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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of all UN Treaty Bodies and their follow-up procedures. This does not include the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child which are available here: http://www.crin.org/resources/treaties/index.asp
Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purposes of clarity.
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- UN Human Rights Committee
- UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
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UN Committee against Torture
- follow-up - Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture
- UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
- UN Committee on Migrant Workers
- UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance
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UN Human Rights Committee
CCPR/C/KHM/CO/2
Last reported: 17/18 March 2015
Concluding Observations adopted: 27 April 2015
Concerns raised:
Juvenile justice: While taking note of the information provided by the delegation regarding the status of the draft juvenile justice law, the Committee is concerned about the absence of a juvenile justice system and the fact that children are often subject to the same procedures as adults. The Committee is also concerned about the failure to ensure that minors are detained separately from adults (arts. 10, 14 and 24). The State party should take measures to establish a comprehensive juvenile justice system in order to ensure that juveniles are treated in a manner commensurate with their age. It should also ensure the strict separation of juveniles and adults in places of detention, in compliance with international standards. (Paragraph 15)
Arbitrary arrest and detention: The Committee is concerned about reports of arbitrary arrest and detention of homeless people, beggars, people who use drugs, children in street situations and sex workers in “social affairs”, youth rehabilitation and drug rehabilitation centres. It is particularly concerned about allegations of torture, ill-treatment and other abuses committed by staff working at these institutions (arts. 7, 9 and 10). The State party should take all measures necessary to put an end to the arbitrary arrest and detention of homeless people, beggars, people who use drugs, children in street situations and sex workers. All instances of torture and ill-treatment should be investigated and, if substantiated, the perpetrators should be prosecuted and punished. (Paragraph 16)
Corporal Punishment: While recognizing that corporal punishment is prohibited in schools and the penal system, the Committee is concerned that its use remains legal in the home, where it traditionally continues to be accepted and practiced as a form of discipline by parents and guardians (arts. 7 and 24). The State party should take practical steps, including through legislative measures, where appropriate, to put an end to corporal punishment in all settings. It should encourage non-violent forms of discipline as alternatives to corporal punishment and should conduct public information campaigns to raise awareness about its harmful effects. (Paragraph 24)
Statelessness: The Committee is concerned about the situation of Khmer Krom and ethnic Vietnamese people who have been residing in Cambodia for generations and who have been left stateless or lack Cambodian identity documents. The Committee is also concerned about the insufficient safeguards to ensure that children born in Cambodia who would otherwise be stateless acquire Cambodian nationality and have access to identity documents (arts. 2, 24 and 26). The State party should take all measures necessary to ensure the full enjoyment of Covenant rights by all residents, including stateless persons. It should also facilitate access to identification documentation. In addition, the State party should guarantee the right of stateless children who were born in the territory of Cambodia to stateless parents to acquire a nationality. (Paragraph 27)
Concluding Observations adopted: 27 July 1999
Concerns raised:
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Detention of children: The Committee is concerned at reports that children are detained in juvenile detention facilities for considerable periods without charge, and without access to a lawyer or to court. It is particularly concerned that these children are subjected to beatings and to ill-treatment.
The State party should ensure strict observance of articles 7,9 and 10 and should take appropriate measures to ensure protection of children in accordance with article 24 of the Covenant. (Paragraph 15)
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Sexual exploitation and prostitution: The Committee is seriously concerned at the reports of extensive trafficking of men and women for labour, and of women and children for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced prostitution. It is particularly concerned that the laws which prohibit these abuses are not enforced.
