The Extraordinary Chambers

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Monthly Updates on the ECCC
Author: Justice Initiative

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The Extraordinary Chambers

The Trial of Charles Taylor

Hybrid Tribunals

International Justice: An Overview

Overview of ECCC

The Justice Initiative considers the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) as the best and final chance to provide justice to the victims of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, which was responsible for some 1.7 million deaths between 1975 and 1979. The atrocities committed in Cambodia in the 1970s have not been redressed. After other international courts were established to prosecute recent or ongoing genocides and crimes against humanity, efforts were made to establish a “hybrid” court in Cambodia. This meant that the United Nations and the Government of Cambodia joined as partners to create the ECCC, which now operates with a mixture of Cambodian and international staff, laws and judges in order to bring to justice “senior leaders” and those “most responsible” for the worst crimes committed under Pol Pot’s Democratic Kampuchea regime.

After long delays, that court officially started operations in July 2006. By July 2007, the co-prosecutors filed the first introductory submission of five unnamed individuals with the co-investigating judges. By late November 2007, those five individuals were arrested and remain in the ECCC’s custody. These individuals are: Khieu Samphan (former head of state under the Democratic Kampuchea regime); Nuon Chea (chief Khmer Rouge ideologue and often referred to as “Brother Number 2,” second only to the regime’s leader, Pol Pot, who died in 1998); Kaing Guek Eav (otherwise known as “Duch,” the head of the infamous torture center known as Toul Sleng, or S-21); Ieng Sary (former foreign minister and deputy prime minister under the Democratic Kampuchea regime) and his wife, Ieng Thirith (former social affairs minister under Pol Pot’s regime). In 2008, pretrial proceedings for all five individuals were held, and the first trial, prosecuting “Duch,” began in March, 2009.

This impressive progress, however, is set against a backdrop of serious administrative and operational problems within the court itself. The most serious of these problems include unaddressed allegations of corruption. In February 2007, the Justice Initiative first publicized widespread and consistent allegations that staff and officials at the ECCC had to pay kickbacks in exchange for their jobs. Little was done to address these allegations until mid 2008, when the United Nations and the Cambodian side of the court separately instituted anti-corruption mechanisms. Though individuals have reportedly come forward to officially lodge complaints about corrupt practices at the court, no effective investigative mechanism has been set up, and no system exists to protect those who come forward with information.

Meanwhile, the ECCC also suffers from a lack of independent outreach efforts (it relies almost exclusively on outreach efforts undertaken by Cambodian civil society groups to inform the Cambodian people about the court and its work) and complaints about its lack of transparency (including a failure to regularly and consistently post public filings on its website, and a failure to regularly provide information and briefings to journalists wanting to report on the ECCC’s work).

The ECCC continues to search for extra funds to get it through to the end of its expected lifespan, anticipated to be early in 2011.

Justice Initiative Activities

Since 2003, Justice Initiative has maintained an on-the-ground presence in Cambodia to monitor developments, engage in advocacy, and provide technical assistance the help prepare for the ECCC’s establishment and operation. We currently have a full-time international court monitor and liaison and a full time Cambodian project coordinator, both based in Phnom Penh.

We continue to monitor the court through a mixture of legal analysis and international advocacy on operational issues and challenges, such as the unaddressed corruption allegations.

In previous years, the Justice Initiative has taken a series of international technical advisors to Cambodia to work with NGOs, the Government Task Force on the Khmer Rouge trials (the Cambodian government’s administrative body, which was the ECCC’s predecessor, preparing for the creation of the tribunal), and ECCC staff to prepare for the Court’s establishment. The Justice Initiative has also helped produce: working papers on topics essential to the ECCC’s functioning; briefing papers to the ECCC on topics; and memoranda to interested states to provide funders and other states with ongoing guidance on prioritizing issues which must be addressed at different stages of the process.

Additionally, Open Society Justice Initiative staff working on ECCC issues and who regularly visit Phnom Penh includes Kelly D. Askin, senior legal officer for International Justice, and Tracey Gurd, legal officer for International Justice.

The Extraordinary Chambers

Reports & Papers

Overview of ECCC

Justice Initiative Activities

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