Cambodian Women's Crisis Center

CWCC Siem Reap

The Cambodian Women's Crisis Center (CWCC) (f. 1997) is a US and Australian Government-funded Cambodian NGO implicated in kidnapping and threatening girls who they claim to protect. According to the CWCC:

"Since opening a Crisis Centre in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, it's services rapidly expanded to include sheltering, counselling, medical assistance, literacy and vocational training, life skills, legal representation, monitoring, repatriation and reintegration of women and girls who have been trafficked, scholarship for poor girls, community awareness and organising, training of and networking with other NGO's and Government Ministry's, advocating for the elimination of all forms of violence (...) The CWCC depends on the generous support and involvement of over 600 volunteers, without which the CWCC would be unable to offer the wide range of services to its clients. One of the main functions the volunteers perform is to conduct training courses on violence against women to men and women in targeted communities. In 2005, Community Safety Net Volunteers helped conduct 524 such courses to over 10,000 villagers. These volunteers also help monitor the level of violence occurring in their own communities, assisting women in finding assistance through the CWCC and other NGOs."

Coercion charges

Girls holding a banner against the CWCC

The websites Ectopia and Inquisition21, linked below, document significant historical allegations of coercion towards the CWCC, backed up by a number of girls who they claim to have saved. The girls not only allege that the CWCC kidnapped them, but testify that as a result of the CWCC's threats and coercion, they were forced to undergo intrusive virginity testing. The girls claim that they were barred from testifying on behalf of the western men involved.

The incident resulted in the jailing of three such men, one of whom died in custody. Another man was granted release in Australia because of the apparent corruption of CWCC and the Cambodian authorities they proudly claim to "network" with.

External links

• Official site

• Services (archived)

• NZHerald: Inquiry into Cambodian centre after rape claims

• Probe

• Ectopia - Girls alleging coercion by CWCC.
• Inquisition21 Article, another, and another, and Free The Innocent Blog.
• Graham Cleghorn News Index