A group of trans people poses with civil
society officials at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights headquarters in
Phnom Penh, Sept. 21, 2016.
Transgender
women face high levels of discrimination in Cambodia as nearly half have faced
physical violence and one-quarter have been raped in a public place, according
to a new Cambodian Center for Human Rights study released on Wednesday.
“Cambodian
trans women face limited employment opportunities, rejection from their
families and shocking levels of abuse and harassment from the police,”
said Nuon Sidara, coordinator of CCHR’s
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Project.
“The data
point to an urgent need for the Royal Government of Cambodia to take immediate
steps to safeguard the rights of trans women,” she added.
The
report is based on the findings of CCHR’s field research, collected through 135
surveys conducted in April 2016 in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Preah Sihanouk and
Battambang provinces.
According
to CCHR’s report, 92 percent of the trans women surveyed have been verbally
abused; 43 percent have experience physical violence; 31 percent have been
sexually assaulted; and 25 percent have raped in public spaces.
Trans
women also face extremely high levels of harassment and discrimination from the
police, with nearly 40 percent of the respondents saying they had been arrested
and 92 percent saying they believe that they were arrested due to their trans
identity. Approximately one third of all respondents reported being wrongly
accused of a crime.
The
report also uncovered the previously unreported practice by some local police
where trans women being publicly humiliated and forced to bathe in a river, in
what CCHR says is an extra-legal punishment that may amount to torture under
international human rights law.
Trans
women also experience serious difficulty getting a job as more than one third
of the respondents reported being refused employment and 25 percent reported
being fired because of their trans identities.
Chhun Vy,
a transgender woman volunteer with Men’s Health Cambodia, told RFA that she is
used to being mocked and denied employment.
“It is
very difficult for us because when we apply for a job they will not take us,”
Chhun Vy said. “They deny us because we are transvestite or gay. Employers do
not understand our feelings and our heart.”
The
research also suggests that many families fail to understand and accept
transgender family members after they come out.
Nearly
half of the trans women responding to the survey they felt that the need to
leave their family home because of their trans identities, and 53 percent of
all respondents said their families attempted to force them to enter into a
heterosexual marriage.
“Certain
parents hate their children, do not want their children to become like that,”
Chhun Vy said
Pisey Sem
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