A/HRC/45/51/Add.1 67. This Centre has a key role in promoting the social well-being of victims and vulnerable persons who are homeless, providing them with care, accommodation, food and training according to their knowledge, skills and abilities, on the basis of the basic principles of respect for human rights while they are seeking their families, counseling, and emotional reconciliation, all of which benefit them in the Centre. Not in any shape or form do we abandon, persecute or torture them. Instead, this Centre is the only place in Phnom Penh that provides [them] with temporary accommodation, food and safety before studying various cases. The Centre provides victims with treatment, both at in-house health centre and staterun referral hospitals – [services are provided] by Social Affairs staff. Social Affairs staff provides [them] with food, medication and medical care in hospitals. Sometimes they are referred to state-run referral hospitals outside for treatment. The Centre has provided homeless women, women with dementia and pregnant women with health care and referred them to outside hospitals for treatment. The Centre has facilitated their return to their hometowns, providing them with materials for supporting their livelihoods temporarily; they receive equity cards from the government policy. The Centre has a mental health counselling programme to help them understand the cost of labour. Paragraph 39 68. The Royal Government of Cambodia does not have any drug detention and rehabilitation centres – it has only drug treatment and rehabilitation centres and receives drug addicts voluntarily [from their] parents, guardians, or from courts. Drug addicts are not deprived of liberty to be treated and rehabilitated; in addition, they are not subjected to torture or punishment and other forms of inhuman treatment, and these rights are guaranteed by the Royal Government, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders involved. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation has introduced various measures, following the guidelines of the Ministry of Health – all centres are not allowed to admit new drug users and are provided with sanitation facilities such as soaps, masks, alcohols, gels and infrared thermometers 69. So far victims who have been receiving services from all drug treatment and rehabilitation centres in Cambodia have not been infected with or died from COVID-19. All victims and vulnerable persons receiving temporary accommodation have been provided with food, health care and vocational training for a short period of time and reintegrated with their families. Paragraph 39 70. So far the Royal Government of Cambodia, with the National Authority for Combating Drugs as the staff, has taken all measures to prevent, suppress and resolve all drug-related issues, with the aim of protecting the well-being and livelihoods of the citizens, as well as contributing to maintaining security, order and social development. In addition to restricting and punishing criminals and those involved in the production, storage, trafficking and distribution of illegal drugs, the Royal Government has taken care to rescue drug addicts by providing [them with] various services and options, at temporary centres, local health facilities and in communities, with the purpose of providing treatment and rehabilitation. These services do not only help drug addicts who have committed offences under Articles 45 and 53 of the Law on Drug Control get out of jail, but also help them get physical and mental health care, general education, life skills training, rehabilitation and other vocational training that can help them form the basis of preventing drug relapse and making a living. Although those temporary centres remain operational, the National Authority for Combating Drugs has increased the integration into families and communities and encouraged the strengthening and expansion of voluntary and community-based treatment and rehabilitation services, in particular, in the context of COVID-19, by increasing up to 450 locations of treatment services in local health facilities, including health centres, referral hospitals, provincial hospitals and national hospitals and training 883 psychiatrists and health workers for providing medical services to drug addicts. With a series of guidelines for all public, private and civil society organisations to adhere to the Ministry of Health’s guidelines on accommodation, sanitation and reduction of visits, the National Authority for Combating Drugs has encouraged the private and religious sectors, civil society organisations and local people to support and participate more actively in the process of strengthening and expanding 13

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents