Prison move may unravel

Human rights groups are warning that Cambodia’s new Prison Law will create financial incentives for violations of human rights within the Kingdom’s prisons and tarnish the image of the country’s most lucrative export industry: footwear and garments. They point to Article 71 of the new law, which has cleared the Senate and is awaiting Royal endorsement. The article allows prison directors to enter into contracts with private firms to create vocational training programs that will allow the sale of products within the domestic market. Phil Roberston, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, warned over the weekend that the “government will be opening a Pandora’s Box of human rights abuses for profit in its already badly troubled prisons”. “The Cambodian government should recognise the huge reputational risk that the label ‘Made in Cambodia’ may start being regarded as ‘Made behind bars in Cambodia’,” he said. He pointed to recent media reports of footwear being made in a prison in Preah Sihanouk and called on the company alleged to be exporting the shoes, Taiwanese-owned New Star Shoes, to be expelled from the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia…

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