Abstract
One of the most interesting features of the ECCC is that it combines an extensive victim participation scheme with a collective reparations mandate. However, it has been a gradual learning curve for the ECCC to manage the participation of more than 8,000 victims in its proceedings. Benefiting from its in-country location, the ECCC has been able to rely on collaboration with relatively strong and proactive local civil society organisations. Working primarily at the intersection between the Court and society, these NGOs have assumed various roles in support of the ECCC’s victim participation process, some of which would more commonly fall within the responsibility of a court. This chapter explores the main roles Cambodian NGOs play in the ECCC’s victim participation scheme and draws some preliminary observations at a point where the Court has completed its first case and is in the midst of trial hearings in its second case.
Christoph Sperfeldt is Regional Program Coordinator at the Asian International Justice Initiative (AIJI), a collaborative project between the East–West Center and UC Berkeley’s War Crimes Studies Center.
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Notes
- 1.
Case 002 currently proceeds only against two defendants after Ieng Thirith was found by the Trial Chamber not be fit to stand trial and a second defendant, Ieng Sary, passed away in March 2013.
- 2.
See for instance OSJI 2011.
- 3.
See more at Bertelman 2010.
- 4.
AIJI 2009, p. 6.
- 5.
Pham et al. 2011a, After the First Trial, p. 26.
- 6.
For more specific information, see the chapter of Silke Studzinsky in this book.
- 7.
Refer to Rule 23 of the ECCC Internal Rules.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
See, for example, Penh et al. 2006.
- 12.
See for instance Human Rights Watch 2003.
- 13.
These roles are described in relation to the ECCC more generally at Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 150–152.
- 14.
OHCHR 2008a, p. 18.
- 15.
Sperfeldt 2012b, p. 151.
- 16.
See more at ICTJ 2010.
- 17.
Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 158–159.
- 18.
Information provided by KID, on file with author.
- 19.
IRI 2009, pp. 32–40.
- 20.
Pham et al. 2011a, After the First Trial, p. 21.
- 21.
ECCC 2008.
- 22.
Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 155–157.
- 23.
According to data provided by the VSS as at 26 August 2010, the most significant intermediary NGOs are KID (2,486 forms), ADHOC (1,848 forms), DC-Cam (1,744 forms), KKKHRA (325 forms), the Applied Social Research Institute (ASRIC) from the Cambodian-American diaspora (170 forms), and the Center for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR, 165 forms). The numbers combine complaints and civil party applications.
- 24.
See more at Hermann 2010.
- 25.
The other primary intermediary organisations were KID, DC-Cam, KKKHRA, ASRIC, and CJR.
- 26.
Raab and Poluda 2010.
- 27.
Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 151–152.
- 28.
- 29.
Strasser et al. 2011a, Engaging Communities.
- 30.
See about the ECCC’s collective reparations at Sperfeldt 2012a.
- 31.
- 32.
The Trial Chamber granted only two reparations requests in Case 001: to include in its judgment the names of civil parties and their relatives who died at S-21, and to compile statements of apology by the convicted person.
- 33.
See ECCC Internal Rules (Rev.6), 17 September 2010, Rule 12bis (2) and (3); and Rule 23quinquies.
- 34.
Youth for Peace 2010.
- 35.
- 36.
See more at www.dccam.org/Sleuk_Rith_Institute/index.htm.
- 37.
Sperfeldt 2012a, pp. 485–487.
- 38.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
- 39.
See more at www.forum.eastwestcenter.org/Khmer-Rouge-Trials.
- 40.
See more information at www.cambodiatribunal.org.
- 41.
OSJI 2012.
- 42.
See, for instance, CHRAC and ECCC Victims Unit 2009.
- 43.
See Pham et al. 2011b, Victim Participation and the Trial of Duch, pp. 273–277.
- 44.
Pham et al. 2011b, Victim Participation and the Trial of Duch, pp. 284–285.
- 45.
Pham et al. 2011b, Victim Participation and the Trial of Duch, p. 285.
- 46.
Stover et al. 2011, p. 14.
- 47.
Stover et al. 2011, p. 42.
- 48.
In their final judgment on appeals, issued on 3 February 2012, the Supreme Court Judges admitted an additional 10 civil party applicants.
- 49.
Number of civil parties as of November 2011. See also ECCC 2011.
- 50.
Refer to DC-Cam's Victim Participation Project (VPA) at www.dccam.org.
- 51.
AIJI 2009, pp. 28–35.
- 52.
Among the intermediary NGOs in Cambodia, ADHOC, KID, CSD and KKKHRA, as well as the legal aid NGOs CDP and LAC were part of this support scheme. See more at Oeung and Sperfeldt 2010.
- 53.
See for instance Werner and Rudy 2010, pp. 301–309.
- 54.
ECCC Internal Rule (Rev.8) 12ter.
- 55.
- 56.
Civil Parties’ Request for Supplementary Investigations Regarding Genocide of the Khmer Krom and the Vietnamese, ECCC Doc D250/3, 3 December 2009, submitted by Civil Party Co-Lawyers Ny Chandy, Mahdev Mohan and Lyma Nguyen (Mohan et al. 2009).
- 57.
FIDH et al. 2011, pp. 17–18.
- 58.
Hermann 2010, p. 5.
- 59.
See more at Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 152–153.
- 60.
- 61.
Pham et al. 2011b, Victim Participation and the Trial of Duch, p. 285.
- 62.
Sperfeldt 2012b, p. 153.
- 63.
OHCHR 2008a, p. 20.
- 64.
See for instance ICC Assembly of States Parties, Report of the Bureau on Victims and Affected Communities and Trust Fund for Victims, ICC-ASP/10/31, 22 November 2011.
- 65.
Stover et al. 2011, p. 43.
- 66.
Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 152–153.
- 67.
Sperfeldt 2012b, p. 160.
- 68.
These explanations are inspired by David Backer’s theoretical framework on the trends of collaboration between civil society and governments. See Backer 2003, pp. 306–310.
- 69.
Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 155–158.
- 70.
Mom Kunthear 2011.
- 71.
ECCC 2012a.
- 72.
ECCC 2012b.
- 73.
Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 154–155.
- 74.
Dosch et al. 2010.
- 75.
Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 154–155.
- 76.
Sperfeldt 2012b, p. 155.
- 77.
Hermann 2010, p. 7.
- 78.
Strasser et al. 2011b, Justice and Healing.
- 79.
See ICTJ et al. 2009.
- 80.
Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 155–156.
- 81.
OHCHR 2008b, p. 12.
- 82.
ICTJ 2010, pp. 10–12.
- 83.
Arriaza and Roht-Arriaza 2008, p. 170.
- 84.
Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 158–159.
- 85.
The Ksaem Ksan Association and the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia.
- 86.
See Ksaem Ksan Association 2010.
- 87.
Sperfeldt 2012b, pp. 156–158.
- 88.
See for instance Un and Ledgerwood 2010.
- 89.
OHCHR 2008a, p. 20.
- 90.
See for instance Sperfeldt et al. 2010.
- 91.
Sperfeldt 2012b.
- 92.
OHCHR 2008a, p. 20.
- 93.
Thomas and Chy 2009, pp. 234–250.
- 94.
Stover et al. 2011, p. 44.
- 95.
Sperfeldt 2012a, pp. 487–489.
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Sperfeldt, C. (2013). The Role of Cambodian Civil Society in the Victim Participation Scheme of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. In: Bonacker, T., Safferling, C. (eds) Victims of International Crimes: An Interdisciplinary Discourse. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-6704-912-2_21
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