Women Network for Unity

The History of Women’s Network for Unity

Women’s Network for Unity (WNU) is a grassroots collective that encompasses sexual minorities, who are mainly engaged in sex work, and works actively for the empowerment of these groups to fight HIV/AIDS, violence, and discrimination. WNU was called in June 2000 by Cambodian sex workers (transgenders, men who have sex with men, lesbians, and direct and indirect female sex workers) to work together to voice their concerns and sufferings and advocate for changes that would improve their lives to Members of Parliament and the Ministry of State. In late 2002, the workers collectively decided that the existing representative structure, with local NGOs providing the conduit for advocacy, was not adequately representing their interests.

At the end of 2002, a meeting of over 160 males, transgender, lesbians and female sex workers was held in order to vote and recruit 7 secretariat members to work on behalf of WNU and work for representatives from the workers groups themselves. Aims included building network capacity, dignity and justice and reducing violence, discrimination and HIV/AIDS infection. Further aims included promoting the human rights and civil liberties of sex workers, and to demand recognition as workers with a right to earn a living from our bodies, as opposed to symbols of oppression. From that time the WNU has worked with the target groups (men who have sex with men, transgenders, lesbians, female sex workers) to outreach, educate, share ideas and discuss the collective challenges they face, and do advocacy for human rights and to reduce discrimination, violence, and for the right to protect and represent themselves. The WNU is the first sex worker organization in Cambodia and there are over 5000 members from 13 Provinces and Phnom Penh. The network has made significant achievements since its inception in 2000; the network is strengthened in confidence and capacity, and has established a well-built solidarity with a strong, united voice. The WNU has been registered with the Ministry of Interior since June 2004.

After three years of organizing together, the members have progressively moved towards more empowerment, strength and solidarity. Their increased confidence enables them to help each other in solving common problems and become one voice towards a better future, better living conditions, and improved health. The network focuses on building solidarity, assertiveness and self-empowerment among the community of sex workers, one of the few successful proven strategies to minimize HIV/ AIDS. The network provides a space for women to come together, share ideas and discuss the challenges they face and how to solve them collectively. Using this method of collective organising, the network has made significant achievements since its inception in 2000 - sex workers have improved their attitudes to healthcare and approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention; improved their client negotiation skills; gained the courage to speak out about their problems; gained assertiveness and confidence; and engaged in information sharing with their friends and peers following workshops on HIV/AIDS and sex workers’ rights. Together they have achieved solidarity and the collective strength that comes from one voice. They have a thorough understanding of the value, importance and worth of their lives, and the importance of HIV/AIDS prevention.

Recent accomplishments include raised awareness to over 5000 sex workers in Cambodia about the unethical and inequitable drug trial on tenofovir and the mobilization of sex workers to express their voices on this issue (Kao Tha et al 2004). WNU presented this information to the International Conference on HIV/AIDS in August 2006, to a greatly appreciative audience of researchers and advocates. Further accomplishments include participation in the drafting of the National Policy on Reproductive Health, campaigns for access to ARVs (Medecines Sans Frontieres have as a result allocated special slots to the WNU), and campaigns against discrimination in the health service towards gays, lesbians, transgenders and sex workers. Strong links have been established with the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW), and voluntary solidarity groups have been established to care for sex workers dying of AIDS.

WNU and global forces

Women’s Network for Unity’s history has been affected by outside forces at every stage. The origins of WNU are surprisingly tied up with US politics and WNU continues to be strongly affected by US politics. WNU began organising sex workers with support from 12 NGOs in Phnom Penh in 1999. These organisations supported WNU’s mission of sex worker empowerment and for WNU to register as a separate organization, including the election of a seven-member secretariat. Five organisations withdrew their support in late 2002, days before WNU’s first secretariat election. The withdrawal of support coincided with the receipt of a cable signed by Colin Powell, Secretary of State of the United States, to all US Agency for International Development field officers and grant recipients. This cable stated that

"ORGANIZATIONS ADVOCATING PROSTITUTION AS AN EMPLOYMENT CHOICE OR WHICH ADVOCATE OR SUPPORT THE LEGALIZATION OF PROSTITUTION ARE NOT APPROPRIATE PARTNERS FOR USAID ANTI-TRAFFICKING GRANTS AND CONTRACTS, OR SUB-GRANTS AND SUB-CONTRACTS

Cambodia is dependent on foreign aid and support from various international and local NGOs was withdrawn immediately. Just before WNU held its first election, secretariat candidates received harassing telephone calls from NGO personnel discouraging them from organising and registering as a separate organisation. Some callers identified themselves and others refused to identify themselves.

