Clothilde Le Coz

Clothilde Le Coz is an independent journalist and writer based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, who specializes in social, political and human-rights issues. She is a media development consultant for the Cambodian Center for Independent Media and formerly worked as the Washington D.C. director for Reporters Without Borders. She has an M.A. in international relations and journalism and a B.A. in political science, both from SciencesPo in Grenoble, France. She also has a bachelor in philosophy from the Sorbonne.

As Acid Attacks Rise Against Women, Laws Help to Deter Such Assaults

Clothilde Le Coz

• February 29, 2016

PHNOM PENH — Acid is increasingly becoming a personal weapon of choice, especially against women. In the last 15 years, it has been estimated that more than 3,200 acid-throwing attacks were recorded in countries as varied as Bangladesh, Britain, Colombia, Pakistan and Uganda, totaling an estimated 3,500 victims in that time period. The numbers are estimated to …

Asia, Gender Violence, Women

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Repression of Civil Society in Cambodia Reflects an Alarming Global Trend

Clothilde Le Coz

• October 11, 2015

PHNOM PENH — Accused of organizing an “insurrection” last year, nearly a dozen Parliament ministers from the political opposition were sentenced to prison terms from 7 to 20 years by a Phnom Penh court this summer. The charge stemmed from demonstrations held in July 2014, rallying the opposition to end the national ban on …

Asia, Human Rights

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The Controversial Cambodian-Australian Refugee Deal Hits Snags

Clothilde Le Coz

• April 21, 2015

PHNOM PENH — A controversial $40 million deal signed between the Australian and Cambodian governments last September to resettle about 1,000 refugees from detention centers on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru to Cambodia was the first time two ratifying states of the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees agreed to transfer their …

Asia, Human Rights, Myanmar, Refugees, UN Agencies

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Somaly Mam, Anti-Trafficking Crusader Caught in a Scandal, Revives Her Cause

Clothilde Le Coz

• December 7, 2014

PHNOM PENH — Dueling depictions of Somaly Mam, the Cambodian activist who has campaigned against sex trafficking in her country and elsewhere, have splashed across large media outlets in the last six months. Mam, who contends she was a child prostitute, became a worldwide name when her story was written by The New York …

Asia, Gender Violence, Human Trafficking, Women

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Khmer Rouge Practiced Widespread Sexual Attacks on Minorities

Clothilde Le Coz

• June 11, 2014

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Until now, sexual violence against ethnic minorities during the Khmer Rouge era in this country went largely ignored. Now for the first time, the Cambodian Defenders Project, one of the oldest legal aid organizations here, has published first-person accounts of interviews with 105 men and women from ethnic Vietnamese, Khmer …

Asia, Gender Violence, International Justice, Women

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In Cambodia, Silent Reactions to Sexual Violence May Be the Norm

Clothilde Le Coz

• December 4, 2013

PHNOM PENH — Kunthear Laut, a 33-year-old Cambodian woman, is a child of marital rape and a victim of two rapes as well as three attempts and at least five years of incest from her uncle. “A woman has to obey a man; otherwise he uses violence,” she said in an interview with PassBlue …