The State party should take positive steps to eradicate these practices, to protect the victims, to prosecute those responsible and to enforce anti-corruption measures in respect of law enforcement officers. (Paragraph 16)
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Forced marriage: The Committee is concerned that prevalent attitudes concerning the subordinate role of women in the family and in society are a substantial obstacle to the equal enjoyment of rights by women, and impede their education and opportunities for employment and full participation in political life. The Committee is also concerned that parents decide upon marriage, that children are forced into marriage, that rape in marriage is not an offence and that the authorities do not provide support to women who complain of domestic violence. (Paragraph 17)
- Education: The State party, in conformity with its obligations under the Covenant, should ensure greater access to education by women and girls, equal employment opportunities for women, and the full and equal participation of women in political life. It should also take steps to ensure respect for laws prohibiting marriage without full and free consent, and introduce measures to enable women to seek effective protection of the law in case of domestic violence. (Paragraph 17)
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UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Last reported: 11-12 May 2009
Concluding Observations adopted: 20 May 2009
Concerns raised:
- Children with disabilities: The State party should adopt the draft national law on the rights of persons with disabilities, and the next periodic report should provide detailed information on persons with disabilities, including children and women, with regard to their enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. (paragraph 17)
- Violence against women and girls: Levels of violence against women and girls remain high, and the Committee is concerned by the existence of attitudes that blame the female victim. (paragraph 20)
- Youth unemployment: There is high unemployment and under-employment in the State party, particularly among the growing numbers of young people in need of job opportunities and appropriate skills. Vocational training is inadequate to meet the demands of a changing economy. The Committee recommends that the State party develops a strategic employment plan to promote youth employment. (paragraph 21)
- Child labour: The Committee is concerned that despite the State party's efforts, child labour continues to be a serious problem in the country. The law prohibiting child labour has not been enforced, and children are still vulnerable to the worst forms of child labour, including forced or bonded child labour and commercial sexual exploitation. The Committee urges the State party to strengthen its national legislation prohibiting child labour in accordance with international standards; increase the number of labour inspectors; and impose fines and criminal sanctions on persons making use of illegal child labour. The State party must also adopt appropriate measures to facilitate the recovery and access to educational opportunities for former child workers. (paragraph 25)
- Human trafficking: An estimated 400 to 800 Cambodian women and children per month are trafficked to foreign countries for sex. The Committee is particularly concerned about the low number of prosecutions and convictions of traffickers. The State party should intensify its efforts to combat trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour; by prosecuting and convicting offenders; supporting information campaigns to prevent trafficking; and providing training for law enforcement officials. The State party must also provide medical, psychological and legal support for victims. (paragraph 26)
- Education: Primary education is not compulsory, although the primary education net enrolment ratio has increased over the last few years and has expanded to cover most parts of the country. Primary education continues to be a problem for the various ethnic minorities in the north and east of the country. The Committee is concerned that indigenous communities may lose their culture and language as a result of a lack of education and information in their own languages. The Committee recommends that the State party extend the coverage of the Education Law to ensure the right to education to all Cambodian children whose first language is not Khmer. (paragraph 34)
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UN Committee against Torture
Last reported: 9 and 10 November 2010
Concerns raised:
- Street children: The Committee expresses serious concern at continuing reports that street children are held in Social Affairs Centres, against their will and without any legal basis and judicial warrant. (paragraph 20)
- Sexual violence: The Committee is concerned at reports from non-governmental sources about a growing number of rape reports, including against very young girls and gang rapes. Women and children who are victims of such violence have limited access to justice. The State party should take effective measures to prevent and combat sexual violence and abuse against women and children, including rape. (paragraph 21)
- Human trafficking: The Committee welcomes the recent adoption of anti-trafficking legislation as well as other legislative, administrative and police measures to combat trafficking. However, the Committee remains concerned by reports that a high number of women and children continue to be trafficked from, through and within the country for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour. The State party should intensify its efforts to prevent and combat trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, including by implementing the anti-trafficking legislation, providing protection for victims and ensuring their access to medical, social, rehabilitative and legal services, including counselling services, as appropriate. (paragraph 22)
- Children in detention: The Committee welcomes the efforts made by the State party to reform its juvenile justice system, however, the Committee expresses its concern at reports of a high number of children in detention, and that children are not always separated from adults in detention facilities. The State party should, as a matter of urgency, establish a separate juvenile justice system. The State party should enact the draft Law on Juvenile Justice and develop corresponding guidelines and directives for judges, prosecutors and judicial police on the concept of a child-friendly justice system. It should implement a comprehensive system of alternative measures to ensure that deprivation of liberty of juveniles is used only as a measure of last resort, for the shortest possible time and in appropriate conditions. Further, persons below 18 years of age should not be detained with adults. (paragraph 23)
- Child refugees: The Committee is concerned at the lack of information on domestic legislation guaranteeing the rights of unaccompanied children in need of international protection. The State party should formulate and adopt domestic legislation guaranteeing the rights of refugees and asylum-seeking persons, including unaccompanied children in need of international protection. (paragraph 24)
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UN Committee against Torture: Follow-up
2 March 2004
No mention of child's rights.
UN Committee against Torture: Follow-up
No report submitted. Reminder sent on 28 April 2006.
27 May 2003
No mention of child's rights.
