Elusive retributive justice in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia: Challenges of using ECCC Victim Information Forms as a victim participatory rights mechanism

Abstract

This paper focuses on the procedural challenges of using the Victim Information Forms (VIFs) to analyze survivors’ experiences with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), commonly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. The paper takes a systematic public/medical sociology approach to examining the VIF as a participatory rights mechanism for victims wishing to pursue justice for themselves and their loved ones who experienced the Khmer Rouge atrocities, torture, forced relocation, starvation, forced labor, rape, robbery, and other physical and psychological torment, firsthand. It provides the first comparative, critical analysis of both the original VIF and the revised form issued midway through the submission period; both forms appear as appendices to the paper. Conclusions are drawn and suggestions made by the researcher based on the firsthand collection and submission of the largest group of VIFs from any single source around the world (outside of Cambodia itself), as well as on support work with victims/survivors during the ECCC proceedings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2013.

Reported Methods, Distributions, and Frequencies of Torture Globally

“…Each category of torture was also widely distributed. Physical torture was clearly reported for 67 countries and by 253 studies, psychological torture for 62 countries and by 188 studies,…”

“…A total of 9937 article titles and abstracts were screened, 1739 full-text articles were assessed, and 266 articles were included for analysis (eFigure 1 in Supplement 1). One article was published in 1947 and the rest in 1977 to 2021, with an average increase of 0.25 additional articles published per year from 1977 ...…”

“…Reports of torture could be identified for an average of 2.1 (95% CI, 1.6-2.6) countries per study, and the range was 0 to 39 countries. Only 1 country of torture could be identified for 143 studies (54%), 2 to 10 countries for 53 studies (20%), more than 10 countries for 11 studies (4%), and no single country of torture could be identified for 59 studies (22%) …”

“…The location(s) of torture included regions encompassing multiple countries (ie, “Africa”) or parts of multiple countries (ie, “Kurdistan”) in 101 studies, and single countries could not be ascribed to those regions. Overall, 113 studies (43%) included men and women, 82 studies (31%) included only men, 27 studies (10%) included only women, and the gender of the sample could not be determined for 44 studies (17%)…”

“…Migration of at least part of the study sample was found for 189 articles (71%), and most of these articles accessed individuals who experienced torture who migrated to the United States, Canada, Australia, and parts of Europe. Individuals were encountered for study in the same country that they were subjected to torture for 73 articles (27%) . The researchers who conducted the studies were housed by 44 countries (eFigure 5 and eTable 10 in …”