Cambodia Responsible For Impunity And Lack Of Reparation In Child Rape Case, UN Committee Finds

GENEVA (16 March 2026) - The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW) has found that Cambodia violated the rights of a child victim of rape to an effective remedy, following more than 12 years in proceedings marked by major delays. It also found that the authorities failed to enforce the Supreme Court’s judgment, allowing the perpetrator to remain at large for nearly a decade.

The Committee made public today its Views after reviewing a case filed by C.Y. and her father from Cambodia. C.Y. was 11 years of age with perceived intellectual disability when she was repeatedly raped in 2010 by a 48-year-old police officer with the Police Commissariat of Preah Sihanouk Province.

The perpetrator would sometimes give C.Y. 500 riels (about US$0.12) or some fruit after raping her and instructed her not to tell her parents.

Although her father discovered and promptly reported the crime, the case was marked by institutional interference. According to the case record, military police and individuals associated with the perpetrator pressured C.Y.’s family to withdraw the complaint and accept monetary compensation. These alleged acts of judicial bribery, however, were, never investigated.

More than four and a half years after the complaint was filed, the Preah Sihanouk Court in 2015 downgraded the rape charge to “purchase of child prostitution” and “sexual intercourse with a minor”, as the perpetrator had paid C.Y., and thus imposed only the minimum five-year sentence.

The Appeal Court in January 2016 restored the charge of rape and found that the payment of 500 riels or fruit had been an act of persuasion and concealment, not a transaction. Nine months later, the Supreme Court upheld the rape conviction but overturned the Appeal Court’s arrest and detention warrant, leaving the rapist to walk free.

“C.Y.’s case is an egregious example of how a child survivor can be failed at every stage of the justice process, by police interference, discriminatory assumptions, years of delay, a sentence that falls outside the law, and the failure to enforce the judgment of the apex court,” said Committee member Rangita de Silva de Alwis.

For a decade, C.Y. lived in a shelter without adequate remedies or protection, severely restricting her liberty, education, and social life. Despite their appeals having gone all the way to the Supreme Court, the perpetrator has remained at large. C.Y. and her father, therefore, brought their case to the Committee in 2022.

The Committee regretted that Cambodia did not cooperate in the individual communications procedure by failing to provide observations. It concluded that Cambodia violated Articles 1, 2, 3, 5(a) and 15(1) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This meant that Cambodia failed to protect C.Y. from gender-based discrimination, harmful stereotypes, and unequal treatment before the law.

“This is a systemic gender and disability stereotype. The Committee found compounded discrimination based on gender, age, disability and the power imbalance between the victim and the perpetrator,” said de Silva de Alwis.

“More than a decade after the crime, the perpetrator remained free and the survivor without remedy. The Committee’s decision also confirmed that delay, discrimination, and non-enforcement are themselves forms of injustice,” she added.

The Committee ordered immediate enforcement of the judgment, full reparations, protection measures, and prohibition of non-judicial settlements in sexual violence cases. The Committee’s recommendations on legislative revisions redefining rape and consent provide authoritative guidance on legal reform.

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