WNU’s mission of empowerment for sex workers was seen as inimical to new USAID funding restrictions. WAC/WNU declined a grant from Family Health International (FHI) in light of this new policy. Later, USAID organisational HIV-prevention and anti-trafficking grant and sub-grant recipients were required to have a written policy opposing sex work. This limitation was amended into the text of the act which allocated PEPFAR funds:

(f) LIMITATION. -- No funds made available to carry out this Act, or any amendment made to this Act, may be used to provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.

These policies have strongly and adversely affected WNU in its relationships with other organisations.

On May 17th, 2005, Ambassador Randall Tobias, Global AIDS Coordinator of the United States, told the CDC to refrain from applying this new rule (Brown 2005). The Federal Register was corrected on May 24, 2005, to stipulate that

“The U.S. Government is opposed to prostitution and related activities, which are inherently harmful and dehumanizing, and contribute to the phenomenon of trafficking in persons.
“Any entity that receives, directly or indirectly, U.S. Government funds in connection with this document (“recipient”) cannot use such U.S. Government funds to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking. Nothing in the preceding sentence shall be construed to preclude the provision to individuals of palliative care, treatment, or post-exposure pharmaceutical prophylaxis, and necessary pharmaceuticals and commodities, including test kits, condoms, and, when proven effective, microbicides. A recipient that is otherwise eligible to receive funds in connection with this document to prevent, treat, or monitor HIV/AIDS shall not be required to endorse or utilize a multisectoral approach to combating HIV/AIDS, or to endorse, utilize, or participate in a prevention method or treatment program to which the recipient has a religious or moral objection. Any information provided by recipients about the use of condoms as part of projects or activities that are funded in connection with this document shall be medically accurate and shall include the public health benefits and failure rates of such use.
“In addition, any recipient must have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking. The preceding sentence shall not apply to any “exempt organizations” (defined as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Health Organization, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative or to any United Nations agency).”

This policy has also led to the isolation of Women’s Network for Unity (WNU), a Cambodian sex workers group that uses the slogan “Don’t talk to me about sewing machines, talk to me about workers rights” to emphasize the need to address working conditions within the sex industry. Their voices—incompatible with an abolitionist stance that is unable to accommodate the idea of better conditions within the sex industry as a valid human rights issue—have been ignored by US policy makers. At the beginning of 2003, the organizations with which WNU worked for three years no longer supported WNU, due to fear that supporting a sex workers’ organization with an empowerment agenda will jeopardize their American funding. Now, in 2006, only five of the original supporters remain unsupportive and uncooperative. However, this includes some of the largest international NGOs in Cambodia and in the world.

WNU and local prejudices

WNU members face isolation as individuals as well as organizationally. In the second half of 2005, plans were made to start a national network of men who have sex with men (MSM). This network was planned by five women who work with NGOs that receive USAID funding and two foreign men. Outreach workers were hired to recruit members for the new network.

In December 2005, two outreach workers were fired from their positions specifically because they reached out to MSM members of WNU. They were later reinstated in different capacities with the stipulation that they have nothing further to do with WNU. The saddest part of this is that reaching out to WNU would be the most efficient way to build this network because WNU is the organization with the largest number of MSM participants in Cambodia. WNU remains isolated and those who lose out are both the organizations that do not embrace the largest grassroots organization in the nation and those who would benefit from the services and information offered only to those who have nothing to do with WNU. This is a manifestation of the way US funding restriction have been used to discriminate against sex workers and against a specific organization, in contravention of the policy. The guidance for this policy states that it does not prohibit offering services to sex workers or any individuals.

US influence on the Cambodian legal system

In 2003, a law was proposed that would criminalize prostitution and trafficking. This coincided with Cambodia being ranked Tier 2 watch list by the US government in its TIP Report. Later, Cambodia’s rank dropped to Tier 3, a ranking that is accompanied by the threat of economic sanctions. This law has not been enacted, but as Cambodia is dependent of foreign aid, economic sanctions are presumed to be extremely powerful tools to influence government law and policy.

This proposed law coincided with another American innovation, a policy requiring organizations that accept US government funding to adopt a policy ‘against trafficking and prostitution.’ It is easy to state that one is against trafficking but more difficult to effectively address knotty social problems with a blanket statement.

