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Article
The Paradox of Victim-Centrism: Victim Participation at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal
International Criminal Law Review
  • Mahdev MOHAN, Singapore Management University
Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
1-2009
Abstract

It has been claimed - though not proved - that victims will be benefited by participation in international criminal tribunals. This article interrogates this claim in the context of victim participation at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), commonly referred to as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Based on interviews with Cambodian victims and Tribunal affiliates, it examines why and how the Tribunal permits victims to intervene as les parties civile, pulling together the normative and legal basis for this mode of victim participation. This article does not purport to generalize with confidence about Cambodian victims in general, let alone all victims of mass atrocity. Instead, it simply seeks to move beyond vague speculations that victim participation in international trials is always therapeutic, and suggest a new indigenized victimology that the Tribunal should explore as the long-awaited trials of the Khmer Rouge unfold.

Keywords
  • KHMER ROUGE TRIBUNAL,
  • CAMBODIA,
  • VICTIMOLOGY,
  • INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS,
  • INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW
Identifier
10.1163/156753609X12507729201318
Publisher
Brill
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International
Comments

Awarded the 2009 Carl Mason Franklin Jr. Prize for best scholarly work in the field of international law by Stanford Law School

Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1163/156753609X12507729201318
Citation Information
Mahdev MOHAN. "The Paradox of Victim-Centrism: Victim Participation at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal" International Criminal Law Review Vol. 9 Iss. 5 (2009) p. 733 - 775 ISSN: 1567-536X
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mahdev_mohan/11/