Cambodia Workshop 2009

Drawing upon the experiences of the first workshop, a follow up workshop was conducted in Sunway Hotel, Phnom Penh on September 23rd, 2009. Not only continued and deepened it the discussions of its foregoing event, but also was it embedded in a bigger project involving also the recent transitional justice process in Uganda. More organizations were invited to join the workshop this time. Among the participants were representatives of the following organizations (in no particular order): DC-Cam, ADHOC, CHRAC, WMC, ZfD of the DED Cambodia, ECCC, KKKHRO, CJR, OSJI, CDP, TPO, ICfC, KID, LAC and the East-West Center of Hawaii.

Presentations were held on “Victim participation and social capital” (Dominik Pfeiffer), “Transitional Justice in Cambodia and Uganda – Similarities and differences” (Dr. Wolfgang Form) and “Transitional Justice in Uganda” (Alena Hartwig). Four representatives of organizations involved in the transitional justice process held statements on perspectives and future prospects of victim participation in Cambodia. For a more juridical focus, Mrs. Chet Vanly (Victims Unit of the ECCC) and Mr. Chum Mey (S21 survivor and civil party in Case 001 at the ECCC) presented their view, respectively. For a broader civil society approach on the same topic, Mr. Chy Terith (DC-Cam) and Mr. Latt Ky (ADHOC/CHRAC) shared their thoughts with the participants. The workshop closed with an extensive summary by Mr. Sok Leang (CJR and also co-coordinator for the workshop) who also talked about a more comprehensive approach to transitional justice.

The discussions tied up to the first workshop. The continuing discussions circled around the topics of broader, non-juridical victim participation, also in connection to gender aspects, on reparations and politics of memory. Besides, a central topic was the recent developments concerning victim participation at the ECCC and the implications for the future practice. As already indicated by the topics of the presentations, the last third of the workshop was focused on Uganda. Room was given for discussions on mutual exchange with experts from Uganda and on similarities and differences of the cases.

In this regard, the workshop was meant to serve as a preparation for a conference in Marburg in December with experts from Uganda, Cambodia and other countries.

The conference minutes are here available.

Some impressions of the workshop in Phnom Penh in Semptember 2009.





Representatives of the Victims Unit of the ECCC

Left: Mr. Chum Mey, one of seven survivors of the imprisonment in the prison S-21 in Phnom Penh

The workshop participants