The Board of Directors and entire SISHA team warmly welcomes Mrs. Gina Rinehart as our newest Non-Executive Board member. Gina is the Executive Chairperson of Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd (HPPL) and the HPPL Group of companies. She is extensively involved in Australia’s iron ore and coal industry and has been honored with a number of awards for her many business achievements.
On the 23rd of March 2010, SISHA in cooperation with Battambang Province Anti Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Police raided an illegal brothel housing 7 Khmer females. The females aged between 20 and 30 years of age were all drug addicted and living in terrible conditions. After interviews with SISHA Aftercare staff, the following information was obtained;
This is the sad reality for many young women in Cambodia. The choice of your family starving or having to sell your body for $5, 4 to 10 times a day is not a life that any of us should have to endure. All 7 women were repatriated back with their families and the two pimps were locked up in pre-trial detention. SISHA Aftercare staff are now conducting follow up assessments with each female and their family.
On the 12th of February 2010, SISHA officially completed the Phnom Penh phase of its 5 year Criminal Investigation Training Course. 120 Cambodia National Police working in the Crime Investigation and Anti-Human Trafficking & Juvenile Protection Departments participated in and passed the two-week, ten module training course. The aim of the training courses is to provide front line criminal investigation police in Cambodia with necessary policing and criminal investigation skills that will allow them to successfully investigate serious crime in Cambodia.
SISHA has officially launched its Criminal Investigation Training Course project in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Officially launched on the 1st of December 2009 and supported by The Asia Foundation, SISHA has designed an intensive two-week Criminal Investigation Training Course that will be provided to 120 Cambodia National Police working in the Crime Investigation Department. The 4 two-week, nine module training courses will encompass theoretical and practical based training and include subjects such as Law Enforcement Ethics, Law, Police Powers, Investigation Planning, Crime Scenes, Victim & Child Interviews, Offender Identification, Suspect Interviewing and Protection Orders.
The aim of the training courses is to provide front line criminal investigation police in Cambodia with necessary policing and criminal investigation skills that will allow them to successfully investigate serious crime in Cambodia.
If successful, SISHA hopes to role out the Criminal Investigation Training Course to Cambodia National Police around the country. SISHA thanks The Asia Foundation for their support.
Police collect and secure evidence during the rape crime scene practical exercise
Police work in groups during the investigation planning practical exercise.
A On the 7th of October 2009, SISHA Expert Advisory Group member Mr. Ed Kelly was awarded the 'Victor J Garo Award for Public and Humanitarian Service'.
Conferred by the Boston University School of Law, Ed was recognised for his outstanding non-profit work in support of SISHA and its role in rescuing women and children from sexual slavery in Thailand and Cambodia, and for disrupting networks of slave traders in Cambodia. Ed was also recognised for his important role in advising a multi-disciplinary multi-national task force working in Iran, Dubai and Pakistan to release US journalist Roxana Saberi from Evin Prison earlier this year.
Ed Kelly, who is the Author of a book entitled "Inside the Minds: IP Client Strategies in Asia/Australia", has received numerous accolades and awards, in particular featured as a leading lawyer in intellectual property in Chambers Asia 2008, 2009, identified as a pre-eminent practitioner in the field of patent law in the Guide to the World’s Leading Patent Law Practitioners, identified as a pre-eminent practitioner in the field of trademark law in the Guide to the World’s Leading Trade Mark Law Practitioners, ranked as a "Recommended individual" in Intellectual Property and Life Sciences and recognised as one of Asia's leading business lawyers in the area of Intellectual Property, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.
SISHA is extremely honoured to have Ed Kelly as a passionate member of the SISHA Expert Advisory group and congratulates him on his latest achievement.
A woman who was trafficked into sexual slavery has won a human rights award in Los Angeles for her work helping other victims. Vann Sina was subjected to unimaginable horror, but has turned her life around by helping others.
Presenter: David Boyle
Speakers: Vann Sina, advocate for sexual slavery victims, Somaly Mam foundation; Steve Morrish, executive director, South East Asia Investigations into Sociala nd Humanitarian Activities
SISHA released its latest media campaign today. It is a very real and on going problem in South East Asia. The media campaign has been designed to be confronting and upsetting.
SISHA Executive Director Steve Morrish was quoted as saying, " I make no apologies if this media campaign made you angry and upset. The issue of violating an innocent child is serious and I hope that this will create much needed awareness of the current problems and most importantly encourage you to act".
Too many people choose to turn a blind eye to this disgusting criminality against children, which is perpetuated by foreign tourists, but also local criminals. The problem is growing and this is now a call for action!
Paedophiles prey on the weak and hope that you will turn a blind eye to what they are doing to children. Executive Director Steve Morrish stated "If you don't act, then you contribute to this disgusting behaviour!"
SISHA has been instrumental in obtaining a guilty verdict for a Japanese man who physically abused his eight year old daughter. In a pronouncement handed down in a Phnom Penh court on 25 August 2009, he was sentenced to five months imprisonment for Battery.
A SISHA investigation led to the arrest of the offender in April 2009, after our SISHA staff uncovered evidence of his abuse with severe bruising being sited on the young child’s legs. He admitted in open court that he had beaten her 10 times with a wire clothes hanger – although testified that this was the only occasion that he had beaten her. Since his arrest, SISHA (working in close collaboration with the police, shelter provider DoSAVY, and other family members) has provided continual assistance to the eight year old victim and her 11 year old sister.
SISHA's Aftercare Coordinator gives the client a SISHA Aftercare Pack, including clothing, toiletries, and toys.
On Friday 21 August 2009, five young Cambodian girls bravely testified at Battambang Provincial Court. Their courage was rewarded, with the Presiding Judge ordering that the case against the accused brothel manager be sent back to the Investigating Judge for further investigation under Cambodia’s Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008.
The Judge was of the opinion that the charges should be upgraded from a misdemeanor (carrying a sentence of two to five years) to a felony (carrying seven to 15 years) – a view shared by the girls’ lawyers given the gravity and seriousness of the crime. If found guilty of a felony offence, the accused brothel manager will face a longer imprisonment term and any compensation ordered will also increase commensurately. The accused remains safely locked in pre-trial detention whilst the court proceedings continue.
Rescued from a brothel last year by SISHA and local police, these girls have faced unimaginable horrors: being deceived into prostitution, locked up, and repeatedly beaten, drugged, and forced to have unprotected sex. The youngest is just 14 years old.
SISHA’s support for the girls – both legal and emotional – will continue.
The girls prepare for court with their lawyers on 20 August.
SISHA has officially launched a pilot Youth Legal Rights project in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
This Legal Rights course is being offered at Village Earth’s Lakeside School to marginalised young people living in the slums of Beoung Kok lakeside. Outstanding students will become peer educators and impart their knowledge to other at-risk young people in the community and in the provinces.
The aim of the project is to reduce the vulnerability of young people most at-risk of being trafficked and exploited in Cambodia. The students will be equipped with the knowledge and life skills to protect themselves and their peers against human trafficking and other forms of exploitation, assert their legal rights confidently and develop a greater appreciation for the rule of law.
Officially launched on 13 August 2009, the class is being piloted with a class of 25 students one evening per week over a period of 3 months. SISHA thanks The Carracher Family for their generosity in funding this project.
A student enthusiastically taking part in SISHA's Youth Legal Rights course on 13 August 2009
Students celebrating at Lakeside School with SISHA Legal Instructors
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