The Question of Whether Reparations Efforts in Other Countries Can be of Guidance to ECCC

Editorial

Stan Starygin

Cambodia is by far not the first country where the issue of reparations for gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law has been contemplated. In fairly recent history measures have been considered (some of them implemented) to repair the wrongs done during World War II, the Crown's reparations to the Maori in New Zealand, government-instituted reparations in Malawi, ethnic Africans seeking reparations in the United States, the United Kingdom and multiple countries of Africa, Japanese Americans receiving reparations from the US government for War World II interment, efforts geared toward passing a bill authorizing compensation for torture in the United Kingdom (referred to below under 'REDRESS'). The list goes on.
The question here is whether the experience gained from the past or present reparations efforts is applicable to Cambodia's ECCC -- and if so, to what extent -- and whether there is still room to redefine the concept of reparations vis-vis the ECCC, or whether this door was permanently closed by the adoption of the Internal Rules (IRs) of the ECCC.