BANGKOK, Mar 9, 2010 (IPS) - Cambodia’s new penal code, which comes into force later this year, should be accompanied by stronger law enforcement measures if the country’s women and girls are to be better protected from rape, says the global rights lobby Amnesty International (AI).
"The introduction of the new penal code is an ideal opportunity to change the culture and improve the criminal justice system," revealed Brittis Edman, Cambodia researcher for AI. "The problem has always been law enforcement rather than the law itself."
"Rape has to be seen as a criminal issue," she added during a telephone interview from Phnom Penh.
The new law will replace the 1992 law introduced by the United Nations after the country returned to peace following over two decades of brutal conflict, including the Khmer Rouge genocide in the 1970s that was responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people and destruction of the South-east Asian country’s social structures.
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