By Chhay Channyda and Jacob Gold
The Phnom Penh Post
Ahead of Tuesday’s marking of World AIDS Day, Cambodia today will commit to protecting the rights of high-risk marginal groups, the National AIDS Authority (NAA) said.
Rights groups say the health of high-risk groups – men who have sex with men, injection drug users and sex workers – often suffers because of punitive government policy.
“The discrimination they face makes them less likely to seek and receive treatment,” Teng Kunthy, secretary general of the NAA, said Sunday.
Oum Sopheap, executive director of the Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance, said the underground lifestyle of injection drug users made them harder to reach. “Drug users like to live in squatter homes, so people do not usually see them. They like to hide themselves,” he said.
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