The current law

As of today, Cambodian law does not criminalise prostitution. Essentially, prostitution is neither legal nor illegal in Cambodia. While the law does not prohibit prostitution, it prohibits profiting from the prostitution of another or owning a business of prostitution or recruiting people into prostitution both inside and outside of Cambodia. Despite this, law enforcement actually implements this law as if prostitution itself were illegal. The Law on Suppression of the Kidnapping, Trafficking and Exploitation of Human Persons is included in the Appendix.

This law is foremost a guideline to penalties and punishments for acts related to prostitution but not including prostitution itself, which is not a criminal act in Cambodia. What is criminal under this law is the luring of people to work in prostitution, pimping, living off the earnings of the prostitution of others, and any kind of kidnapping or restraining people for the purpose of prostitution. Higher penalties are given to those who involve people under 15 years of age in prostitution. Being a prostitute or a client of a prostitute is not prohibited under this law.

Local context: Donor dependence and its consequences

To understand the motivation for legal changes it is important to recognize that Cambodia is dependent on foreign aid, that the largest donor is the US, and that the US government is imposing a moral agenda upon foreign aid. The major sources of hard currency are tourism and foreign aid for development. There are some garment factories, but some factories are closing as economic agreements with Western nations expire. The largest donor (even at the lowest percentage of giving) is the US government and therefore the US government wields disproportionate power in the form of humanitarian aid in aid-dependent countries. This is the case in Cambodia.

In 2000, the US passed an anti-trafficking law and included provisions for a report ranking other nations on their response to trafficking. Countries that are ranked at the lowest level, “Tier 3,” are expected to improve their response to trafficking in persons in a few months or face economic sanctions. Cambodia’s rank has fluctuated between Tiers 2 and 3, being ranked at the lowest level in 2002 and subsequently improving to Tier 2 from 2003 to 2004 and then dropping again to Tier 3 in 2005. After the low rank in 2002, Cambodia introduced the Draft Law on Suppression on Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation (see Appendix). This remains a draft law and has not been passed.

The reasons for the 2005 Tier 3 ranking are clearly linked to events of December 2004. In the second week of December 2004, the non-governmental organization AFESIP led a raid at a brothel/hotel in Phnom Penh, accompanied by a French television crew. This raid may have been staged for the French media. Over eighty women were delivered to the NGO shelter. The following day, media all over the world reported that criminal elements had broken into the shelter and retrieved the prostitutes held there. However, the following few days, the Cambodia Daily reported that the reports of armed men storming the NGO offices were inaccurate, and that local witnesses said that the women left of their own accord and hired motorbikes to take them back to the hotel where they worked. This story was not picked up by the international media. In late 2005 and early 2006, the trial of the owners of the brothel hotel began and resulted in convictions. It remains to be seen whether these convictions are enough to raise Cambodia’s TIP report rank to Tier 2 or whether further efforts will be undertaken by the government of Cambodia, perhaps in the form of enacting legislation, perhaps revisiting this draft law.

The draft law and its potential impact
The legal situation of prostitution in Cambodia may change. US government money for anti-trafficking efforts and HIV-prevention are given only to organisations and governments that adopt an anti-prostitution policy. Under the 1996 Law on Suppression of the Kidnapping, Trafficking and Exploitation of Human Persons, prostitution itself is not criminalised in Cambodia but the Draft Law on Suppression on Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation would overtly criminalise prostitution.
Article 17: Definition of Prostitution
“Prostitution” in this law shall mean having sexual intercourse with an unspecified person in exchange for anything of value.

Article 18: Soliciting
A person who solicits another in public for the purpose of prostituting him/herself shall be punished with detention for 1 to 5 day and/or fine of 1,000 to 10,000 riel.

Sex workers the world over point to the state and its agents as the prime violators of their human rights. The effect of criminalisation of prostitution is generally to extend the reach of law enforcement further into the lives of sex workers, offering greater opportunity for graft, extortion and sexual offences to be committed against sex workers by authorities. There is no reason to believe better of the Cambodian authorities than others around the world. While some of the statutes prohibiting kidnapping and abuse are laudable, legislation that criminalises sex work leads to abuses rather than remedies for abuse.

Another change would be the adoption of the international standard of 18 as the age of majority. This would criminalise sexual activity with people over the age of 15 but not yet 18. Many Cambodian women marry young, and many work to contribute financially to support their families throughout their lives, even in childhood. The labour of minors and sexual activity by people under 18 years of age are common in Cambodia and will probably not be changed in the near future, and not by legislation alone. Considering this, it is worrying that there is no provision specifically not to charge minors who engage in prostitution.

