Published in March 2013
Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) publishes regular briefing papers examining progress, priorities, and challenges at the ECCC. In their recent issue under the title “Recent Developments at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia”, OSJI recommends to the Co-Investigating Judges to consider including gender-based violence committed during the Khmer Rouge period in the investigation and any proposed indictment in Cases 003 and 004.
Issued on 24 March, 2013
In a joint public statement the Victims Association Ksem Ksan, the NGO network CHRAC and the US based NGO ASRIC make an impassioned request to expand the charges to move beyond the early days of the regime by considering other charges (inclusive of genocide and forced marriage).
Published by UN General Assembly Security Council on 14 March 2013
In his Annual Report on Sexual Violence in Conflict for the period of December 2011 to December 2012, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reports on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1820 and 1888 in Cambodia and recommends appropriate actions as follows (para. 114):
“In Cambodia, crimes of sexual violence, with the exception of forced marriage, have not been taken up by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a Cambodia-United Nations hybrid tribunal established under Cambodian law in 2004 to bring to justice senior leaders and those most responsible for atrocities committed between 17 April 1975 and 6 January 1979. Nor have sexual crimes been integrated into the forensic, investigative or prosecutorial strategies of the Extraordinary Chambers. According to the Extraordinary Chambers, the possibility of expanding the scope of charges against the accused to crimes beyond those in the indictment is precluded by its legal framework. In December 2011, a hearing on sexual violence under the Khmer Rouge regime revealed that sexual violence was a daily reality for most women, that acts of sexual violence were seldom punished and implicitly endorsed by an “enemy policy” promulgated by leaders at the highest levels and that survivors continue to suffer from trauma, discrimination and stigma. I reiterate the call made by my former Special Representative for the Government to ensure the rigorous documentation of such crimes for the historical record and for the Extraordinary Chambers to establish mechanisms for the appropriate recognition of and reparations for victims of sexual violence, as well as the effective prosecution of perpetrators of crimes of sexual violence and forced marriage.“
Issued on 1 March 2013
United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Hawa Bangura calls on the Trial Chamber of the ECCC to take forced marriage into account when deciding on a new Severance Order for Case 002.