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]... At the police station they asked us to put my thumb print on the report... I just did as I was told to do”.

The testimony above collected by Human Rights Watch researchers shows the suffering of just one of hundreds of victims put into drug detention centres in Cambodia. In 93 pages, the report documents how detainees including children are beaten, raped, forced to donate blood and subjected to painful physical punishments. It is also reported that a large number of detainees told of receiving rotten or insect-ridden food and symptoms of diseases consistent with nutritional deficiencies.

In the last decade, the country has experienced an increase in methamphetamine use, while drugs such as heroin and cannabis were widely used in the 90’s. Nevertheless, cannabis, solvents and heroin are also prevalent. Many of drug users are persecuted by police. In 2008, the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) reported that there were 2382 people detained in government drug detention centres, 40 percent increase from the number of people detained in 2007. Just 1 percent of admissions were voluntary, with 61 percent via the family and 38 percent “judicial”. The latter is a misnomer. The detainees are not detained on the basis of a valid court order or with any judicial oversight, but arrested by the police without the request or payment of parents or relatives. A large number of detainees are children: 563 were aged 18 or below, 104 were less than 15 years of age and 116 were classified as “street children”.

Many detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch asserted they were subjected to sadistic violence such as being shocked with electric batons and whipped with twisted electric wire. Other sorts of treatment included arduous physical exercises and labour. Sweating while exercising or labouring is the most common solution to cure drug dependence. Detainees are told that they must work up a sweat to eliminate drugs from the body, but there is no scientific evidence that supports the treatment. In many instances, forced labour appears motivated only by benefits to the centre staff as opposed to the detainees themselves. After a number of months in the centres, individuals are declared cured because drugs are no longer present in the body.

The overwhelming majority of those interviewed experience cruel and inhuman treatment, many of them were also raped by centre staff. Others reported they were coerced into donating their blood to avoid being beaten or to secure their release from the centres. Detainees are not just abused by the staff, but also by other detainees who have been trusted by centre staff to control other detainees and enforce the rules of the centre.

According to Human Rights Watch the current system of compulsory drug detention centres is not decreasing the number of Cambodians who use drugs. NGO workers and health professionals criticised the centres and asserted that they are not working. The latter assertion is backed by ex detainees who said that rather than cure them their detention undermined their skills, resources and human relationships. As one of the ex detainees put it: “After I left [the centre] everything had finished. I lost my job, my girlfriend left me, [and] then I started using drugs again. I wasn’t using drugs when they arrested me”.

The Cambodian government is in the process of finalising a new law on drug control, with technical support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Nevertheless, according to HRW the draft law does not solve the problem above described and does not guarantee the end of abuses. In particular, HRW criticises the draft law because it purports to offer immunity from prosecution to “officers who implement drug treatment and rehabilitation measures in accordance with the right to drug treatment”, which goes against international law. “The draft law on drug control would protect abusers and violate Cambodia’s human rights obligations”, said Joe Amon, Health and Human Rights Director at HRW and added: "The Cambodian government needs to investigate these centres and hold those responsible for these abuses accountable. Instead of remaining silent, the United Nations should review its programs and support for these centres, and work with the government to shut them down”.