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The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the first and oldest specialized agencies of the UN. The ILO has 187 member states: 186 out of 193 UN member states plus the Cook Islands. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with around 40 field offices around the world, and employs some 3,381 staff across 107 nations, of whom 1,698 work in technical cooperation programmes and projects.
Svay Pak is an urban commune of overseas Vietnamese in Cambodia, north of Phnom Penh. The commune has been renowned as a destination for adult and child prostitution, and while the latter has been cracked down upon, its prevalence as of 2017 was disputed.
The human rights situation in Cambodia is facing growing criticisms both within the country and from an increasingly alarmed international community. After a series of flagrant violations against basic human rights a feeling of incertitude regarding the direction the country is emerging, sometimes comparing the situation to a newborn Burma.
Decent work is employment that "respects the fundamental rights of the human person as well as the rights of workers in terms of conditions of work safety and remuneration. ... respect for the physical and mental integrity of the worker in the exercise of their employment."
International Justice Mission is an international, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization focused on human rights, law and law enforcement. Founded in 1997 by lawyer Gary Haugen of the United States, it is based in Washington, D.C. All IJM employees are required to be practicing Christians; 94% are nationals of the countries they work in.
The Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, or simply Durbar, is a collective of 60,000 sex workers in West Bengal. Established on 15 February 1992, in Sonagachi, the largest red-light district in Kolkata, West Bengal, India with estimated 11,000 sex workers, Durbar has been working on women's rights and sex workers' rights advocacy, anti-human trafficking and HIV/AIDS prevention. The Durbar states that its aims are the challenging and altering of the barriers that form the everyday reality of sex workers' lives as they relate to their poverty or their ostracism. Durbar runs 51 free clinics for sex workers across West Bengal, with support from organisations such as the Ford Foundation and the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), who also help Durbar in its initiatives like networking, rights protection and creating alternative livelihood for sex workers.
Scarlet Alliance is Australia's national peak sex worker organisation. It was formed in 1989. As an organisation maintained entirely by current and former sex workers, Scarlet Alliance aims to achieve equality, social, legal, political, cultural and economic justice for workers in the sex industry.
Sex workers' rights encompass a variety of aims being pursued globally by individuals and organizations that specifically involve the human, health, and labor rights of sex workers and their clients. The goals of these movements are diverse, but generally aim to legalize or decriminalize sex work, as well as to destigmatize it, regulate it and ensure fair treatment before legal and cultural forces on a local and international level for all persons in the sex industry.
Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation.
Mu Sochua is a Cambodian politician and rights activist. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Battambang from 2013 to 2017, a seat which she previously held from 1998 to 2003. She was a member and Vice President of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) until its dissolve, and previously a member of the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) prior to its merger with the Human Rights Party. As a member of FUNCINPEC, she also served as Minister of Women and Veterans' Affairs in Hun Sen's coalition government from 1998 to 2004. She is currently one of 118 senior opposition figures serving a five-year ban from politics following a court ruling on 16 November 2017.
“Think Positive” is a Lebanese association established in 2009 by young activists who have been working hard to serve their society by raising awareness among youths and marginalized groups. It started its activities with fighting HIV/AIDS, Drug Use, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Stigma and Discrimination. It has launched the regional campaign against HIV+ Phobia in collaboration with 10 partners at International, Regional and National levels and conducted many activities and projects under the main theme of the campaign.
Prostitution in Cambodia is illegal, but prevalent. A 2008 Cambodian Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation has proven controversial, with international concerns regarding human rights abuses resulting from it, such as outlined in the 2010 Human Rights Watch report.
Women in Cambodia, due to the influence of the dominant Khmer culture, are traditionally expected to be modest and soft-spoken. They are to be well-mannered, industrious, and hold a sense of belonging to the household. It is expected that they act as the family's caregivers and caretakers, financial administrators, and serve as the "preserver of the home". As financial administrators, women can be identified as having household authority at the familial level. Khmer women are expected to maintain virginity until marriage, become faithful wives, and act as advisors to their husbands. Women in Cambodia have also be known as “light” walkers-- "light" walking and refinement of the Khmer women is further described as being "quiet in […] movements that one cannot hear the sound of their silk skirt rustling".
Child labour refers to the full-time employment of children under a minimum legal age. In 2003, an International Labour Organization (ILO) survey reported that one in every ten children in the capital above the age of seven was engaged in child domestic labour. Children who are too young to work in the fields work as scavengers. They spend their days rummaging in dumps looking for items that can be sold for money. Children also often work in the garment and textile industry, in prostitution, and in the military.
The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID), formerly the Association for Women in Development, is an international feminist membership and movement support organization committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women's human rights. It was established in 1982 as a U.S.-based association originally focused on promoting dialogue on women in development issues among academics, policy makers and development professionals, a scope that has since broadened. AWID stands for a progressive intersectional feminism and coordinates the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs), a collaborative project with over 20 other NGOs including Planned Parenthood, that aims "to monitor, analyse, share information and do collaborative advocacy on [...] anti-rights initiatives threatening international and regional human rights systems" from a feminist perspective.
Asia Catalyst is an Asian independent organization that promotes civil society and advances the right to health for marginalized groups in Asia. Since its founding in 2006 by Sara L.M. Davis, the organization has opened offices in New York, United States; Beijing, China, and Bangkok, Thailand. It has also successfully established 200 communities in 11 different countries.
Cheryl Overs is a founder and former first director of the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria, the Scarlet Alliance in Australia and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects. Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1957 and educated at University High School and La Trobe University. Overs set up organisations, oversaw events and authored texts that established the place of sex workers' rights within the global response to HIV/AIDS.
Human trafficking in Southeast Asia has long been a problem for the area and is still prevalent today. It has been observed that as economies continue to grow, the demand for labor is at an all-time high in the industrial sector and the sex tourism sector. A mix of impoverished individuals and the desire for more wealth creates an environment for human traffickers to benefit in the Southeast Asia region. Many nations within the region have taken preventive measures to end human trafficking within their borders and punish traffickers operating there.
Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work is a 2014 book by Melissa Gira Grant about the politics of sex work. The author—a journalist and former sex worker—views sex work as labor and analyzes public narratives about what a prostitute is. Grant identifies systemic economic issues relating to sex work while dissenting with anti–sex-work feminists and organizations which aim to "rescue" sex workers. She argues against efforts to criminalize sex work and describes how traditional methods of sex-work solicitation such as red-light districts have changed as such districts become gentrified and much sex work moves online. The book was published by Verso Books in collaboration with Jacobin and received positive critical reception.
References
- ↑ Paula Stromberg (Mar 4, 2012). "Sex work in Cambodia". Xtra Magazine.
