The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: Justice for Genocide in Cambodia?

Abstract

After 30 years a tribunal has finally been established to try those responsible for the mass human rights violations perpetrated against the Cambodian people by the former Khmer Rouge regime. Popularly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT), the Extraordinary Chambers of the Criminal Court of Cambodia (ECCC) is one of the first so-called ‘hybrid’ tribunals to be established by the United Nations in collaboration with local courts to try international crimes such as genocide. This paper will assess the KRT as a transitional justice mechanism in terms of its ability to provide Cambodians with a sense of justice for the past as well as its potential impact on human rights and justice in Cambodia in the future. The cultural specificity and local conflict conditions that affect responses to different types of transitional justice approaches will be interrogated, asking who chose this mechanism and how does it meet the needs and expectations of Cambodians.