Conclusions and recommendations
The foremost effect of these funding restrictions is the further stigmatisation of poor women, many of whom exchange sex. While direct links to policy are elusive, it is clear that the policy is used as an excuse to not assist vulnerable people. Therefore, this policy exacerbates existing problems including stigma and discrimination. It is well known that stigmatisation promotes HIV.

US funding policies have strongly and adversely affected WNU in its relationships with other organisations. Furthermore, the effects on individual members are also strong – they are not welcome at some organisations and some individuals have lost their jobs because of their affiliation and affinity with organised sex workers. Discrimination of this sort – denial of services based on status – is counter to the US policy itself, but the guidelines are not well known, poorly understood, and enforced according to the interpretation of local implementing agencies, who do so without reprimand from the US supervisors of the aid they seek. This leads to the use of the new funding restrictions to enforce and promote existing social stigma and discrimination against sex workers in general, and WNU members in specific. This is counter to the stated intention of international aid and to the guidance offered by the US Department of State. In this way, the US Government is complicit in the discrimination against sex workers in Cambodia.

The policies referred to above are known as the ‘anti-prostitution pledge’ and have been contested in two lawsuits brought in the United States. The rulings in both cases were that the policy is unconstitutional, however, the US Constitution has no bearing outside the US and so the rulings have no bearing on WNU and other organisations outside the US.

It is imperative to acknowledge the adverse effects of this policy – promoting stigma and discrimination against sex workers and poor people who are vulnerable to HIV and violence – in order for organisations, advocates, and individuals to work toward policy change and legal reform to repeal these funding restrictions. It is recommended that Cambodia not adopt laws that would criminalise sexual commerce, despite outside pressure to do so. Such laws also promote stigma, discrimination and violence against sex workers. Cambodia’s most vulnerable people cannot afford further structural discrimination against them.

Even as these policies strongly affect people outside the US, there has been little effort to find out either what Cambodian sex workers and other people affected by the policy prefer. US policy makers far away from Cambodia have determined what will happen, without concern for the way their decisions will affect vulnerable and poor people in other nations including Cambodia. WNU members and allies call on US policy makers to strike down the law enacting this policy in order not only to end the use of US policy to discriminate and stigmatise marginalized and vulnerable people but also to demonstrate the US’ stated but undemonstrated commitment to liberty and justice for all, including people outside the US.

Appendix A: The existing law and the draft law

Law on Suppression of the Kidnapping, Trafficking and Exploitation of Human Persons Chapter One
General Provision

Article 1:
This law has an objective of suppressing the act of kidnapping of human persons for trafficking/sale and the exploitation of human persons, in order to rehabilitate and upgrade the respect for good national tradition, protect human dignity, and protect the health and welfare of the people.

Article 2:
The kidnapping of human persons for trafficking/sale or for prostitution and the exploitation on human persons, inside or outside the kingdom of Cambodia, shall be strictly prohibited.

Chapter 2
Kidnapping of Human Persons for Trafficking/Sale or for Prostitution

Article 3:
Any person who lures a human person, even male or female, minor or adult of whatever nationality by ways of enticing or any other means, by promising to offer any money or jeweler [sic], event though upon there is or no connect from the concerned person, by ways of forcing, threatening or using of hypnotic drugs, in order to kidnap him/her for trafficking/sale or for prostitution, shall be subject to imprisonment from fifteen (15) to twenty (20) years, for the case if the victim is a minor person of less than 15 years old.

Those who are accomplices, traffickers/sellers, buyers, shall be subject tot he same punishment term as which of the perpetrator(s).

Shall also be considered as accomplices, those who provide money or means for committing offences.

All means of transportation, materials and properties which are used during the commission of offences shall be confiscated as State’s property.

Chapter Three
Pimp

Article 4:
Shall be considered as a pimp (male or female) or head of prostitutes, and person:

Who supports or protects one or more persons, by whatever means with knowledge in advance of the act of prostitution of such person(s) or seeks customers for such person(s) for the purpose of prostitution, or
Who regularly shares the benefits obtained from the prostitution acts in any form, or
Who brings men or women by whatever form for a training and convincing them to become male or female prostitutes, or
Who acts as an intermediary by whatever form, to create relationships between male and female prostitutes with the head/owner of a brothel, or a person who provides benefits on the prostitution of other persons, or
Who confines men or women in his/her house or any place, for a purpose of forcing them to commit prostitution to earn money for him/her.

