Cambodia: Calls for ‘forced pregnancy’ to be recognized

By Selim ALTIN on March 18, 2016

Families separated under Khmer Rouge, and individuals forced into marriages that were typically consummated under duress and threat of death

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – The author of a new study on forced pregnancies under the Khmer Rouge regime has called for the practice to be recognized as a distinct crime in its own right at a tribunal that is trying former leaders of a litany of abuses.

Human rights lawyer Maria Lobato presented her work in Phnom Penh on Friday, arguing that while forced marriage and rape within forced marriage has been prosecuted in Cambodia “forced pregnancy in the context of forced marriage has not been completely examined and is not in the mainstream.”

The rise of the ultra-Maoist regime saw it seek to destroy the familial structures that had become the pillars of Cambodian society. Families were separated and individuals were forced into marriages that were typically consummated under duress and threat of death.

“Some victims recalled having to promise to [the Khmer Rouge] that they would produce one child per year,” Lobato said.

The new marriages, born out of this arrangement, weren’t typical.

Men and women would be separated into different camps, but the Khmer Rouge would ensure that conjugal visits would be carried out “to ensure they would procreate.”

The result was a spike in the country’s birth rate from 1977 onwards because “a high number of these forced marriages resulted in forced pregnancies.”

Lobato said the distinction is important because forcible impregnation and confinement caused particular physical and mental distress to the affected women.

Access to food and health care was a permanent threat; women were forced to do gruelling work and many developed anxiety.

In addition, the maternal mortality rate was high, women sought dangerous abortions and many also had stillbirths.

Acknowledging the crime as distinct from forced marriage is a “critical need,” Lobato’s paper says, and shouldn’t just be regarded as a consequence of the other crime of forced marriage.

Suon Bunsak, secretary-general of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, said at the launch that the report will serve as “an historical document” on the specific crime.

“We are seeking justice for women who were forced to be pregnant during the regime,” he said.