Civil Party Participation at ECCC: Overview

by Michael Saliba, J.D. (Northwestern Law '09), Consultant to the Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law
— 6 Nov, 2009

The trial of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch) at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is ground-breaking in many respects, as he is the first Khmer Rouge leader to appear before the court and the Cambodian people to account for crimes committed during the period of Democratic Kampuchea. But perhaps the most ground- breaking aspect of the ECCC is the participation of victims as civil parties. The ECCC is the first international tribunal to provide for such comprehensive participation of victims in official criminal proceedings. Much attention is being paid to the current model of civil party participation, because any changes to this model will not only affect victim participation in future cases at the ECCC, but will likely have a broader impact, influencing the way victims are treated before the International Criminal Court and other international tribunals where atrocity crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes) are prosecuted…

Read more: ctm_blog_11-6-2009

Cambodia Tribunal Monitor’s Trial Observer posts are written according to the personal observations and opinions of the writer and do not constitute a transcript of ECCC proceedings or the views of Cambodia Tribunal Monitor and/or its partners. Official court transcripts for the ECCC’s hearings may be accessed at the ECCC website.