The Projectification of Reparation

Abstract

There has been increasing use of project-based organization in various areas of human rights practice, including within truth and justice-seeking in the wake of mass atrocities. This article traces the development and deployment of project-based approaches to judicial reparation at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), an internationalized (hybrid) criminal tribunal. Drawing on the authors’ many years of close observation in and around the ECCC, it describes and explains how a project-based approach responded to the challenge of ‘moral and collective’ reparation for victims of mass crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge (1975–1979). The article critically examines how development actors nominated, designed and ‘delivered’ so-called ‘reparation projects’. Twenty-four projects were ultimately recognized by the ECCC; key details of these are succinctly tabulated here for the benefit of readers. The article discusses the effects of the projectification of ECCC reparation, including new practices, changed relationships and changed meanings of reparation. It finds that in Cambodia—a state that has experienced decades of international development assistance resulting in the entrenchment of project forms across different fields—the mobilization of new actors and resources has expanded the possibilities for ECCC reparation and provided some benefits to those victims involved. However, a project-based approach also reshaped decision-making and accountability structures underpinning reparation work. The article argues that using ‘projectification’ as an analytical lens expands our capacity to understand how, and with what consequences, global notions of reparation and justice are enacted in different contexts through the coordination and implementation of projects.

Transitional Justice Networks and the Role of ‘local’ Actors in Cambodia

“…Our findings do not rebut these claims. However, as we see from literature on transitional justice in Cambodia, where victim participation, civil society leadership in the development of reparations initiatives, and public education and outreach about the ECCC have all been highlighted as successes of the process (Hughes et al, 2018; Killean, 2018; Sperfeldt & Hughes, 2020), it makes sense that our data reflects strong Cambodian representation and, at least, positions with the potential for influence within the transitional justice community.…”

“…The events at hand in our data are not simply seminars or didactic meetings: people attend to be seen, to further their own goals, and to ‘network’. We know, too, that networks will always entail and implicate specific and complex cultural politics; in Cambodia specifically, for example, invitations just to attend civil society events is thought to confer forms of status and public prestige (Sok & Abe, 2019), and that only a minority have utilised the transitional justice and development programs (Sperfeldt & Hughes, 2020). Similarly, being an event organiser – and funder – may denote a level curatorial power and the ability to determine the relevance and ‘worthiness’ of local and international knowledge (and therefore actors) to make public interventions on the development of transitional justice.…”

“…Both victim participation and reparations were emergent features of the ECCC, unanticipated in its original formulation, and again largely driven by the advocacy and work of civil society networks and figures, and their ECCC representatives (Killean, 2018). A long history of international aid in Cambodia, and the presence of donor staff around ECCC initiatives specifically, served to 'projectify' these processes as a managerialist logic was integrated into judicial outcomes and increasing the number of actors involved (Sperfeldt & Hughes, 2020).…”

TheBangsokolRequiem, affective intensification, and memory activation

“…Organisers and artists had sought the engagement of Cambodian Australians beyond simple participation and, as the composer himself later wrote, 'the response was strong' (Him and Petocz, 2020). performance about experiences of forced marriage and a history education app for smartphones were among many creative initiatives that arose (see Killean, 2018;Sperfeldt and Hughes, 2021). 6.…”

“…These included: testimonial storybooks, a theatre play, a history education ‘app’, a major new dance performance, a song contest, textbook chapters and other publications. The artistic reparation measures can be understood as both an instrumentalist take-up of the creative arts into international legal and development practice (see Sperfeldt and Hughes, 2021) and as a fostering of work that generated – as all art has the capacity to generate – novel and unpredictable effects.…”