THE EXTRAORDINARY CHAMBERS IN THE COURTS OF CAMBODIA – OVERVIEW OF THE PROGRAM
1. The Proposed Trial Monitoring Program at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
Building on the success of the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center’s trial monitoring program established at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in June 2004 (and continuing at that court to date), we propose establishing a regional trial monitoring program for the duration of the upcoming Khmer Rouge trials at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (‘ECCC’). By “regional” trial monitoring program we refer to a trial monitoring team composed of participants from Southeast Asia (including Cambodia), and Hong Kong. The proposed program is the only international trial monitoring program involving full-time daily presence in the courtroom that is currently being established at the ECCC. We are now working to identify regional partner institutions as well as individual monitors. The project will be co-organized by the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center and the East-West Center through their joint Asia International Justice Initiative (AIJI), directed by Professor David Cohen. Trials are expected to begin in Phnom Penh in early 2008.
The goals of the ECCC Trial Monitoring Program are:
(1) to widen public awareness of the Khmer Rouge trials throughout the Asia Pacific region, by enabling monitors to communicate effectively the issues of significance that arise at trial to their home audiences;
(2) to train young lawyers in trial monitoring and legal analysis under expert supervision and to give them the experience of involvement in an international justice process;
(3) to develop a regional network of young human rights lawyers with such experience, who will be able to utilize this expertise in their home countries.
2. Composition of The Proposed Trial Monitoring Program at ECCC
The monitoring team for the Khmer Rouge trials will include a team leader, representing the War Crimes Studies Center, who will write reports on the trials in English, to be disseminated through the Center’s website and other means. This monitor will be recruited from the ASEAN region. The monitoring team will also include monitors comprising young lawyers and advanced law students from Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia and East Timor, who will write reports in the lingua franca of their home country. We have already identified a number of local partners in these countries, with whom we will work together to find suitable candidates, seek funding sources for their participation and assist with the oversight and dissemination of the monitoring reports produced in languages other than English. Four of these local partners (those from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand) include associates who are also leaders in the ASEAN Human Rights Working Group.
As previously stated, all the monitors will write regular informational reports on the Khmer Rouge trials for regional dissemination and posting. We will consult closely with our local partners to determine which mode of dissemination will work best in each country. It is likely that the primary source of information dissemination will be via the Internet, although hard-copy newsletters are also being discussed as a mode of dissemination. Periodically, the team will also produce substantial analytical assessments of the trials. The Special Court for Sierra Leone has made extensive use of such reports in its community outreach, public relations, and fundraising programs, and it is anticipated that these reports will be equally useful for the ECCC in Cambodia.
In addition to the regional monitors, two German law faculties have committed to sending Ph.D. students in law to work as monitors with the regional team. These monitors will come from the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and the University of Marburg. The host institutions will fully fund these monitors. The Law Faculty of the University of Zurich has also asked to send a student as a member of the monitoring team. The presence of these international participants in the monitoring team will enrich the intellectual and professional interaction between the monitors.
The proposed program aims to both create and generate regional dialogue, debate and discussion about the Khmer Rouge trials. It also aims to ensure skills transfer and expertise in trial monitoring and legal analysis to a wide range of individuals from throughout the region. Young legal professional will carry their experience at the ECCC back to the professional environments of their home countries where, for the most part, relatively few young lawyers have had the opportunity for such international experience.
Our aim is that this process will not only enable participants to bring their professional knowledge and experience back to their home institutions, but that their success will encourage others to seek out similar opportunities. In Cambodia itself, if the ECCC is to achieve its goal ‘to give the younger generation a clear picture of what happened’ in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime, then a monitoring program of the trials in which regional monitors representative of that youth produce concise, analytical reports of the proceedings is not only important, but imperative and necessary.
3. Current Local Partners
Cambodia – The Center for Social Development and the Open Society Justice Initiative. Ms Theary Seng, Director of the Center for Social Development (CSD), has agreed that CSD will appoint and provide the funding for a local Cambodian monitor, who will write reports on the trial process. Ms Seng has also agreed to house the regional monitoring group in CSD’s offices in Phnom Penh so that they can continuously interact with the other CSD monitors and staff. (We are also coordinating closely with Ms Heather Ryan of the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) to ensure that the regional monitoring program acts as a complement to OSJI’s monitoring of the proceedings. However, unlike OSJI’s focus, AIJI’s trial monitors will be attending court proceedings on a daily basis, will produce weekly informational reports on the trial process, as well as more substantial thematic reports oriented towards legal analysis rather than advocacy).
