On limitations: Lessons learnt and lessons not learnt from history

This research aimed to understand victims’ perceptions of justice and reconciliation in Cambodia and the influence of their inclusion in the transitional justice process. 

Image credits Her name is Net Savoen, the only survivor from the 30 women who were taken by the Khmer Rouge to be raped from dusk to dawn before being brutally murdered in Pursat Province, 1978.

This is the first major  filmic  intervention dealing with the genocide by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the late 1970s since Roland Joffe’s The Killing Fields in 1984 and will likely reach an even broader audience through its distribution on the online streaming platform Netflix.

Hidden scars of the savage Khmer Rouge regime can still be seen today, especially in the diabetes clinic in Siem Reap. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 5.9 percent of the 16 million Cambodians have diabetes – around 90 percent of the patients are type 2 diabetes cases. 

The Victims Support Section (VSS), the Civil Party Lead Co-Lawyers (LCLs), and the Civil Party Lawyers of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) have consulted with Civil Parties, Victims Associations, implementing partners, donors, government agencies, and other relevant stakeholders to identify and develop proposed reparation projects for Case 002/02.

Image credits What does justice mean to the different victims of the Khmer Rouge? How can it be found outside of the courts? And can there be appropriate justice? Those are only some of the questions raised in the past days at the conference Dealing with the Past: Engaging in the Present. The leitmotif of the conference – how to deal with the past and how to make sure it will never happen again – has provided a link for discussions about genocide education, justice and the role of women in the context of the Cambodian genocide. From Monday 23rd January 2017 until Friday 27th January 2017 at META HOUSE

Why was China, a powerful state, incapable to influence Cambodia, a much weaker state during the years of Khmer Rouge mass atrocities? What did China get in return for its development aid? Can historical analysis reveal something about the current political environment? These are some of the questions Andrew Mertha, a professor at Cornell University, dwells into in his book Brothers in Arms: Chinese Aid to the Khmer Rouge, 1975–1979. 

Image credits A student stands on the stage, holding a turtle in a basket. He calls his pet ‘Ninja Turtle’ as he imagines it to be a courageous fighter that stands up against bullies. In reality, the turtle spends most of its time hiding in its shell. The boy feels he has a lot in common with the turtle – he is too scared to defend a fellow classmate who is being bullied.

More Lessons Learned from the Holocaust - Towards a Complexity-Embracing Approach to Why Genocide Occurs Abstract.Why do genocides occur? This paper applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to revisit this question, and analyses 139 cases of genocide and non-genocide.

During the last decade, there has been growing awareness of the issue of sexual and gender-based violence during the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) regime.

On the 40th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh, the Heinrich Böll Foundation organised a conference with the purpose of assessing the achievements and the shortcomings of Cambodia’s transitional justice process. “Justice and Reconciliation after the Khmer Rouge Regime: What has been achieved?” took place in Meta House, Phnom Penh, on 18 February 2015, and brought together researchers and experts from a number of different disciplines.

On the 7th August, 2014, the Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) sentenced Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan to life imprisonment, having found them guilty of crimes against humanity committed between the 17th April, 1975, and December, 1977. This verdict marks the completion of the first trial in Case 02, known as Case 002/01, which commenced on the 21st November, 2011, and concluded in October, 2013, after 20 months of evidentiary hearings.

Publisher: Honolulu  East-West Center Date of Publication: 2015 Number of Pages: 98 ISBN: 978-0-86638-270-0 (print); 978-0-86638-271-7 (electronic) SummaryOn 7 August 2014, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) reached an important institutional milestone when the Court published its long-awaited Trial Judgment in the first case against two of the surviving alleged senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge—Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan ("Case 002/01").

The series of Country Explorations on Memorialisation as Related to Transitional Justice Processes was elaborated collaboratively as part of the Asia Exchange Meeting ‘Memory for Change’, which was held in Bangkok, Thailand in November 2014.

Sometimes when Cambodians are unable to express themselves, they might say they are dam-douem-kor (planting a kapok tree); if they are depressed, they will often use the phrase thelea-tdeuk-ceut (the water in my heart has fallen); and if they are feeling anxious, they may describe it as khyal goeu (wind overload, to explain their shortness of breath).

Phnom Penh, 29 April, 2015The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC), Youth for Peace (YFP), KDEI KARUNA (KdK), Transcultural Psychological Organization (TPO) and Asian International Justice Initiative (AIJI) call on the Cambodian TV and radio stations as well as local newspapers to increase their coverage of the on-going trials and current events at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).   

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh, the Heinrich Böll Foundation organised a conference with the purpose of assessing the achievements and the shortcomings in Cambodia’s transitional justice process. “Justice and Reconciliation after the Khmer Rouge Regime: What has been achieved?” took place in Meta House, Phnom Penh, on 18 February 2015, and brought together researchers, lawyers, experts from a number of different disciplines as well as Khmer Rouge victims.   

Early on in my research stay I was at a conference organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and I noticed there was one theme that was brought up repeatedly by Cambodian participants: how particularly terrible the Cambodian genocide was compared with others, because it was Khmer on Khmer violence, people killing their own. This is an argument, or maybe better said a statement, which I have heard many times again since, both at conferences and in interviews for my fieldwork. 

Video on legacy of the Khmer Rouge tribunal - Heinrich Böll Stiftung Cambodia Watch on YouTube This external content requires your consent. Please note our privacy policy.

Nearly 40 years after the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) the forced marriages and enforced conjugal relations experienced by thousands of Cambodians continue to be little understood as a central part of the general atrocity. These marriages eliminated choice, were without consent, and took place within a context of severe coercion.

This report evaluates the CDP GBV during the Khmer Rouge regime project funded by ZIVIK IFA from May 2010 through December 2012.

The Khmer Rouge had a devastating impact on the Cambodian judicial system. The regime attempted to exterminate the country’s intellectuals and consequently, when the Khmer Rouge fell in 1979, there were only ten qualified lawyers in the country. The justice system was decimated and has been slow to recover. 

INTRODUCTION The Khmer Rouge regime, as the Cambodian people and the world have come to know, was a genocidal regime that killed almost two Million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. This regime has been considered as the darkest chapter of the Cambodian history.