Cambodia

Proposed law allows forced detention and detox of Australian drug addicts and alcoholics

Proposed state laws in Victoria, Australia will allow authorities to forcibly detain users of drugs and alcohol for a period of two weeks while they take part in a detox program. However human rights groups say that the new legislation could be used to keep binge drinkers and undesirable characters off the street.

Cambodian needle exchange loses it's license

There has been a sharp increase of drug users sharing needles in Phnom Penh after one of only two NGO’s that was legally allowed to distribute clean needles in the capital lost its Needle and Syringe Program (NSP) license.

UN criticised over new Cambodian drug law

“The police asked if I stole anything. I said, ‘No, I’m just a drug user.’ They said ‘You used drugs, where did you get the money?’... They slapped me with their hands and kicked me in the stomach and my shin with their boots. My skin was bleeding and the skin was torn off. They kicked me in the stomach. They beat me to make me confess that I stole something from the market. Two policemen did this in the police station, in the interrogation room... I did not confess but the police still wrote down [a confession]...

Cambodian drug rehab centres: Abusive, Illegal, Ineffective

THEY have been beaten, whipped, shocked with electric batons and even raped. Food is scarce and forced labour common. Cambodians who have spent time in the country's drug detention centres describe these outrageous abuses and horrible conditions, and more.

UNICEF faces broad scrutiny

LOCAL rights group says it has proof that UNICEF resources have been used to transport illegally detained children to a controversial drug rehabilitation centre accused of human rights abuses. The news has sparked renewed demands for the UN agency to review its funding, and a representative of the European Union is calling for an investigation into whether EU-funded assets were used in carrying out possible “human rights violations”.

Human Rights Watch report highlights the torture of people who use drugs in Cambodia

Tuol Sambo

At TalkingDrugs.org we have already posted a few stories describing the situation of heroin addicts in Cambodia.

We have just get another worrying information from this country:

In June this year, Cambodian authorities using force have resettled 20 HIV-affected families from Borei Keila (an area in Phnom Penh, biggest city and capital of Cambodia) to the Tuol Sambo- place located 25 kilometres from the Phnom Penh. Families are accomodated in metal sheds, without running water and basic sanitary facilities. They are baking hot in the daytime.

Български

Pean's story

Pean spent her childhood in the midst of Vietnam’s war, and her adolescence as a witness to its aftermath. She came to Phnom Penh, Cambodia from Vietnam at the age of 18. She and her mother were in search of work and a better life. Pean was married that same year.

May's story

May was born in Vinh Ko Province in Vietnam. She left home at the age of 14 to find work and help her parents support their family. Two years later she came to Phnom Penh with a group of her friends in hopes of starting a new life.

Български

Srey Mao's story: The life of a mother in Phnom Penh

Srey Mao has been living in Phnom Penh since the age of 19 when she came from her mother’s house in the Cambodian Province of Svay Reang. Her father left the family when she was just four years old, forcing her mother to support them by herself. One year after coming to Phnom Penh, Srey Mao got married. Two years later she gave birth to a baby girl. Two years after that she began using heroin.

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