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Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture
SPT Visits
Date of visit: 2-11 December 2009
Report status: confidential
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UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW/C/KHM/CO/4-5)
Last reported: 8 October 2013 Concluding Observations issued: 5 December 2013
Issues raised and recommendations given:
Stereotypes: While commending the State party for its efforts to revise its school curricula and textbooks with a view to eliminating gender stereotypes, the Committee remains concerned that the Chbab Srey, the traditional code of conduct for women, is deeply rooted in Cambodian culture and continues to define everyday life on the basis of stereotypical roles of women and men in the family and in society. The Committee reiterates its previous recommendation (CEDAW/C/KHM/CO/3 , para. 18) and recommends that the State party: (a) Include in Neary Rattanak IV an effective and comprehensive strategy aimed at modifying or eliminating patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes that discriminate against women, including those based on the Chbab Srey; (b) Conduct national public information and awareness-raising campaigns and stimulate broader public debate in order to address attitudes and stereotypes that discriminate against women, in collaboration with civil society, community leaders and the media; (c) Explore the use of information and communications technologies, including social media, in the dissemination of information on women’s rights and gender equality; (d) Establish an effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism aimed at evaluating progress made in eliminating existing gender stereotypes. (Paras. 18-19)
Trafficking: The Committee notes the evaluation of the effectiveness of anti-trafficking measures under the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation and the establishment of a special task force mandated to monitor and evaluate its enforcement and the implementation of the national action plan on human trafficking. The Committee is, however, concerned that the implementation of the legislation remains largely ineffective. The Committee is particularly concerned that trafficking in human beings continues to be exacerbated by the practices of deceptive agencies that recruit women and girls for purposes of sexual exploitation and domestic servitude in neighbouring countries, as well as the lack of data on migrant domestic workers who are victims of trafficking. The Committee is also concerned at the lack of information on any national referral mechanism focusing on the early detection of trafficking, and the identification of victims, as well as at the lack of information on the support provided to them. (Para. 24)
The Committee urges the State party: (a) To strengthen the implementation of the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation; (b) To increase the dissemination of information on labour migration and provide information on deceptive recruitment agencies involved in human trafficking; (c) To ensure that traffickers and other persons responsible for the sexual exploitation of women and girls are prosecuted and adequately punished; (d) To strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation in combatting human trafficking for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation; (e) To include in the next periodic report data on migrant domestic workers who are victims of trafficking, and information on the national referral mechanism, if any, and ensure that victims of trafficking are properly identified and adequately supported and protected from re-trafficking. (Para. 25)
Birth registration: The Committee is concerned that women of Vietnamese origin undergo considerable difficulties in the registration of births and the acquisition of Cambodian citizenship, which places them at risk of statelessness. The Committee calls upon the State party: (a) To intensify efforts to facilitate the birth registration of children born to Vietnamese mothers and their acquisition of citizenship; (b) To consider acceding to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. (Paras. 30-31)
Education: The Committee is concerned, at the quality of education in the State party and at the high attrition rate between the primary and secondary levels, especially in rural and remote areas, because of limited capacity at the secondary level. The Committee is, therefore, concerned that a large number of communes do not have public secondary schools owing to geographic and demographic factors that compel female pupils to terminate their schooling because they cannot migrate to urban areas in order to gain access to education at this level. It is also concerned that, even where girls are accommodated, the dropout rate among females, although decreasing, remains significant as they make the transition from primary to secondary school, as well as at the secondary and tertiary levels of education, which the State party attributes to poverty, late school entry and teenage pregnancies. (Para. 32)
The Committee recommends that the State party: (a) Take effective measures to increase access to education for girls, including by strengthening the school infrastructure and increasing the availability of places in secondary schools, in particular in the communes; (b) Develop measures aimed at ensuring the effective retention of women and girls in schools, especially when they are making the transition from primary to secondary school and at higher levels of education; (c) Intensify age-appropriate education in schools on sexual and reproductive rights, gender relations and responsible sexual behaviour, in order to combat teenage pregnancies; (d) Enhance the quality of education by training teachers and ensuring that they are adequately remunerated. (Para. 33)
Health: While noting the efforts made by the State party to reduce maternal and infant mortality, the Committee is concerned about the unavailability of modern forms of contraception and the prevalence of unsafe abortions, which contribute to maternal mortality. The Committee remains concerned that, notwithstanding the progress made in reducing HIV transmission, there are new cases of HIV through mother-to-child transmission in addition to new cases affecting vulnerable populations, such as women engaged in prostitution. The Committee is also concerned about discrimination against pregnant mothers living with HIV/AIDS and the pressure on them from medical practitioners to undergo abortion. (Para.36)