Thailand – Human Rights Center, Mahidol University.The Office of Human Rights and Social Development at Mahidol University is the most well known human rights center in Thailand. Professor Sriprapha Petcharamesree, who is also the country representative for Thailand for the ASEAN Human Rights Working Group, has agreed to nominate a candidate for participation in AIJI’s regional trial monitoring program from the graduate programs of her Center.
Singapore – Singapore Management University Law School and Society of International Law (Singapore) We will consult with Mr. Mahdev Mohan, Lecturer of Law at the Singapore Management University Law School and Executive Committee Member of the Society of International Law [Singapore], to identify and source for funding for suitable candidates from Sigapore for our regional trial monitoring program. Mahdev is a former litigator and military prosecutor who served as our pro bono regional partner in Phnom Penh for 6 months in 2007, conducting film-based legal outreach together with CSD in preparation for the trials.
Malaysia – We will consult closely with Dato Param Cumaraswamy, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers and winner of the Peter Gruber Foundation’s Justice Prize in 2005, to identify a suitable monitor from Malaysia. Mr. Cumaraswamy is also a member of the ASEAN Human Rights Working Group.
In addition, AIJI is currently engaged in discussions with Ms Rohini Alagendra, a prominent and experienced criminal defense lawyer, who will spend substantial periods of time monitoring at the ECCC in addition to the full-time Malaysian monitor. The presence of such an experience criminal litigator will be an important resource for other members of the team. Ms Alagendra will self-fund her position in Cambodia.
East Timor – Judicial System Monitoring Program (JSMP) JSMP was founded in Dili in early 2001. Through the provision of independent legal analysis, court monitoring and community outreach activities, JSMP aims to contribute to and evaluate the ongoing process of building a strong and sustainable justice system in Timor Leste. Building on an already established relationship between the WCSC and JSMP, we will work with JSMP to identify a suitable candidate from East Timor for the regional monitoring program. It is intended that the selected monitor would subsequently continue to work for and with JSMP on their projects in East Timor.
The Philippines – Ateneo Law School. We will consult with Professor Carlos Medina, Secretary General of the ASEAN Human Rights Working Group and professor in the Ateneo University School of Law, to identify suitable candidates from the Philippines for the regional trial monitoring program.
Hong Kong – Human Rights LLM Program, Hong Kong University Law School. We have reached an in-principle agreement from Professor Suzannah Linton, Director of Hong Kong University’s Human Rights Program, and from the Dean of the Law Faculty, that Hong University Law School will fund one full-time graduate of the LLM program to act as the Hong Kong trial monitor in AIJI’s program. Professor Linton was a former prosecutor at the Special Panel for Serious Crimes in Dili, East Timor and has written extensively on international justice issues in the region.
3. Plan of Action
AIJI has employed Ms Michelle Staggs, former monitor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (September 2004 – August 2005) and Coordinator of the WCSC’s Special Court Monitoring Program, to oversee this program. Ms Staggs’ primary role will be to work with David Cohen to establish the monitoring program, assist with the recruitment of the regional monitors, provide initial and ongoing training to the team and continued oversight of the proposed program. She will also edit all the English language reports produced by the monitors, for online publication through the EWC and WCSC’s web sites. Ms Staggs and David Cohen will manage the program and Ms Staggs will provide an ongoing evaluation of the monitoring activities, based on her two years of experience managing the WCSC’s program in Sierra Leone.
Professor Cohen and Ms Staggs will provide all the monitors with a 4-week training and orientation program in Cambodia commencing 2 weeks prior to the beginning of the Khmer Rouge trials. The training session will be held at the offices of CSD in Phnom Penh. Professor Cohen and Ms Staggs will devise the training course based on Ms Staggs’ experience training monitors for the Special Court for Sierra Leone and Professor Cohen’s extensive experience reporting on trials at the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor and the Ad Hoc Human Rights Courts in Jakarta. After 2 weeks of training, Professor Cohen and Ms Staggs shall attend the first two weeks of trials with the regional monitoring team, and meet with them on a daily basis after the trial sessions to review the work of the monitors, discuss the proceedings and provide expert advice on the key issues arising at trial. Professor Cohen or Ms Staggs shall each continue to visit Cambodia to work with the monitoring team on an alternate monthly basis.
The monitors will each be employed for a minimum of 6 months. Each monitor will be paid their return airfare to and from their home country, travel insurance and a stipend for living expenses [of USD1100 per month, other than the Cambodian monitor, who will be paid a reduced rate of USD900 (the amount suggested by CSD) based on local rates and reduced costs of living]. The Asia International Justice Initiative will bear all expenses associated with the management and organization of the program. We will work with our regional partners to identify funding sources for the individual members of the monitoring team from countries in the region.