Article 5:
Any male or female pimp or head of prostitutes, shall be punished from five (5) to ten (10) years in prison. In case of repeated offence, double term of the above punishment shall be applied.

Shall be subject to punishment to imprisonment from ten (10) to twenty (20) years, incase if upon a pimp:

commits an offence onto a minor person of below 15 years old, or
commits an offence by coercion and violence or by threat or weapon, or
who is a husband, wife, boy/girl friend, father or mother or guardian, forces a man or women to commit prostitution, or
who forces a victim to commit prostitution out side of the country or, a victim who is a foreigner to commit prostitution on the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

The court may, in addition to the above principal punishment term, apply a sub-punishment, by restriction of the civil rights and non-authorization of residence.

Article 6:
The accomplices or those who attempt to commit offences as stated in the articles 4 and 5 above, shall also be subject to the same punishment term as which of the perpetrators.

Chapter Four
Debauchery

Article 7:
Any person who opens a place for committing a debauchery or obscene acts, shall be punished to imprisonment from one (1) to five (5) years and with a penalty of from five million (5,000,000) Riels to thirty millions (30,000,000) Riels. In case of repeated offence, the above terms shall be doubled.

Article 8:
Any person who commits debauchery acts onto a minor person of below 15 years old, even if there is a consent from the concerned minor person or if upon buying such minor person from somebody else or from a head of the prostitutes, shall be subject to punishment from ten (10) to twenty (20) years in prison. In case of not giving up, the minimum punishment term shall be applied.
The court may, in addition to the above principal punishment, apply a sub-punishment by restriction of the civil rights and non-authorization of residence.

Chapter Five
Final Provision

Article 9:
Detail instruction for the application of this law, shall be determined by a Sub-decree.

Article 10:
Any provisions contrary to this law shall be hereby repealed.

This law was passed by the National assembly of The Kingdom of Cambodia, on 16 January 1996, During the 5th of Ordinary Session of its 1st Legislature.

Phnom Penh, on January 1996.
Signed and sealed by:
Chea Sim

Draft Law on Suppression on Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation Chapter 1. General Provisions

Article 1: Objective of this Law
This law has an objective of suppressing the acts of trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation as defined in this law in order to preserve and enhance the good national tradition, to protect human [rights and] dignity and to improve the health and welfare of the people.

Article 2: Application of This Law

This law shall apply to any offense committed in the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
An offense shall be considered to be committed in the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia from the moment when one of constituent acts takes place within the territory.
This law shall apply to any offense, except that defined in Article 18, committed outside the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia by a Khmer citizen.
This law shall apply to any offense committed outside the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia by a foreigner when the victim is a Khmer citizen at the time of commission of the offense.

Article 3: Criminal Responsibility

An attempt of the offenses defined in this law shall be punished.
An aider [sic] and abettor of the offenses defined in this law shall be punished.
When a representative, agent or employee for a legal entity or a person commits either crime defined in this law in the scope of its business, or in the interest of the legal entity or the principal, the legal entity or the principal shall be punished with fine in accordance with punishment stipulated in the relevant article.

Article 4: Concealment of Identity of Minor Victim
Newspapers and other mass media shall be prohibited from publishing or broadcasting such information so as to cause pubic [sic] knowledge of identities of minor victims under the age of eighteen in the offenses defined in this law.

Chapter 2: Kidnapping and Human Trafficking

Article 5: Definition of Abduction

The act of abduction in this law shall mean to remove a person from his/her living environment to a place under the actor’s or a third person’s control by the means of force, threat, deception or enticement.
Abduction may also be committed by taking advantage of the victim’s loss of reason or incapacity of resistance or of impairing the victim’s reason or capacity of resistance.

Article 6: Child Kidnapping
A person who abducts a minor under the age of eighteen (18) shall be punished with imprisonment of 2 to 5 years.

Article 7: Interference with Custody

A person who unlawfully takes a minor or another under legal custody away from the custody of the parent, guardian, or other lawful custodian shall be punished with imprisonment for 2to 5 years.v
The punishment shall be remitted or mitigated when the taken person under custody, being not less than fifteen (15) years of age, voluntarily gives genuine consent to the act and the actor does not have any indecent purpose.
Regarding the crimes of interference with custody defined in Article 7.1, the prosecution shall be commenced upon the file of complaint from a parent, guardian, or other lawful custodian.

