Public Opinion is Clear: Urgent Legislation Required to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation! Read the story

Members

Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) is a Cambodian NGO established in 2003, dedicated to building a community with robust social and legal justice in which all children are safe from child sexual abuse and exploitation. APLE’s mission is to strengthen national social and legal mechanisms for the protection of children at risk of, or affected by, child sexual abuse or exploitation through implementing such programs as criminal justice development, court support, community engagement, research and advocacy. APLE is also running a hotline to where the general public can report child sexual abuse.

Action Pour Les Enfants – APLE Cambodia

Contact: Executive Director, Seila Samleang
Phone: +85523 996 351
Address: 13b, street 588, Boengkok 2, Toul Kork, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Email: info@aplecambodia.org
Website: https://aplecambodia.org/

Facts

Cambodia is one of the most significant destinations in South East Asia for travelling child sex offenders due to the increase in the number of tourists, its increasing accessibility and the general level of poverty within the country.

Cambodia is a source, transit and destination country for children trafficked for sexual and labour exploitation

Resources

ECPAT International
Global Boys Initiative Case Study: Cambodia

Year: 2023

Download
ECPAT
Disrupting Harm: Conversations with Young Survivors about Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Year: 2022

Download
ECPAT International
Southeast Asia – Summary of Recommendations: Legal Interventions in Southeast Asia

Year: 2022

Download
ECPAT, INTERPOL and UNICEF
Disrupting Harm: Cambodia

Year: 2022

ECPAT International
Cambodia – Legal Checklist: Key Legal Interventions to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism

Year: 2021

Download
Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE)
Expert Paper – Travelling Child Sex Offenders in Cambodia

Year: 2016

Download

Stories

News from Cambodia

Indicators

Age of Consent

No

Age of sexual consent is 15 years. The national legislation does not provide for a close-in-age exemption.

DH Legal Analysis Cambodia, 2020

Extraterritoriality & Extradition

No

Active and passive extraterritoriality is provided for SEC-related crimes but those punished with 5 years of imprisonment or less require double criminality.

Extradition is governed by international conventions ratified by Cambodia and requires double criminality.

DH Legal Analysis Cambodia, 2020

CSAM Definition

No

The national legislation does not provide a definition which is partially in line with international standards. The definition provided does not include depictions of the sexual parts of a child’s body for primarily sexual purposes, nor material depicting a person appearing to be a minor and computer/digitally generated CSAM including realistic images of non-existing children.

DH Legal Analysis Cambodia, 2020

Background Check Required

No

There are no mandatory legal provisions for criminal background checks nor legislation prohibiting convicted sex offenders to hold positions involving or facilitating contact with children.

SECTT Legal Checklist Cambodia, 2020

National Commitments

Partial

Cambodia has ratified the CRC, the OPSC, the Trafficking Protocol and the ILO Convention No. 182.

Cambodia has not ratified the OPIC, the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics nor the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.

DH Legal Analysis Cambodia, 2020

Child Advocacy Centers

Not Yet Assessed

SEC Police Unit

Partial

There are two main police units including SEC in their mandate: the Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection (AHTJP) Department, dealing with SEC cases in general and the Anti Cybercrime Unit, for crimes related OCSE and other computer related crimes. No information has been found on whether these units are fully functional and whether both offences under national and extra-territorial jurisdiction are able to be addressed by them.

DH Desk-based Research Cambodia, 2020

Protection Standards Travel and Tourism

Partial

There are no child protection standards for the travel and tourism industry in place but some special laws could be applicable in this regard.

SECTT Legal Checklist ASEAN, 2020

Public SEC Case Data

No

There are national databases to gather information on sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and trafficking cases. However, these tend to focus primarily on trafficking, and are insufficiently linked to each other. Furthermore they are not accessible at the provincial and municipal levels. It is unclear whether this data is made available on a regular basis and whether it is clearly disaggregated.

ECO Cambodia, 2018