Human Sciences Encounters in Phnom Penh
Come and join us, let’s learn about each other experience
and strengthen the Cambodian Human Sciences network !
Ones a month, at Baitong Restaurant, St 360 / Norodom Bd/ BKK1
Contact: hs.encounters[atmark]gmail.com
Mutation in process !!
It is with pleasure that we have a nice announcement to share with you: during more than one year we have established new contacts, multiplied the meetings and discussions with a broad variety of institutions and key research actors in Cambodia. The result finally paid a huge does of involvement and motivation: our Human Sciences Happy Hours is about to reborn anew!
As you know the Human Sciences Happy Hours in Phnom Penh came to life in Octobre 2008. Since then the network never stopped to grow. It now blends together an interesting mix of fields, backgrounds and levels (anthropology, history, sociology, archaeology, psychology, geography, linguistics, urbanism, criminology, political sciences… from Masters to ongoing PhDs, from confirmed academics to experimental voices…). In a continuous attempt to share research outside its walls and to bring it to the society, the door is always open to non-researchers, coming to seek for knowledge. Today almost 500 researchers and other actors (mainly from the development world) are part of our network. Each monthly event gathers 30 to 50 individuals coming to open a new window on the country, but also to build knowledge otherwise often isolated in Cambodia.
This network now presents a real platform for Social Science research in Cambodia. It has become a forum of numerous exchanges and collaborations and it provides the mean for all to share information and publications in this field.
So what's next? What changes are we talking about?
1. The network will be soon take venue at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) linking history of humanities in Cambodia to present, welcoming a fresh start and innovative collaboration.
2. The HSHH are now integrated in a new project of master of human and social sciences at RUFA (a project lead by IRD, CNRS, INALCO, UNESCO, AUF and RUFA.
3. The HSHH activities are now going to be associated with IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) and will receive some funding from this collaboration.
4. In order to open the floor to our non-english speaking colleagues, we now invite all researchers willing to present their work in any other language they feel comfortable with.
5. We get a brand new name to celebrate those changes! The HSHH now become the:
HUMAN SCIENCES ENCOUNTERS IN PHNOM PENH
And in case you didn't know it before (but we are quite sure you did already!) you are all welcome to continue to join us! We are always looking for new sharers of thoughts: presentations, research papers, impulsions and new ideas are what we feed on! (That and fresh water and love of course!).
This is a first step for us to ensure that the network can survive and keep its activities and bubbling encounters alive. Soon to come, the expansion of those activities! And now and forever (yes, we do apply a long term perspective!), YOU are to shape this network by your participation! We welcome (no, we call on to!) all new energies and good spirits willing to join us!
Cheers to all,
Pascale, Emiko, Leo, and Gabriel
Human Sciences Encounters in Phnom Penh
email: hs.encounters[atmark]gmail.com
web: http://hshhpp.pbworks.com/
Coordinating team:
Pascale Hancart Petitet, Emiko Stock, Gabriel Fauveaud, Léo Mariani,
Welcome to our up coming event !
In February
Friday 24th.
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
Chenda Keo, PhD
Dr. Keo will talk about the unintended negative consequences of having a harsh anti-trafficking law that was precipitately introduced in Cambodia in 1996 following successful advocacy and pressure by local and international do-gooders (NGOs, UN agencies, Donors). Based on interviews with 91 detained human traffickers in eight prisons, his study reveals how tough law that was vaguely written to criminalize ancestral practices and precipitately introduced in a dysfunctional Criminal Justice System (CJS) failed to deter human trafficking and became an instrument for further injustice against the powerless and the disadvantaged. The following summarizes his study.
Human trafficking has been likened by the UN, US, other western governments, and many NGOs as “modern day slavery.” It has been presented as a transnational enterprise controlled by organized crime, which enslaves 12.3 million people, generates $32 billion in profit for human traffickers, and poses a serious threat to national and global security. While these alarming claims have received little support from the scarce empirical literature on human trafficking and the handful of studies on traffickers, the world, and with it Cambodia, has been called to wage a “war on human trafficking.”
This thesis seeks to answer two broad questions: first, why and how, in the absence of supporting empirical evidence, such sensational claims prevailed, and second, why Cambodia suddenly in 1996 enacted an anti-trafficking law that is one of the harshest laws in the country? Using a multi-method and multi-source research design, which includes police and prison records, interviews with police and prison officers, court officials, NGOs, and particularly 91 detained traffickers, the thesis investigates five major themes about traffickers in Cambodia: who are they, how do they operate, how much profit do they make, why are they involved in human trafficking, and how does the Cambodian CJS control their activities?
In the Cambodian context, the thesis does not support the popular claims about the high prevalence, profitability, or role of organized crime in human trafficking. Incarcerated traffickers in Cambodia are poor, uneducated individuals, and 80% are women. Their activities are unsophisticated and conducted by sole operators or small casual networks. Pushed by a lack of legitimate opportunities and pulled by the presence of illegitimate opportunities, to survive they engage in trafficking for very modest gains.
Caught in a corrupt CJS, they serve long prison sentences and as many as 60% are probably the victims of miscarriages of justice.
The thesis argues that the hegemonic security, moral, and human rights agendas of the west initiated a
security and moral panic about trafficking. Pressured by foreign and local NGOs and the need for foreign aid, Cambodia adopted a repressive legalistic response. In the hands of a dysfunctional CJS, harsh laws did not deter potential traffickers but produced serious unintended consequences that turned the law into an instrument of corruption and injustice against the powerless. To address trafficking in Cambodia what is required is not more law and punishment but legitimate opportunities to survive.
Brief biography
Chenda Keo has been UNICEF Technical Advisor to the Cambodia National Council for Children since August 2011. He has over a decade of experience working with INGOs and UN agencies, especially in the field of human trafficking. He did his PhD at the Australian National University (ANU) and is the first Cambodian to have graduated with a PhD in Criminology. His thesis is the first at least among English literature to explore human trafficking drawing principally but not exclusively from the traffickers’ experiences and perspectives. His thesis is being considered for the J.G. Crawford Prize for the ANU best th
