Global Progress Towards Ending the Sexual Exploitation of Children
A global problem requires truly global solutions to address the sexual exploitation of children.
Indicators
Age of Consent
No
The age of sexual consent is 15 years for both girls and boys. The national legislation does not provide for a close-in-age exemption.
DH Legal Analysis Cambodia, 2020
Extraterritoriality & Extradition
No
Active and passive extraterritoriality is provided for SEC-related crimes but those punished with 5 years of imprisonment or less require double criminality.
Extradition is governed by international conventions ratified by Cambodia and requires double criminality.
DH Legal Analysis Cambodia, 2020
CSAM Definition
No
The national legislation does not provide a definition which is partially in line with international standards. The definition provided does not include depictions of the sexual parts of a child’s body for primarily sexual purposes, nor material depicting a person appearing to be a minor and computer/digitally generated CSAM including realistic images of non-existing children.
DH Legal Analysis Cambodia, 2020
Background Check Required
No
There are no mandatory legal provisions for criminal background checks nor legislation prohibiting convicted sex offenders to hold positions involving or facilitating contact with children.
SECTT Legal Checklist Cambodia, 2020
National Commitments
Partial
Cambodia has ratified the CRC, the OPSC, the Trafficking Protocol and the ILO Convention No. 182.
Cambodia has not ratified the OPIC, the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics nor the Council of Europe's Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.
DH Legal Analysis Cambodia, 2020
Child Advocacy Centers
Not Yet Assessed
SEC Police Unit
Partial
There are two main police units including SEC in their mandate: the Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection (AHTJP) Department, dealing with SEC cases in general and the Anti Cybercrime Unit, for crimes related OCSE and other computer related crimes. No information has been found on whether these units are fully functional and whether both offences under national and extra-territorial jurisdiction are able to be addressed by them.
DH Desk-based Research Cambodia, 2020
Protection Standards Travel and Tourism
Partial
There are no child protection standards for the travel and tourism industry in place but some special laws could be applicable in this regard.
SECTT Legal Checklist ASEAN, 2020
Public SEC Case Data
No
There are national databases to gather information on sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and trafficking cases. However, these tend to focus primarily on trafficking, and are insufficiently linked to each other. Furthermore they are not accessible at the provincial and municipal levels. It is unclear whether this data is made available on a regular basis and whether it is clearly disaggregated.
ECO Cambodia, 2018
Age of Consent Law is Appropriate
The age of sexual consent for both males and females is 18 and a close in age exemption (up to 3 years) is provided for consensual sexual relationships between adolescents.
The age of sexual consent is the legally defined age at which a person is considered mature enough to agree to sexual activity. The age of sexual consent varies across jurisdictions around the world and there is no international legal instrument establishing it, however various forms of advocacy have encouraged States to establish a minimum age under which engaging in sexual contact is considered a criminal offence. This is intended to prevent sexual contact with children and to prevent argument that the child consented as a defence.
Often national provisions related to the age of sexual consent include an exception, known as a close-in-age exemption, making consensual sexual activities between young people lawful if the partners are of similar ages and the age difference is not higher than a certain number of years.
To ensure that cases of child sexual exploitation do not go unpunished, ECPAT advocates for the age of sexual consent to be set at 18 for both males and females with a close-in-age exemption of 2-3 years provided in order to ensure young people are not penalised for consensual sexual acts with peers. The age from which the exemption applies should be established by States but may begin for young people somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age.
Yes The national legislation explicitly indicates that the age of sexual consent unequivocally is 18 for both males and females, with a close-in-age exemption for sexual acts between peers (of up to 3 years) is provided by law.