Article 8: Kidnapping with Purpose

A person who abducts another for the purpose of profit making, sexual conduct, production of pornography, or marriage against will or adoption shall be punished with imprisonment for more than 5 up to 10 years.
The punishment shall be aggravated to imprisonment for 7 to 15 years when the victim is a minor under the age of eighteen (18).

Article 9: Kidnapping for Foreign Transfer

A person who abducts another for the purpose of transferring the abducted person to the outside of the Kingdom of Cambodia shall be punished with imprisonment for 7 to 15 years.
A Khmer citizen who abducts another in a country outside of the Kingdom of Cambodia for the purpose of transferring the abducted person to another country shall be punished the same.

Article 10: Definition of Human Trafficking

The act of trafficking in a human being shall mean to unlawfully deliver the possession of a person to another, or to receive the possession of a person from another, in exchange for anything of value including any services and human beings.
The act of procuring trafficking in a human being as an intermediary shall be punished the same as the act of trafficking in a human being.

Article 11: Human Trafficking
A person who traffics in another shall be punished with imprisonment for 2 to 5 years and/or fine of 4,000,000 to 10,000,000 riel.

Article 12: Trafficking with Purpose

A person who traffics in another for the purpose of profit making, sexual conduct, production of pornography, marriage against will or adoption shall be punished with imprisonment for more than 5 up to 10 years.
The punishment shall be aggravated to imprisonment for 7 to 15 years when the victim is a minor under the age of eighteen (18).
A person who keeps a minor under the supervision or control shall be presumed to know the minor’s age unless the person proves that he/she reasonably believes the minor’s age to be eighteen (18) or more.

Article 13: Trafficking for Foreign Transfer

A person who traffics in another for the purpose of transferring the trafficked person to the outside of the Kingdom of Cambodia shall be punished with imprisonment for 7 to 15 years.
A Khmer citizen who traffics in another in a country outside of the Kingdom of Cambodia for the purpose of transferring the trafficked person to another country shall be punished the same.

Article 14: Foreign Transportation

A person who transports an abducted or trafficked person to the outside of the Kingdom of Cambodia shall be punished with imprisonment for more than 5 up to 15 years.
A Khmer citizen who transports an abducted or trafficked person in a country outside of the Kingdom of Cambodia to another country shall be punished the same.

Article 15: Receipt of Person with Purpose

A person who receives an abducted or trafficked person for the purpose of profit making, sexual conduct, production of pornography, marriage or adoption shall be punished with imprisonment for more than 5 up to 10 years.
The punishment shall be aggravated to imprisonment for more than 5 up to 15 years when the victim is a minor under the age of eighteen

Article 16: Receipt of a person for Assistance to Principal
A person who receives, harbors, or conceals an abducted or trafficked person for the purpose of assisting the principal who has abducted or trafficked the person shall be punished with imprisonment for 2 to 5 years and/or fine of 4,000,000 to 10,000,000.

Chapter 3: Prostitution
Article 17: Definition of Prostitution
“Prostitution” in this law shall mean having sexual intercourse with an unspecified person in exchange for anything of value.

Article 18: Soliciting
A person who solicits another in public for the purpose of prostituting him/herself shall be punished with detention for 1 to 5 day and/or fine of 1,000 to 10,000 riel.

Article 19: Procurement of Prostitution

A person who procures prostitution as an intermediary between a prostitute and another shall be punished with imprisonment for 2 to 5 years and/or fine of 4,000,000 to 10,000,000 riel.
A person who conducts either of the following acts for the purpose of procuring prostitution shall be punished with imprisonment for 1 to 3 years and/or fine of 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 riel:

to solicit another for prostitution;
to block, or follow about, another to solicit for prostitution in public; or
to attract another for prostitution by advertisement.

Article 20: Inducement to Prostitution

A person who, for the purpose of profit making induces another to practice prostitution shall be punished with imprisonment for 2 to 5 years and/or fine of 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 riel.
A person who induces another to practice prostitution by the means of deception, confusing, use of influence of his/her relative, or abuse of power or authority over him/her shall be punished with imprisonment for 2 to 5 years and/or fine of 4,000,000 to 10,000,000 riel.

Article 21: Coercive Prostitution
A person who forces another to practice prostitution by the means of violence or weapon shall be punished with imprisonment for more than 5 up to 10 years