Featured Projects

Voices of Genocide: Justice and the Khmer Rouge Famine Community Radio Program

Documentation Center of Cambodia, In collaboration with VOA Record Studio in Phnom Penh

Listen online:
Episode 1: Background and Introduction
Episode 2: Famine and Excess Morality in Democratic Kampuchea
Episode 3: What Did the Khmer Rouge Leaders Know
Episode 4: Famine and Genocide
Episode 5: Famine and Crimes against Humanity
Episode 6: Famine and War Crimes

A River Changes Course (2012)

Director: Kalyanee Mam
Executive Producer: Youk Chhang, Documentation Center of Cambodia

A River Changes Course, a film produced by Cambodia Tribunal Monitor partner Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-CAM) has been awarded the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The prize, the festival’s highest award for international films, recognizes the best dramatic and documentary work in international independent filmmaking of the year.

The film’s Executive Director is Mr. Youk Chhang – Executive Director of DC-CAM – and is the directorial debut for Ms. Kalyanee Mam. Ms. Mam was the cinematographer for the Academy Award–winning documentary “Inside Job.”

The filmmakers follow the lives of Cambodians over several years showing the effects of rapid development, environmental changes, and poverty.
See the film’s website www.ariverchangescourse.com for more information.

All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals

By David Scheffer

Published by and available for purchase at Princeton University Press also available for purchase on Amazon.com.

All the Missing Souls on Facebook

Within days of Madeleine Albright’s confirmation as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1993, she instructed David Scheffer to spearhead the historic mission to create a war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. As senior adviser to Albright and then as President Clinton’s ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, Scheffer was at the forefront of the efforts that led to criminal tribunals for the Balkans, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia, and that resulted in the creation of the permanent International Criminal Court. All the Missing Souls is Scheffer’s gripping insider’s account of the international gamble to pros- ecute those responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and to redress some of the bloodiest human rights atrocities in our time.

Scheffer reveals the truth behind Washington’s failures during the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the anemic hunt for notorious war criminals, how American ex- ceptionalism undercut his diplomacy, and the perilous quests for accountability in Kosovo and Cambodia. He takes readers from the killing fields of Sierra Leone to the political back rooms of the U.N. Security Council, providing candid portraits of major figures such as Madeleine Albright, Anthony Lake, Richard Goldstone, Louise Arbour, Samuel “Sandy” Berger, Richard Holbrooke, and Wesley Clark, among others.

A stirring personal account of an important historical chapter, All the Missing Souls provides new insights into the continuing struggle for international justice.

David Scheffer is the Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law and director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law. He served as the first U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues (1997–2001) and led American initiatives on war crimes tribunals during the 1990s. He has published widely on international law and politics.

Cambodia’s Hidden Scars: Trauma Psychology in The Wake of the Khmer Rouge

Edited by: Beth Van Schaack, Daryn Reicherter, and Youk Chhang
Managing Editor: Autumn Talbott

Availble for purchase at Mary Martin Booksellers.

For more information on the book and authors, visit the Documentation Center of Cambodia website.

The Khmer Rouge Standing Committee aimed to ensure compliance and eliminate dissent by oppressing the people through psychological dominance. The defilement of Khmer religion, Khmer art, Khmer familiar relations, and the Khmer social class structure undermined deeply-held societal assumptions. The Khmer Rouge also destabilized the mass psychology that was secure in those realities. Cambodia’s psychology was thus altered in damaging and enduring ways. In societies that experience war and genocide, trauma significantly impacts the people’s psychology. The ripple effects of this damage are often incalculable. There are well-established statistics demonstrating a higher prevalence of trauma-related mental health disorders in post-conflict societies. This book considers the mental health implications of the Khmer Rouge era among the Cambodia populace. Specialists in trauma mental health discuss the increased rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression, among other major mental health disorders, in the country. They also discusses the staggering burden of such a high prevalence of societal mental illness on a post-conflict society. Legal experts discuss the way in which the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia can better accommodate victims and witnesses who are traumatized to avoid re-traumatization and to ensure a meaningful experience with justice. The text also offers a set of recommendations for addressing the widespread mental health issues within the society.