Broken Silence: Rape by Relatives and Barriers to Justice in Cambodia
Released in December 2020
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Women and children who are raped by a family member are too often being denied both the safety that they need and the justice they are entitled to. This December, to mark the global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign which runs from 25 November to 10 December, LICADHO is releasing “Broken Silence: Rape by Relatives and Barriers to Justice in Cambodia”.
Of all the rape or attempted rape cases investigated by LICADHO from January 2017 to December 2019, nearly one in three (137) involved a suspect who was related to the person who reported the abuse. Almost half reported experiencing sexual violence by a blood relative, such as their father, uncle or grandfather (46%). Others reported sexual violence inflicted by step-relatives and in-laws (54%).
From June to August 2020, LICADHO sought to confirm the status or outcome of each of the 137 cases, receiving information about 135 cases. Just over half of these cases resulted in a conviction where the perpetrator served a prison sentence that fully applied the relevant law (53%). In just under one in five cases (19%), perpetrators received light convictions, short sentences and/or were convicted in absentia and never arrested.
“The harms of family rape are well known, but there is still not enough being done to make sure that perpetrators are held accountable”, said LICADHO deputy director of monitoring Am Sam Ath. “It ignores the rights of women and girls, and sends the message that rape is something to be tolerated.”
The cases investigated by LICADHO do not reflect the wider prevalence of rape across the country. Many cases are never reported at all, due in part to fear of social stigma, cultural norms and a lack of faith in the justice system. The number of documented cases is also limited by LICADHO’s resources. It is likely that the risk of rape with families has increased in the last year, as schools have closed and unemployment has increased with the spread of COVID-19, meaning more people have spent more time in homes and near perpetrators.
Despite suspects threatening to kill the person they abused if they talked in half of the cases, legal protections both during and following legal proceedings are inadequate and rarely used. Rape within families also placed many women and girls in these cases in an impossible situation: some could not afford to see perpetrators imprisoned, as they relied on them to contribute to household income or care for other relatives.
Their failure to provide adequate protections and services to people who report rape means many people are unable to pursue justice
Naly Pilorge, LICADHO Director
“The Cambodian government is not doing enough to help people overcome the challenges of reporting rape by a relative”, said LICADHO director Naly Pilorge. “Their failure to provide adequate protections and services to people who report rape means many people are unable to pursue justice.”
These barriers to justice occur alongside the broader context of the long-running failure of Cambodia’s justice system to adequately address all forms of rape, stemming from endemic corruption, discriminatory attitudes towards women and frequent misapplication of the law in convictions. As a result, many women and girls withdrew their complaints and had little option but to leave their homes to escape the violence. Authorities often used the withdrawal of a complaint as a reason to improperly drop or stall criminal proceedings, even though criminal proceedings should have continued.
The prevention and eradication of rape in Cambodia are possible, but action is urgently needed. Dismantling harmful gender norms, ending victim-blaming culture, ensuring the full and consistent application of the law and strengthening protections, access to services and financial support for people who report rape are essential steps towards ensuring that everyone can live a life free from sexual violence.
Full recommendations appear in “Broken Silence”, but the Cambodian government must immediately:
▪ Strengthen protections for people who have been raped and their families during and following legal proceedings
▪ Ensure the proper and consistent implementation of the law when prosecuting rape cases
▪ Create an enabling environment for people to report rape and remove pressures for them to withdraw complaints
▪ Systematically document and periodically release comprehensive data about the number of rape cases that are reported as well as their outcomes, disaggregated by gender, age, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, location, relationship between the parties, and other relevant information.
For more information, contact:
▪ Ms Naly Pilorge, director of LICADHO, on Signal at +85512214454 (English)
▪ Mr Am Sam Ath, deputy director of monitoring at LICADHO, on Signal at +85510327770 (Khmer)
