My name is Lina* and I live in prison with my daughter, Maly in a prison cell with twenty-five other women. I had no other choice but to bring my daughter with me into prison. Maly was very young at the time. My husband had died and I didn’t have any family living near that could take care of Maly.

In prison everyday I struggle to feed Maly, because even though I have an extra mouth to feed I am not given any extra food. I have to share what little food I receive with Maly. We only have access to dirty drinking water that is always black and makes me sick. Maly gets very sick from drinking this water also . If you don’t have any money to buy coal to boil your water, or money to buy bottled water, then you have to drink this dirty water.

The worse thing about having Maly live in prison is that she is treated just like a prisoner. She is always locked up and does not have any freedom. She is never allowed to play like a regular child.

Maly is too young to understand what is happening or to understand what living in prison means, however I am always very sad at the thought that my child has to grow up in prison in such bad conditions.

Lina is one of over 640 female prisoners living in prison and one of the 43 women who currently live with their children in prison - her daughter is one of those 50 children. Their story is told in the LICADHO report, entitled Prison Conditions in Cambodia 2007: The Story of a Mother and Child, which is being released to mark International Women's Day, March 8 2008.

The report aims to provide a first hand account of life in prison for women who bring their children with them to live in prison. Cambodian law permits children under the age of six to live in prison with their parent, if no other alternative care is available. The main issues of concern for these children are that they do not receive enough food (no extra food is allocated to mothers with children, they must share their food), there is no adequate access to education and that while they live with their mothers in prison the children are essentially treated like prisoners.

"International Women's Day is day that is meant to celebrate all women and promote the rights of women. In particular on this day we would like to remember those women living in prison and their children, who are also vulnerable members of society that should not be treated any less nor forgotten." Kek Galabru, LICADHO President.

To commemorate International Women’s Day and to draw attention to the situation of women in Cambodia’s prisons, LICADHO will distribute food and materials to female prisoners, children living with their mothers in prison and female prison guards at 20 prisons all over the country.

* All names have been changed, to protect their privacy.

For more information, please contact:
▪ Dr. Kek Galabru, President of LICADHO at 012 940 645

PDF: Download full statement in English - Download full statement in Khmer