CRINMAIL 1199
In this issue:
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Cambodia: Rape and killing at illegal detention camp funded by the UN
[28 October 2010] - 'Undesirables' are swept from the streets before being detained without trial, say human rights groups.
UN funding is being used to run a brutal internment camp for the destitute in Cambodia where detainees are held for months without trial, raped and beaten, sometimes to death, former inmates have told the Guardian.
The Prey Speu facility, 12 miles from Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, is officially described as a "social affairs centre" offering education and healthcare to vulnerable people.
But human rights groups and former inmates say the centre is an illegal, clandestine prison, where people deemed "undesirable" by the government – usually drug users, sex workers and the homeless – are held for months without charge.
Men, women and children are housed together in a single building and are regularly beaten with planks, whipped with wires or threatened with weapons, according to witnesses.
It is alleged that guards have beaten three detainees to death and gang-rapes by the same body of men are reportedly common.
The UN's own Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has described the conditions at Prey Speu as "appalling" with people "illegally confined and subject to a variety of abuses of power by the staff that included sub-humane conditions of detention, extortion, beating, rape, sometimes resulting in death and suicide".
But the department that runs Prey Speu still gets money directly from the UN's children's fund, UNICEF, and the centre is also supported by several international NGOs.
Sok Chandara (not his real name) was picked up off the streets of the capital and taken to Prey Speu, "they said because it looked bad for the city to have people sleeping on the streets". While police told him he was under arrest, he was never charged with an offence nor brought to court.
He was held with more than 100 men, women and children in a bare room and allowed out for just an hour a day. Some inmates were violent and abusive while others were seriously ill or injured.
Detainees were forced to go to the toilet in a bucket and medical care was irregular. Drinking water came from a fetid pond in which untreated sewage was emptied. Inmates were expected to bathe and wash their clothes in the same pond.
"It was like a hell. Many people were sick, people had diarrhoea, stomach aches because they were drinking dirty water, and there were no doctors," Sok said.
Prey Speu has a daily food budget of 3,000 riels (47p) for each detainee. Generally, they are fed a watery rice gruel in a plastic bag twice a day.
Violence was a daily occurrence, Sok said. A guard beat him with a plank when he intervened to stop the guard hitting another man. "Sometimes, the guards just open the doors and come in and just beat people up, for no reason. They know no one can complain about the way they are being treated."
According to the Cambodian human rights advocacy group LICADHO, three Prey Speu detainees have been beaten to death in front of other inmates.
Another five detainees have killed themselves, including two women who had been separated from their children.
Sok escaped by jumping over a wall and fleeing through rice paddies. He is still homeless, and fears being re-arrested and sent back. "Only the people who are locked up there know how bad it is, how scary it is. It doesn't help people."
The usual way out of Prey Speu is for detainees or their families to bribe the guards with sums from $50 to $200 (£32 to £125).
Visiting Prey Speu, the Guardian saw about 100 detainees being allowed out of the main building. There was no separation of men and women and most of the detainees were barefoot. At least 20 were children, some as young as four.
Guards at three-metre gates said the facility was a voluntary welfare centre and detainees were free to leave whenever they wanted. Asked why the gates were padlocked, guards said it was to keep people out.
Reports by Human Rights Watch document numerous rapes by guards and police there.
One sex worker told HRW she was raped by five police officers on her first night in detention, and by six officers the next evening. When she resisted, she was beaten.
Elaine Pearson, HRW's Asia division deputy director, said the Cambodian government and donors had failed to act to close Prey Speu despite overwhelming evidence of abuse. "For years, there have been credible reports of rape, beatings and even deaths in custody by guards at Prey Speu, but nothing has been done to hold these abusers to account."
She said international funding for the ministry of social affairs must be withdrawn.
The OHCHR still funds Cambodia's transcultural psychosocial organisation to conduct psychological assessments in the centre. Mental health workers find many inmates are severely depressed and some are suffering psychosis, the organisation's executive director, Dr Chhim Sotheara, said.
In July, UNICEF called a meeting of concerned parties where international donors outlined the support they were providing to Prey Speu.
Richard Bridle, UNICEF's country director for Cambodia, declined an interview with the Guardian.
But in a statement UNICEF said that it "technically and financially supports the ministry of social affairs, veterans and youth rehabilitation (MoSAVY) and related institutions to regulate, oversee and monitor child welfare and ensure provision of social and child protection".
Last year, UNICEF gave £390,000 to the ministry of social affairs. When similar criticisms of the Choam Chao youth rehabilitation centre emerged this year, UNICEF withdrew £17,750 in funding and the centre immediately closed.
But UNICEF says no direct assistance is given to Prey Speu.
The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, spent two days in Cambodia this week. During a brief press conference in Bangkok in advance of the visit, the Guardian submitted a question to Ban about the UN's role in supporting the centres, but the request was rejected.
Cambodia's ministry of social affairs has previously denied all allegations of abuse, saying that centres such as Prey Speu offer rehabilitation and vocational training. It defends its policy of "street sweeps" – removing beggars, the homeless and sex workers from the streets of the capital – saying they "provoke public disorder and affect [the] dignity and morality of Cambodian society".
Further information
[Source: The Guardian]
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=23438
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Campaign: Inhuman sentencing in your country
In October, CRIN launched a campaign to prohibit and eliminate the inhuman sentencing of children - defined to include sentences of death, life imprisonment and corporal punishment.
