Shut Cambodian drug detention centres, says Human Rights Watch

01 February 2010
Human Rights Watch is calling on the Cambodian government to permanently close down its compulsory drug detention centres.
Cambodian drug users are at risk of ‘arbitrary detention’ in centres where they are frequently tortured and raped, according to a new report based on extensive interviews with former detainees. The official function of the centres is treatment and rehabilitation. However punishments documented in Skin on the cable – the illegal arrest, arbitrary detention and torture of people who use drugs in Cambodia include beatings, rapes, forced labour, electric shocks and being chained in the sun.

Detainees also describe having to survive on rotten or insect-ridden food and being forced to donate blood. Many of the inmates are arrested without reasonable cause, often on the request of a relative or as part of a police round-up of ‘undesirables’, and have no access to a lawyer. The centres are also used to detain children and people with mental health issues. Last year DDN reported from the International Harm Reduction Agency (IHRA) conference in Bangkok, where speakers described mass roundups of drug users, sex workers and the homeless for detention at a former Khmer Rouge execution centre (DDN, 4 May 2009, page 9).

‘The real motivations for Cambodia’s drug detention centres appear to be a combination of social control, punishment for the perceived moral failure of drug use, and profit,’ states the report. ‘Individuals in these centres are not being treated or rehabilitated, they are being illegally detained and often tortured,’ said director of Human Rights Watch’s health and human rights division, Joseph Amon. ‘These centres do not need to be revamped or modified. They need to be shut down. Drug dependency can be addressed through expanded voluntary, community-based, outpatient treatment that respects human rights and is consistent with international standards.’ A Beethoven concert by the European Doctors Orchestra is being held at Cadogan Hall in London on 9 February in support of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. To buy tickets visit www.cadoganhall.com Skin on the cable available at www.hrw.org
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