Cambodian women, particularly those on the margins of society, face violence everyday. Socio-culturally constructed prejudices are amplified by the stress of deepening poverty. These prejudices and the structural violence associated with poverty are often further reinforced through discriminatory policies dictated by international aid donors, pushing their own conservative agendas. For example, the USAID anti-prostitution clause only serves to further stigmatise women and justify violence against those women who need significant protection in Cambodian society, sex workers.

Two broad issues marginalise Cambodian women and perpetuate violence: physical abuse and structural violence. Physical abuse is an issue that many of the grassroots women WAC works with – sex workers, women factory workers, farmers – face on a daily basis. Discriminatory international policies that dictate women cannot exercise their right to use their own bodies to make a living undermine women’s human rights and reinforce structural violence against them.

Women are increasingly vulnerable to a perpetual cycle of violence and/or the threat of violence. Anecdotal evidence suggests rape and gang rape is on the rise, and males involved in this crime are still boasting about this knowing they will not be prosecuted. Further, HIV infection among women is on the increase, which signifies women’s powerlessness in protecting themselves and having any power to do so.

Economic and social discrimination against women and the poor in Cambodia continues. The ever widening and visually perceptible gap between the rich and the poor is a major contributor towards the intensification of violence against women. When livelihoods are lost and there are no alternatives for them, males sometimes revert to claiming power in a household through the only thing they have left – their physical strength – used in the household against those who are less powerful than themselves, namely women and children.

WAC research shows that the ‘fruits’ of neo-liberalism for the poor have led to the loss of livelihoods through the ending of access and control to natural common property resources. Where this has occurred, there is an increase in powerlessness and this feeds a cycle of exploitation and violence against women. Media monitoring has shown both an increase in violence and a broadening of the stage on which this has been played out – in schools, the streets, in workplaces, villages, homes, factories and brothels. It is becoming increasingly apparent that women are not safe, regardless of where they are.

WAC’s program on End All Forms of Violence Against Women and Children seeks to facilitate development of the women’s movement across all sectors in Cambodian society, with a primary focus on women at the grassroots level. The Speak-Out project is implemented with garment-factory workers, farmers and the Women’s Network for Unity (WNU), focusing on community development and self-organisation among sex workers (direct and indirect SWs, Trans-genders, MSM and lesbians). WAC’s work focuses on the creation of safe spaces for sex workers and encouraging the use of forums to organise, to fight back and to demand change in government policies and enforcement practices.