It's not international pressure that's needed, its internal acceptance and cultural change. Without the latter, the former is more likely to create resistance, animosity and resentment for the outside interference.

More on a progress report issued on International Women's Day (Cambodia):

March 2021: JOINT STATEMENT on International Women’s Day 2021,CSOs call on the Royal Government of Cambodia to take concrete measures to further implement the CEDAW* Committee’s recommendations.
*CEDAW is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

The undersigned national and international NGOs,associations, and unions call upon the Royal Government of Cambodia to honor the 110thInternational Women’s Dayby taking specific steps to further improve women’s human rights in Cambodia.

NGO-CEDAW and partner CSOs will soon release the 2020 CEDAW Monitoring Report, which highlights achievements and challenges related to implementing the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

The report also features a progress report on steps taken so far to implement the recommendations contained in the CEDAW Committee’s Concluding Observations from its 2019 review session of Cambodia’s implementation of the Convention.NGO-CEDAW's full report can be found here: ngocedaw.org/2020-cedaw-monitoring-report/
https://cchrcambodia.org/media/files/pr ... 2ev_en.pdf

Cambodia International Women's Day Reports; Mothers Encouraged to Work and Breast Feed:

Cambodia News, Phnom Penh: Breastfeeding children for all children up to 2 years old and beyond is an important part of promoting health and child development to lead to human resource development according to the vision of Cambodia's government.
The Women's Ministry would like to give the example of Mrs. Sithong Sokha, who is a Stung Treng traffic policewoman, for showing high responsibilities in both her institutional and motherhood role in raising children. This case is a good incentive for working mothers, and it shows the possibility of providing essential nutrients for children while working outside the home.
- Women's Ministry.

And how many cases go unreported ?

Adhoc logs 145 rape cases, cites minors’ vulnerability
Kim Sarom | Publication date 15 March 2021 | 23:10 ICT

Rights group Adhoc recorded 145 rape cases last year, most of which involved girls under 18 years old.

Mao Mab, head of the women and children’s division at rights group Adhoc, said her organisation had observed and collected data through its affiliates in the provinces.

She said some of the victims were raped by their relatives and some were even killed.

According to Mab, the main factor leading to rape was the victims’ economic situation. She explained that some parents worked abroad, leaving their children with grandparents who are not strong enough to care for their grandchildren.

Aside from that, she said some victims lived in huts, leaving them vulnerable to abuse.

“In most cases, parents or relatives only realised there was a problem when the child had an injury or pain. Most cases occurred in remote areas, which is another problem,” she said.

Mab added that most girls who were sexually abused did not dare talk about it to their family because perpetrators often threatened to kill them or harm the whole family if they broke the news.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... nerability

Link to the video: post479723.html#p479723

In Cambodia, a property tycoon beats his wife in a Facebook video – and she gets blamed

Images of Duong Chhay assaulting his (now ex) wife, cosmetics entrepreneur Deth Malina, have gone viral on social media
The tycoon has gained sympathy from followers by claiming he was provoked, highlighting the prevalence of victim shaming

Marissa Carruthers
Published: 4:00pm, 27 Mar, 2021

Sophea* froze when the footage of Cambodian cosmetics entrepreneur Deth Malina being battered by her then-husband flashed up on social media. “It was difficult to watch,” the mother-of-three, 36, recalled. “It reminded me of my home life and what I had to escape.”

On March 15, Deth published on Facebook an hour-long compilation of clips that showed displays of violence that have torn the nation in half. In one scene, property tycoon Duong Chhay, 31, lunges across his child to beat Deth, also 31. He then puts her in a headlock and pulls her away. In others, he can be seen dragging her by the hair and hitting her repeatedly.

The footage is said to have been recorded at the couple’s home at the end of 2020, before they divorced. Within 24 hours, the video went viral with more than two million views, but was promptly taken down. The next day on Facebook Live, property tycoon Duong claimed his ex-wife had provoked him. This prompted a wave of sympathy from his followers.

While Duong has been stripped of his “oknha” status, a coveted title issued by royal decree, no arrest has been made. Deth has also faced a huge public backlash that highlights one of the main issues surrounding violence against women in Cambodia, where domestic violence is prevalent – victim-blaming.

Billy Gorter, executive director of This Life Cambodia, which operates programmes under the This Life Without Violence umbrella to raise awareness of and tackle gender-based violence, said: “[This] highlights the fact that victim-blaming is still hugely problematic in Cambodia. We watched the progression of the case with concern, and while initially there was an outpouring of support for Deth Malina, we were disheartened when these voices were overwhelmed by those supporting the perpetrator of abuse.”
The episode has put the spotlight on many other challenges endemic to domestic violence: gender
inequality, societal norms, inadequate laws and a sense of impunity for perpetrators.

“This is not very encouraging for women to come forward,” said Nassima Elouady, who oversees NGO Planète Enfants and Développement’s violence against women programmes.

“It shows there are no consequences and a huge lack of accountability from the perpetrator, and a lot of people were blaming her despite the videos.”

According to Cambodia’s National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women for 2019-2023, which was released in January, one in five women aged 15 to 49 had experienced physical violence at least once since the age of 15. Only two in five women sought help, with only 24 per cent reporting it through a formal service.

The horrors of the abuse on display are all too familiar to Sophea. She suffered five years of violence at the hands of her alcoholic husband until she was forced to seek help after a beating left her unconscious with a broken jaw and shattered ribs. However, there is one major difference in their circumstances – economic shackles.

