Legal Support for Children and Women (LSCW) was established by Vichuta Ly, a Khmer-Canadian lawyer. Having lived in Canada since 1980, Vichuta Ly returned to Cambodia in 1999 and quickly realised that there was a serious gap in legal services for women and children victims. On July 2 2002, LSCW was registered as a non-governmental organisation with the Cambodian Ministry of Interior (licence no. 626). It was established as a not-for-profit organisation that would be independent of all political parties.