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Cambodia Office |
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UNODC Cambodia office supports the Royal Government of Cambodia and the civil society in their efforts to address illicit drugs and crime-related issues with global, regional and Cambodia-specific programmes and projects that provide expertise and technical assistance to this South-East Asian country.
Over the last decade, Cambodia has experienced steady economic growth and respectable progress in poverty reduction, health development and in strengthening its legislative frameworks. Economic growth and greater economic integration with its Greater Mekong Sub-region neighbors has brought Cambodia positive developments - increased mobility of goods, services, people and money, access to knowledge and communications. It has also widened disparities of wealth and brought opportunities for transnational crime to expand.
Cambodia is located in South-East Asia, a global source, transit and destination region for human trafficking, the world's second largest source of heroin, and a key centre for the manufacture and trade of amphetamine type stimulants (ATS). The region has also been subjected to illicit natural resource extraction, including the unlawful acquisition and export of endangered species and timber. This has had an impact on the Kingdom.
Cambodia has became a major transit country for drug trafficking. The number of illicit drug users - particularly of
amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) - has grown sharply. Some Cambodians have became victims of the human trafficking that afflicts the region. Cambodia has turned into a target country for sex tourism, with an alarming proportion of children involved. These are just some of the many challenges that UNODC Cambodia responds to.
To address these issues, UNODC Cambodia works, in line with UNODC's
Regional Programme Framework for East Asia and the Pacific, with a focus on two thematic areas:
Rule of Law and
Health and Development.
The rule of law problems which UNODC Cambodia seeks to address are grouped into three main pillars:
Illicit Trafficking and Smuggling, where local responses are impeded by weak law enforcement capacity and patchy cooperation among members states. UNODC Cambodia provides assistance for
border control, trafficking in persons, drugs and precursors, and natural resources, and the
smuggling of migrants.
Governance: UNODC Cambodia assists the Royal Government of Cambodia's efforts to use the ratified United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) as an analytical tool. This work includes supporting the identification, freezing and repatriation of stolen assets and combating money laundering.
Criminal Justice: Supporting the Royal Government of Cambodia to adopt and implement international conventions, and to strengthen the Cambodian justice and law enforcement system, particularly to address transnational organized justice. Special attention is given to combating child sexual abuse and protecting children's' rights.
Health and development issues for which UNODC Cambodia provides assistance are grouped in two pillars:
Drug Demand Reduction: Supporting the Government to develop alternative, evidence-based treatments for drug-related problems. These include prevention, community-based drug treatment, rehabilitation and counseling, as well as re-integration into society.
HIV/AIDS: Together with the UN Country Team, UNODC helps the government in its fight against HIV/AIDS. The particular UNODC focus is on injecting drug users and HIV/AIDS in prison settings.
To achieve these aims, UNODC Cambodia cooperates intensely with government partners and civil society institutions. UNODC Cambodia's main partners are: the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Affairs, as well as rest of the
UN country team in Cambodia.
