About
Out of Cambodia’s total population of approximately 7 to 8 million, it is estimated that 1.5 to 2 million died of starvation, disease, and execution during the reign of the Democratic Kampuchea regime, which lasted from 17 April 1975 to 6 January 1979. Following the fall of the DK (also known as the Khmer Rouge Regime), ‘a truth commission, lustration policies, amnesty programmes, and domestic or international trials were all considered or attempted’ to provide justice and peace for Cambodians. Out of these responses, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a hybrid court established jointly by Cambodia and the United Nations (UN) is the only internationally recognised judicial mechanism established to address Khmer Rouge crimes. The ECCC is, however, the product of a political compromise, resulting from protracted negotiations between the Cambodian government and the UN, whose relationship was characterised by ‘bitter mutual distrust and an ensuing battle for control’. This compromise resulted in the limited temporal and personal jurisdiction of the Court and its features, most particularly its majority voting system. Despite these limitations, positive outcomes of the negotiations included the agreement to locate the Court in close proximity to Khmer Rouge victims and the significant extent to which victims can participate in the proceedings. The available literature on the ECCC often adopts an overly legalistic approach to assessing its effect, focusing on international fair trial standards, and considers only the appropriate role of victim participation. However, there is a general lack of literature on how stakeholders view the Court and why they hold such views.