Accessing Justice Through Victim Participation at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Abstract

This article explores the role of victims in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) – the forum tasked with bringing leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime to justice. Victims have been afforded broad participatory rights at the ECCC, including the opportunity to be joined as third parties to the trial. These innovations must be applauded. However, the role victims can play in the wider process of national reconciliation remains under-utilised. This article suggests that victim participation can be used to increase public accessibility to the trial to ensure proceedings occupy a more positive, and prominent space in Cambodia's healing process.