Today, we are publishing the first set of detailed country reports on States which still authorise inhuman sentencing of children. These reports include the text of relevant recommendations to prohibit and eliminate inhuman sentencing made by the Human Rights Committee, Committee against Torture, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other Treaty Bodies.
CRIN is currently inviting governments and civil society organisations to comment and/or verify the content of the country reports. They will then be posted on this page and regularly updated with any news of progress.
Download the following country reports:
Contact us on [email protected] if you would like to comment on country reports
Inhuman sentencing in the news
Somalia: The United Nations envoy for Somalia has strongly condemned the summary execution by firing squad of two girls accused of spying in the central town of Beledweyne by the Islamic militant group known as al-Shabaab.
In a statement, Augustine Mahiga, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative, said: "The public summary execution of these two young women, with no recourse for legal defense protection, is a horrific act which demonstrates the extremists' complete disregard for human life, particularly of the vulnerable." Full story.
According to the Associated Press, the girls were aged 18 and 15.
Saudi Arabia: The Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), the Asian Human Rights Commission and other partners have issued an appeal to the king of Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of domestic worker Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan national. Rizana was convicted of killing a child of the family she was working for when she was 17. Read the Open Letter and full details of her case.
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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS
Rehabilitating justice
Detention: UNICEF has published a new Toolkit on Diversion and Alternatives to Detention. The toolkit provides support for ensuring compliance with key provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child relating to children in conflict with the law, specifically: reducing children's contact with judicial proceedings (through diversion - CRC Art. 40.3(b)) and ensuring that deprivation of liberty of children in conflict with the law is actually used as a last resort, decreasing the number of children deprived of liberty (through alternatives to detention - CRC Art. 37(b) & 40.4). Download the toolkit.
Uganda: A new report by the African Prisons Project reviews Ugandan remand homes and the national rehabilitation centre. The report provides an overview of the juvenile justice system, raises key child protection issues and describes the conditions of detention for young people in terms of nutrition, facilities, discipline, education, healthcare and community reintegration. It makes 34 recommendations on how to improve practice, particularly calling for an independent auditor to make routine reviews of the facilities. In addition, the report highlights some examples of good practice. Download the report.
For more information about the report, contact the author, Marianne Moore: [email protected]
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Prejudice on parade
Uganda: A judge has ordered the Rolling Stone newspaper to cease publishing the names and pictures of people it says are gay, reports the BBC this week. The Ugandan paper's editor, Giles Muhame, told the AFP news agency that he rejected the ban. In another example of couching discrimination in the language of child protection, he claimed to be fighting against those who seek to "recruit children to homosexuality". Earlier this year a proposal to reinstate the death penalty in the country for homosexuality was dropped following international criticism. Full story.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the US military's policy of banning homosexuals from serving openly in the military, 'Don't ask, don't tell', will remain in effect for the foreseeable future. The news comes after the Obama administration secured a hold on a judge's order striking down the 1993 law as unconstitutional.
A commentary in The Guardian this week condemned the policy as indicative of homophobic attitudes across the country which have led to an 'epidemic of gay teen suicide'. It highlights a survey by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network which reveals that 85 per cent of LGBT children experience bullying at US schools.
The writer quotes officials such as Oklahoma state representative Sally Kern who said that homosexuality is a deadly disease "akin to cancer... and more dangerous to the US than terrorism", countering that it is in fact "homophobic attitudes and laws that make being identified as LGBT deadly". Read the commentary.
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Media distortions
Trafficking: South-African based organisation the Media Monitoring Project has launched a new website to dispel myths about human trafficking and improve the quality of media reporting on trafficking and child protection. The project, which involves children, takes a critical look at the media's role in coverage of these issues during the World Cup and beyond. Visit the website.
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Crop of complaints
Uzbekistan: The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights - together with partners - has brought a complaint against European Union companies for trading in cotton picked by forced child labour in Uzbekistan, according to Eurasia.net. The complaint was filed with Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) which is tasked with promoting economic development. The OECD has developed standards for corporate conduct and provides the possibility of bringing human rights complaints. Full story.
CRC complaints mechanism: An online seminar, which will take place on 8 November from 10.00 to 12.00 in Tokyo, will present the draft Optional Protocol to the CRC to NGO staff, lawyers, students, journalists and government officials in Japan.
The seminar, hosted by the World Bank and organised by Save the Children Japan, will also be accessible live on a streaming service on the internet; this means that national NGOs and others interested in the process can watch the seminar and listen to the Q&A session.
The seminar will discuss:
- Where we are now in the OP process
- Next steps (upcoming negotiations)
- Short explanation on collective communications
- Key provisions of the Chair's draft and responses to them
- Q&A session
Those watching the seminar online will not be able to ask questions directly, but can send questions by email to Anita Goh at [email protected] to be answered after the event.
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Vacancies
ChildHope: Trustees Vacancies
ChildHope is seeking to appoint up to three new trustees with expertise in range of areas including international non-governmental organisations, gender justice, child protection, monitoring, evalutation and learning, charity finance, marketing, PR and media.
For more information, visit: http://www.childhope.org.uk/article.asp?id=655
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Jargon of the week
**Cross-fertilisation**
Have you ever felt confused about why farming terms sprout up in NGO papers?
Cross-fertilisation is generally a method used to improve crops by breeding and selection.
However, the word has been adopted by NGOs as a vague way to describe the successful cooperation between two different groups.
Instead of encouraging cross-fertilisation, try to encourage cooperation or partnership and leave cross-fertilisation in the farmyard.
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