Justice for the Survivors and for Future Generations

The ECCC / ICC Justice project, built on ADHOC’s and its partners’ strengths, has fulfilled and surpassed its goals. It has promoted justice for the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime by (1) dramatically influencing the shape and course of the Khmer Rouge Trials and (2) animating a sustained, nation-wide debate on Khmer Rouge crimes. Complementary project activities around the ICC were somewhat clouded by the urgency and prominence of ECCC-related work; nevertheless they constituted a key input to integrating the Rome Statute into Cambodian law.

Civil Parties: The project’s major success and unique contribution to the advancement of international criminal law (ICL) is Civil Participation, unprecedented in ICL. Victims admitted as Civil Parties (CP) enjoy rights in Court that are similar to the Prosecutor’s and the Defendant’s; i.e., they co-shape the course of the Trial. ADHOC and its partners have grasped the unique opportunity offered by the ECCC’s hybrid nature – its rooting both in Cambodian and international law –, and conducted constructive advocacy and lobby to prompt the necessary revisions in the ECCC rules. ADHOC’s facilitating encounters between victims and CP lawyer Studzinsky has also been instrumental in putting gender-based and sexual crimes onto the ECCC agenda.

International observers concur that the first ECCC Trial (Case 001, “Duch” Trial) was fair and to international standards, despite concerns about corruption and political interference likely to affect Cambodian Court personnel. Teething problems around Civil Participation could be expected. ADHOC and its allies helped to find a viable compromise between CP rights and the need to avoid long delays in ECCC proceedings.

Due to lack of funding and foresight on the ECCC’s part, the ECCC Victims Unit only began to operate at a significant scale in late 2009, near the end of the Case 001 Trial. ADHOC came to the rescue of Civil Parties’ rights, organising direct support and referral systems, securing logistics (transport, food, accommodation), legal advice and representation, psycho-social services, and timely information for CP and other victims, many of whom living far from the capital city. Even today, the VU continues to depend on ADHOC’s nation-wide structure and its sympathetic, non-formalised contact with victims, e.g. to ensure that court notifications reach each CP. The CHRAC KRT sub-committee has served as an information clearing-house between Civil Parties, NGOs and CP lawyers.

Another important step in empowering survivors of the KR regime has been the creation of a Victims’ Association, supported by ADHOC with legal advice and free meeting space.

The country-wide CP representative system, which ADHOC is currently building as part of a 3-month project extension, initially aims at facilitating communication between CP lawyers and at least 1,200 CP and CP applicants. In the longer run, local CP groups may initiate their own activities to overcome the KR past.

Outreach: ADHOC has been the first and arguably major NGO to make the ECCC’s mandate known to “ordinary” Cambodians throughout the country. Some 103,000 women and men from virtually all districts, including multipliers such as local officials, teachers and monks, have participated in participatory outreach workshops on the ECCC. Appropriate print materials and regular radio broadcasts, considered the most effective tools to reach into rural areas, have spread information on the ECCC and on options for psycho-social support. Recent studies suggest that 61% of the total population know about the ECCC; the Trials appear to generate interest and discussions even far from Phnom Penh.

Legal reform and integration of Rome Statute: Cambodia’s new Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) was passed in time to serve as an effective – if incomplete – legal basis to the ECCC. By the time the EU grant was approved, it was too late to significantly influence the CPC adoption process. However, the new Penal Code (2009) does include the three ICC crimes – genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is widely seen as a result of ADHOC advocacy, described by international partners as the most consistent and best-heard voice defending the Rome Statue in Cambodia. Cambodia is the only ASEAN State to have ratified the Statute; ADHOC currently advocates for an ICC co-operation law and for revocation of the immunity agreement concluded with the USA.

The impact of integrating ICC messages into popular outreach workshops appears patchy – understandably, participants seem more interested in the Khmer Rouge past than in a distant institution in The Hague. Overall, ADHOC carried out fewer public activities and training workshops on the ICC than initially planned – priorities had to be shifted to make up for the lack of ECCC support to civil parties. Yet, ADHOC’s two conferences on the ICC (2008 and 2009 respectively), bringing together national decision- and opinion-makers and international experts, have been lauded for their timeliness and relevance.

Outlook: When the project was designed, project partners expected the ECCC would start its operations swiftly and complete the Trials in 2010. This has not been the case. Yet, on 31 March 2010, EU and ON grants to the ECCC / ICC project will come to an end. If no new funding materialises, ADHOC will must close ECCC-specific activities and terminate its employment of 26 KRT staff recruited and trained for this project. Their knowledge and practical experience in making justice a reality for “ordinary” Cambodians is hard to match. If ADHOC cannot continue its ECCC-related activities, hundreds of CP applicants will find themselves without a lawyer. The Victims Unit cannot take over all aspects of ADHOC’s current role: even if its budget increases, it will depend on ADHOC’s provincial staff for communication with victims. 2010 is a crucial year: if popular interest in the trials is not satisfied with interactive outreach work, widespread frustration may undermine the national reconciliation process and individual healing. It seems urgent ADHOC mobilise donor support towards further outreach and civil parties support, in continued co-operation with key stakeholders such as the VU, CHRAC and TPO.

The project has been a vital contribution to ensuring the Khmer Rouge Trials do foster justice and reconciliation in Cambodia. ADHOC and its partners have impressed with their capacity to identify and flexibly respond to strategic opportunities and emphatically promote the interest of “ordinary” Khmer Rouge survivors in a difficult political context. We encourage the project partners and donors to continue supporting Civil Parties as a necessary complement to what the Victim’s Unit can provide, and to deepen its outreach work building on the new structures – CP representatives, Victim’s Associations – the project has brought into being.