Anger over cuts to jail time for paedophiles in Cambodia
Updated
In Cambodia changes to child sexual abuse laws could mean the reduction in sentences of nearly 40 foreign paedophiles currently serving jail terms.
Nearly 40 foreigners convicted of what was once known as debauchery, but now has several categories under the new laws.
The changes were designed to stop forms of sexual abuse going unpunished.
Samleang Seila, the director of child exploitation NGO Action Pour les Enfants in Phnom Penh, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program the new law makes each offence more clearly defined.
"In the old law when we talk about debauchery it was very general, so sometimes for slight sexual activity it was not considered debauchery," he said.
"But now if someone commit sexual exploitation with the child, the other code will apply. So if a person does not have sexual penetration he may be charged with indecent act."
While sexual intercourse with a minor carries a maximimum penalty of 10 years in jail, an indecent act, which does not involve sexual penetration, carries a sentence of between one and three years, meaning many have had their sentences reduced.
Cambodia, along with several of its Southeast Asian neighbours, has for years been fighting its image of a sex tourism destination, and while education campaigns have helped raise awareness of the problem, little funding and poor law enforcement resources have hampered these efforts.
Samleang Seila says the new child sexual abuse laws will only encourage the paedophiles to return.
"I would make that prediction because the charges and the sentences and the new law would not give serious punishment to the paedophiles so Cambodia would become a set destination for sex with a child again," he said.