The Committee is further concerned at the limited access to sexual and reproductive health services, especially for women in rural areas. The Committee calls upon the State party:(a) To ensure that medically safe modern methods of abortion are available and accessible, in line with general recommendation No. 24 on women and health; (b) To provide free antiretroviral treatment for women and men living with HIV/AIDS, including women engaged in prostitution and pregnant women in order to prevent mother-to-child transmission; (c) To combat all forms of discrimination against pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS; (d) To intensify the provision of sexual and reproductive health information and services to women, including modern methods of contraception, especially to women living in rural areas. While noting the introduction of the ID Poor Card for access to health services by indigent persons, the Committee is concerned that poor women, migrant domestic workers, women with disabilities and older women face difficulties in having access to health services. (Paras. 37-38)
The Committee recommends that the State party: (a) Strengthen the implementation of programmes and policies aimed at providing affordable access to healthcare for women, especially poor women, women with disabilities and older women; (b) Pay special attention to the health needs of women with disabilities by ensuring their access to prenatal care and reproductive health services. (Para. 39)
Rural women: While noting some of the efforts made by the State party to improve the livelihood of women and men living in rural areas through, among others, its sanitation and rural electrification programmes, the Committee is concerned that women living in rural areas continue to have limited access to basic services, latrines, clean and safe drinking water, education, employment, health services, credit and loan facilities. The Committee also notes that the impacts of climate change and natural disasters disproportionately affect women and children, especially in rural areas. (Para. 40)
The Committee recommends that the State party: (a) Step up its efforts to facilitate access by rural women to basic services, latrines, safe drinking water, education, employment, health services, credit and loan facilities. In this regard, the State party should consider the inclusion of information and communications technology in its information dissemination strategies for economic empowerment programmes for women in rural areas; (b) Develop indicators that better reflect regional and socioeconomic variables as part of its efforts to improve health, education and employment programmes for rural women; (c) Further ensure that women are actively involved in decision-making on the policies and programmes for disaster prevention and management, especially those relating to climate change adaptation and mitigation. (Para. 41)
Marriage: The Committee regrets that the State party maintains a provision under article 9 of the Law on Marriage and Family that extends women’s marital status for 120 days after the death of a husband or after a judgement of the court granting an order for divorce, reportedly to assist in the establishment of the paternity of children. The Committee is concerned that this is a discriminatory provision, because it does not apply to men. The Committee is also concerned that couples who are married under customary law face difficulties in formalizing their marriages. The Committee urges the State party to repeal article 9 of the Law on Marriage and Family, which is discriminatory and unduly restricts the right of women to remarry, given that paternity can easily be established by other, less restrictive means in the field of medicine. The Committee also recommends that the State party take measures to facilitate the formalization of marriages contracted under customary law by ensuring that registration is affordable and not cumbersome. (Paras. 46-47)
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Last reported: 19 January 2006
Concluding Observations published: 25 January 2006
- Human trafficking: The Committee is concerned by the lack of enforcement of legislation, the impunity of traffickers and the absence of accurate data on trafficking. It is further concerned that women and girls who have been trafficked may be punished for violation of migration laws and are thus revictimised. There is a high prevalence of sexual exploitation of women and girls, which leaves them vulnerable to becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. The Committee urges the State party to intensify its efforts to combat the trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls, by addressing the root causes. Those who traffic and sexually exploit women and girls should be prosecuted and punished within the full extent of the law. The Committee urges the State party to implement rehabilitation and reintegration measures for girls and women who are victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation. (paragraphs 19-20)
- Education: The Committee is concerned by the large disparity in school enrolment rates for males and females and the high dropout rates of girls. The Committee urges the State party to place high priority on the reduction of the illiteracy rate of women, in particular those who are from rural areas, belong to ethnic minority groups or who are disabled. It also urges the State party to achieve universal primary education for girls in accordance with article 10 of the Convention, the strategic objectives and actions of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and Millennium Development Goals 2 and 3. It urges the State party to address effectively the obstacles that prevent girls from continuing their education, such as early and forced marriages. (paragraphs 25-26)
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UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Last reported: 18-19 February 2010
Concluding Observations adopted: 4 March 2010
- Education: The Committee welcomes the State party's efforts to implement its National Education Programme "Education for All". However, the Committee remains concerned by the discrepancies in access to education, especially in areas such as Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri provinces, which are mostly inhabited by indigenous peoples and minorities. The admission and enrolment rates are below the national level and the repetition and drop out rates are higher than the average national level. The Committee recommends that the State party implement bilingual education programmes in remote areas as a means of improving the learning environment for ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples. (paragraph 20)
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UN Committee on Migrant Workers
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UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
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