Three mothers detained in Kampong Cham prison with their children, pictured on 29 May 2024.

Thousands of children and minors across Cambodia are locked up in overcrowded and under-resourced prisons this Children’s Day. The number of children and minors living in prison, rather than being at home with their families or studying at school, has continued to grow at a staggering rate over the last year. This is deplorable.

LICADHO calls on the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, courts, and law enforcement to stop the excessive detention of children and minors in prison, and to immediately and consistently use alternatives to detention before resorting to imprisonment. It is crucial that children are not placed in overcrowded cells, deprived of basic care, or cut off from their communities. This is not the first time LICADHO has issued this call, but the problem has only become more dire.

As of March this year, 2,214 minors were detained across the 19 prisons monitored by LICADHO, according to information for these prisons. In line with the Juvenile Justice Law, imprisoned people are counted by prison officials as minors if they are between the ages of 14 and 24, but were younger than 18 when they allegedly committed a crime.

Over the last year, this number has increased by a staggering 34%. The distressing statistics do not end there:

▪  6% of the total population in 19 prisons are minors; 97% of those minors are boys.

▪  Only 8% of minors in prison have been convicted. 47% have not been tried, while 45% are awaiting a final verdict.

▪  These minors are held in prisons that average 291% of their capacity. Kandal prison’s population is at 605% of its capacity.

Additionally, roughly 350 convicted boys from across the country are detained in Cambodia’s Youth Rehabilitation Centre - which opened in 2021 and holds minors in prison-like conditions - making the increase of children and young people in other prisons even more stark. Officials are expected to soon begin transferring girls to the detention centre from other prisons, cutting them off from vital family visits and other means of support.

However, a majority of boys and girls are held in Cambodian prisons where they can be made to share cells with adults, and face abhorrent conditions – including insufficient access to nutritious food, space to sleep, educational opportunities, family contact, healthcare, menstrual and hygiene products, or even water for drinking and bathing amid Cambodia’s recent record-breaking heat wave.

Occasionally, these minors may be placed in cells where they face violence by others. One minor explained to LICADHO that they endured violence at the hands of abusive people in their prison cell.

“The worst moment was when they stabbed me in the head,” they said, adding that the assailants in the cell used a sharpened metal object. “The [prison official] used to see it, but the prison official did not dare [say anything] because they gave him a little money and he kept his mouth shut.”

An increasing number of mothers with newborn and young children are similarly detained in Cambodian prisons. Cambodian law permits young children aged three years and below to live with their mothers in prison. As of April 2024, 92 young children, including 50 girls and 42 boys, were living with their mothers in prison. These young children lack access to basic care during their crucial early years – such as sufficient nutrition, items like bottles and diapers, or space to play and sleep. A further 43 women in prison were pregnant.

Pregnant women or women in prison with their children are often subject to poor conditions, with little care for the child or mother’s wellbeing. This was the case for a woman who was sent to prison on drug-related charges while pregnant.

“When I was giving birth, I wore a prisoner’s uniform. … As soon as it was night time, they chained our feet until the morning,” the mother said, adding that she received minimal support to care for her baby after she returned to prison.

“He cried … when we didn’t have anything to eat, there was not much breastmilk,” she said.

Many mothers, pregnant people, and minors accused of crimes do not have access to a lawyer prior to trial, and are left without the opportunity to apply for bail. This means that they are forced to endure protracted periods of pre-trial detention while they await the courts.

Alternatives to imprisonment are enshrined in Cambodian law, but rarely used. The use of pre-trial detention strictly as a measure of last resort; bail; diversion; community service; suspended sentences; and conditional release are all existing options in the Cambodian legal system. The government should immediately begin using them to drastically reduce the imprisonment of children and minors who are accused of non-violent crimes.

“I think that going to prison, there is no good life, only suffering, being abused every day, every month,” said the minor who experienced violence in prison.

Despite repeated calls to stop its human rights-abusing drug crackdown, the Cambodian government continues to arrest large numbers of adults and children as part of its war on drugs. According to reports received by LICADHO, groups of children are at times arrested simply for being nearby or associated with someone who is accused of committing a crime.

The senseless approach of defaulting to detention has led to the mass imprisonment of non-convicted minors and children. It is depriving children of their rights and well-being. LICADHO calls on authorities to immediately address this ongoing crisis by:

▪  Bailing all eligible minors, pregnant people, and mothers with young children and utilising other alternatives to detention in the Juvenile Justice Law such as diversion, including for people detained for eligible non-violent drug offences. Authorities should consistently utilise these measures in future cases, and limit pre-trial detention to a measure of last resort as is required by law.

▪  Guarantee that every accused minor, pregnant person, and mother with a young child has a lawyer and is informed of their right to apply for bail.

▪  Improve prison conditions to ensure that all detained people, including children and minors, have access to adequate nutrition, healthcare, family visits, and age-appropriate development opportunities, particularly by reducing the total prison population – and ensure their access to financial and other support upon being released from prison.

For more information, please contact:
▪ Am Sam Ath, Operations Director of LICADHO, on Signal at (+855) 10 327 770 (Khmer)
▪ Naly Pilorge, Outreach Director of LICADHO, on Signal at (+855) 12 214 454 (English)

PDF: Download full statement in English - Download full statement in Khmer
MP3: Listen to audio version in Khmer