“I’m a countryside girl from a small village where my family earned a few dollars a day,” said Sophea. “We had a basic house and lived a simple life, it was often hard to find the money for food. I didn’t think it happened in rich families.”

Elouady, who works in Cambodia’s most underprivileged communities, said while poverty was often a major contributor to domestic violence, it was not the driving factor. “This shows poverty is a risk but not the cause of violence against women. The cause is gender inequality,” she added.
Full article: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/a ... eo-and-she

NEW:
Report Points to Inadequate Enforcement, Legal Flaws as Reasons for Entrenched Domestic Violence
10 March 2023 11:52am
Seoung Nimol

A new LICADHO report detailing the murders of 26 women and five children between January 2020 and June 2022 by current or former intimate partners reveals the persistence of domestic violence and flaws in law enforcement.

Monitors recorded six women and one child killed in 2020; thirteen women and four children killed in 2021; and seven women killed in the first half of 2022. Twenty-six cases involved the killing of women by intimate partners, including by their husbands (16 cases), partners (5 cases), former husbands (2 cases), or former partners (3 cases). The report, “No Way to Safety: Failing to Prevent Intimate Partner Killings in Cambodia,” stresses that these figures are far from comprehensive with LICADHO finding the cases through relatives, social media, news reports, and police referrals, among others, and notes that there is a paucity of official stats on domestic violence.

The report revealed that just 17 of the 26 cases, or 65%,had reached a conviction as of January 2023, with other suspects remaining free, in pre-trial detention, or deceased.

In the report the mother of a woman who was killed by her former husband said: “There was no intervention. They [authorities] did not come.” She continued, “My daughter is dead and the perpetrator is still free.”

Am Sam Ath, operations director for Licadho, said that few domestic violence cases end up under police investigation and are more frequently mediated by local authorities. The approach is aimed at keeping families together, but Sam Ath said it has been overused and abused in such a way that it’s failed to prevent violence. He noted that perpetrators often believe that it is not a violation of the law to use violence against their partners.

“Domestic violence may worsen and, in some cases, even result in murder if it is not solved legally,” he said.

The report investigates the structural flaws that led to the murders. Even while it does not accurately reflect the overall occurrence of domestic violence in Cambodia, its results show that gender norms not only supported and encouraged this violence but also contributed to a lack of intervention from institutions.
Full article: https://cambojanews.com/report-points-t ... -violence/

^^ The Licadho report "No Path to Safety" makes grim reading.

Report | No Path to Safety: Failing to Prevent Intimate Partner Killings in Cambodia
Released in March 2023
LICADHO has today published “No Path to Safety: Failing to Prevent Intimate Partner Killings in Cambodia”, a report on the murders of 26 women and five children committed by current or former intimate partners between January 2020 and June 2022.

Violence against women is one of the most pervasive human rights violations in Cambodia, yet a flawed and often unenforced legal framework frequently allows violence to continue and escalate. Too often, this leads to murder. Today, LICADHO is demanding change.

Cambodia’s systems of prevention and response must be overhauled to protect women and children across the country who are either experiencing domestic violence, or are at risk of it. They must be offered clear routes to safety that enable them to live their lives free of violence.

“Protections and services empower women to safely leave abusive relationships,” said Pilorge Naly, LICADHO’s Outreach Director. “It is essential that these are available and women are informed of the legal rights and options they are entitled to during these crucial moments.”

“No Path to Safety” explores the systemic failures that contributed to the deaths of these 26 women and five children. While not representative of the total prevalence of domestic violence in Cambodia, its findings indicate that gender norms not only underpinned and fuelled this violence, but also plague the institutions that failed to respond. More than half of the murdered women had faced prior acts of domestic violence before they were killed; many of them faced social, cultural and economic obstacles to reporting violence. When they did reach out, interventions by authorities were consistently ineffective.

In at least 11 cases, authorities were aware of violent behaviour or the woman’s decision to end the relationship. Not a single woman received effective protection or support. Instead, unfair divorce procedures left too many women unable to escape violence, while at least six perpetrators had been engaged in unproductive sessions of conciliation or education.

The killings documented in this report have been met with inconsistent legal procedures and outcomes, with multiple families still waiting for justice. Sixty-five percent of the cases explored in this report had reached a conviction by a court of first instance as of January 2023, with other suspects remaining at-large, in pre-trial detention or deceased. “There was no intervention. They [authorities] did not come,” said the mother of a woman who was killed by her former husband. “My daughter is dead and the perpetrator is still free.”

The flaws in the 2005 Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims have been widely and repeatedly raised by civil society. No meaningful effort has been made to address them since its enactment nearly 20 years ago.

“The Cambodian government must immediately take action and provide all women in Cambodia with safe paths to a life free of violence,” said Am Sam Ath, LICADHO’s Operations Director. “Mediation in Cambodia is too often used as an excuse to push reconciliation at all costs. It is simply not effective at ending violence. The Domestic Violence Law needs to be significantly amended, and there must be accountability for authorities who fail or refuse to intervene.”

For more information, please contact:
▪ Am Sam Ath, Operations Director of LICADHO, on Signal at (+855) 10 327 770 (Khmer)
▪ Pilorge Naly, Outreach Director of LICADHO, on Signal at (+855) 12 214 454 (English)