New guidelines aim to protect women, children

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A 100-page set of guidelines for the legal protection of the rights of women and children was launched by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Phnom Penh on Thursday in a bid to address shortfalls in how the judicial system handles cases such as rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment. Their publication, with funding from the German and Spanish governments, comes eight months after Women’s Minister Ing Kantha Phavi told the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women that there have been no documented cases of women taking violence and abuse cases to court.