female curfews

Monday, 31 August 2009
Chak Sopheap
Letter to The Phnom Penh Post

Dear Editor,

Recently, the governor of Phnom Penh expressed his intention to ban girls under the age of 16 from going out alone after 9pm ["Girls' curfew proposed", August 28]. His intention is to promote good morals, but I see two problems.

Firstly, prohibiting girls from going out at night deprives them of their rights to education, mobility and free will. Some girls seen out on the streets at night may be on their way home from evening classes or work. This would suggest the governor's proposal is at odds with the gender equality the government claims to be trying to achieve. If the governor wants to stop underage girls from visiting inappropriate venues at night, there are alternative solutions.

Firstly, nightclub rules should be properly enforced. If clubs are supposed to be open only to people aged 18 or over, the authorities should monitor them closely to ensure those rules are adhered to.

Secondly, there should be a better social infrastructure for children. Where city development or beautification is concerned, governors should establish more public spaces and parks where children can have their own entertainment zones. There are very few such places at the moment, but the number of nightclubs and casinos continues to rise. The police should focus on protecting children from harm, not penalising them for having fun.

Finally, morality should be rooted in the education system, not handed down via government directives or prohibition. There should be programmes to teach children good morals and behaviour from an early age. Parents should also take responsibility. City Hall's role should be cooperating with the Ministry of Education to improve overall standards of behaviour among children.

Chak Sopheap
International University of Japan

As I Walk to Prison: Letter from Mu Sochua

2009-05-04
Letter to the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD)

Between 1975-1979, over 1.7 million Cambodian women, men and children were killed by the Khmer Rouge- among them my parents. The world community knew about it but watched from afar. Cambodia has come out of genocide and on the road to reconstruction but this stage of reconstruction is stuck and in many ways quickly falling back to point zero. 30 years after the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia has made some progress but too small. Over 2,000 innocent Cambodian women die every year of childbirth, at least one million Cambodian children go to bed hungry every night, hundreds of thousands Cambodian children and female youth are ruined in brothels, over 200,000 families have been brutally forced of their land and homes, and over 75% of Cambodia’s forests have now been destroyed. Innocent lives of my people could be saved if justice were served, if top leaders of my broken nation were less greedy, if development were meant for all.

I left Cambodia as an innocent young adolescent because the Vietnam war was approaching and hundreds and thousands of sick, wounded and hungry families were already telling us that Cambodia was lost. I returned home 18 years later with two young children, to a nation in ruins. A new beginning gave us hope when the UN came to help Cambodia organize its first democratic election in 1993. It cost the world community 2 billion dollars. I became a leader in the women’s movement, moving communities and walking the peace walk in city streets and dirt roads to pray for non-violence. I joined politics and became the first woman to lead the women’s ministry that was lead by a man, campaigned nationwide to put an end to human trafficking, authored the draft law on domestic violence, signed treaties with neighboring countries to protect our women and children from being prosecuted as illegal migrants but to receive proper treatment as victims of sex slavery.

I witness violence not as a victim but I listen to hundreds and thousands of women and children speak of the shame, the violation, the soul that is taken away when violence is afflicted on their bodies and on their minds. As a politician I always try to take action, to walk to the villages where life seems to have stopped for centuries, I challenge the top leadership of the government - I question international aid.

Today, I am faced with the real possibility of going to jail because as self-defense I dare to sue the prime minister of Cambodia, a man who has ruled this nation for 30 years. Having been assaulted to the point where I stood half exposed in front of men, by a general I caught using a state car to campaign for the party of the prime minister, I found myself assaulted again, this time verbally by the prime minister who compares me to a woman hustler who grabbed men for attention.

Within days my parliamentary immunity will be lifted so the court can "investigate" my case. This is normal procedure for politicians from the opposition party or human rights activists or the poor who cannot bribe court officials. I will be detained in the notorious prison of "Prey Sar" for as long as the courts wish to take.

Many of my colleagues in the opposition, including my party leader have faced this fate for speaking out.

Cambodia receives close to a billion dollars in 2009 from the international community, the USA contributing close to 60 million. Is the world still watching in silence while Cambodia is now ruled by one man? Is the world afraid to say that its aid is actually taking Cambodia backwards?

Let no Cambodian children go to bed hungry anymore. Let no Cambodian woman be sold anymore.

We must walk tall despite being people bent from the trauma of the Khmer Rouge, which is still a part of us. Let us not let our leaders and the world-community use this trauma to give us justice by the teaspoon.

Let there be real justice.

Mu Sochua
Member of Parliament
Sam Rainsy Party

Mu Sochua is an elected member of the Cambodian parliament and a tireless advocate for women’s rights and the victims of injustice. In 2005, Mu Sochua was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work against sex trafficking of women in Cambodia and neighboring Thailand. Vital Voices honored Mu Sochua with the 2005 Human Rights Global Leadership Award for her efforts to stem the tide of human trafficking.

Prison Conditions in Cambodia 2007: The Story of a Mother and Child

Click here to read the PDF report in English (right-click to save)
Click here to read the PDF report in Khmer

Report by Licadho

As of February 2008, there are 562 women living in 18 out of Cambodia's 26 prisons. Of these women, 4 were pregnant and 43 women brought their children to live with them in prison or had given birth to children while in prison, for a total of 50 children living with their mothers in prison.

Life in Cambodian prisons is a harsh reality for any individual. Limited access to food and clean water, overcrowding of prison cells, routine denial of quality medical services and violence towards prisoners from prison officials and other inmates is a part of everyday life. Life in prison becomes even more difficult when you are pregnant, or if you bring your children to live with you in prison.

Everyone wants development, but at what cost?

I wish to thank The Cambodia Daily for its full page story on the work of human rights defenders and the victims of land grabbing and forced evictions, in the article "Envoy Lambastes Government on International Human Rights Day" (Dec 11). Praise must be given to the UN human rights envoy Professor Yash Ghai for fulfilling his mission and for his tireless efforts to bring to light the grave violations committed by the Cambodian government in dealing with land issues and forced evictions—all in the name of development.

The failure of the government to meet with Professor Ghai shows its lack of responsibility as a signatory to UN conventions, in particular to the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

CEDAW provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men through equal access to, and equal opportunities in, political and public life—including the right to vote and to stand for election—as well as education, health and employment.

Among the principles covered in the CRC is the right to life, survival and development and the requirement to a child's best interests in all matters affecting them.

The government’s lack of policy and disregard for the Land Law, police brutality and corruption in the judiciary dealing with evictions are grave violations of our rights to be treated as human beings and destroy our children's hopes for a life free from fear and injustice.

Hundreds and thousands of our women, children and men continue to be victims of land grabbing and forced evictions because the city needs to be "beautified" or because the government is in need of land for development

I do not believe that our people are against development and progress, but the destruction of our children's hope for a better future and the damage to the well-being of their families is too high a price tag.

The governments win-win development policy benefits a few while victimizing and brutalizing too many.

Mu Sochua
Deputy Secretary-General,
Sam Rainsy Party