Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Cambodia (Ratification: 1969)

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Trafficking in persons. The Committee notes the adoption of the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation (2008), which repeals the Law on Suppression of Kidnapping, Trafficking and Exploitation of Human Persons (1996) and provides for a broad definition of “exploitation” to cover sexual exploitation, production and distribution of pornography, slavery or practices similar to slavery, debt bondage, forced labour, and other similar forms of exploitation. The Committee notes, in particular, that under section 12 of the 2008 Law, the act of inducing, hiring or employing a person to engage in any form of exploitation with the use of deception, abuse of power, confinement, force, threat or any coercive means shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of not less than seven years and up to 15 years. The Committee requests the Government to provide, in its next report, information on the application in practice of the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation (2008), as regards both protection of victims and punishment of perpetrators, supplying sample copies of the relevant court decisions and indicating the penalties imposed. More generally, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on measures taken or contemplated to combat trafficking in persons for purposes of sexual and labour exploitation.

Article 2(2)(a). Use of services exacted under compulsory military service laws. The Committee notes that according to a Conscription Law of 2006, compulsory conscription has been reintroduced in Cambodia, requiring all male citizens between 18 and 30 years of age to register for military service. The Committee requests the Government to supply, with its next report, a copy of the Conscription Law (2006), indicating what guarantees are provided to ensure that services exacted under compulsory military service provisions of the above Law are used for purely military ends.

Article 2(2)(c). Work imposed as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law. The Committee has become aware that the Government is currently working on the elaboration of a new draft Law on Prisons. The Committee recalls, referring also to paragraphs 54–61 and 103–120 of its 2007 General Survey on the eradication of forced labour that, to be compatible with the Convention, the work of convicted persons for private entities should be performed voluntarily and in conditions approximating a free employment relationship, which necessarily requires the free, formal and informed consent of convicts, as well as further guarantees and safeguards covering the essential elements of a free labour relationship, such as wages and social security. The Committee therefore hopes that the new draft Law on Prisons will ensure full compliance with the Convention and that the Government will provide, with its next report, updated information on the adoption of the above draft Law.