{"id":670,"date":"2011-10-13T12:12:17","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T12:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adhoc-press\/?p=670"},"modified":"2011-10-13T12:12:17","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T12:12:17","slug":"eccc-legacy-can-be-positively-transferred-to-the-national-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/eccc-legacy-can-be-positively-transferred-to-the-national-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"ECCC Legacy can be positively transferred to the National Courts"},"content":{"rendered":"
Keynote addressed by Mr. Thun Saray<\/strong><\/div>\n
CHRAC Chairman and President of ADHOC<\/strong><\/div>\n
at Workshop for Civil Party and Defence Lawyers of the ECCC<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u201cBrainstorming of Lessons Learnt at the ECCC to be transferred to national court\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n
On 16 December 2010, at Cambodiana Hotel, PHNOM PENH.<\/div>\n
————————<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dear distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, particularly national civil party and defence lawyers of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Today, I have a very great honor to join this workshop together with you. On behalf of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC), I would like first to take this opportunity to welcome you as lawyers working actively at the ECCC, and to express my sincere thanks also to the co-organizer, the Cambodia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR-Cambodia).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The workshop today is organized aiming at bringing together independent lawyers working at the ECCC to discuss what kind of positive experiences have gained at the court and how these experiences might influence the conduct of the trials in our current national court system. This workshop is just the first of a series of workshops which is participated by only the civil party and defence lawyers currently practicing at the ECCC. Several other thematic focuses will be organized next year and provided for ECCC legal professionals including judges, prosecutors and lawyers. By drawing the best lessons learnt at the ECCC, or in other words, \u201cknowledge transfer\u201d, particularly on the legal part, it will help to fill in the gaps identified at the national court\u2019s practices and the application of laws.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The establishment of the ECCC and bringing to trial senior leaders of the Democratic Kampuchea who were most responsible brought also new chances and challenges to the national judicial system. The ECCC experiences can have and will have positive impact in promoting and protecting the rule of law and moreover strengthening the independence and capacity of the judiciary.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Some of the positive effects from our observations should be noted here and can be key points for the following discussion:<\/div>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Civil Parties Participations:<\/em> It is meaningful for justice; the impact of Civil Party Participation is model for future International Criminal Courts, and also the mechanism for changing some attitudes of judges from Common Law System who never considered the importance for victim participation. It\u2019s become the best practice to the Civil Courts in Cambodia for a model to refer the victims\u2019 participation.<\/div>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Investigation and Case file documented into the Computer Data System: It\u2019s roughly need for Domestic Court in Cambodia to be considered.<\/div>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trial Processing is well debate with schedule from each party in the Trials.<\/div>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Verdict of the Case 001: it also gives legal reasoning for model<\/div>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Lawyer from each party had strong arguments to make justice due to the Court process.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Accordingly, the Judiciary has an obligation to dispense justice in accordance with the Law, standards of Justice, fairness and due to process of law. We strongly appeal to the mission of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal that they should not leave behind a legacy of impunity but rather justice. Even though there will be challenges in the future from political intimidation to insufficient funds.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It\u2019s is very important for the civil society together with other relevant institutions, particularly the OHCHR-Cambodia, to start focusing now on the \u201cpositive lasting legacies\u201d for the national court system. By doing so, we hope that many best lessons learnt from the ECCC can be positively transferred to the national courts and also helps in the current legal and judicial reform efforts made by the Cambodian Government. For this to happen, we need proper and adequate plans for the legacy of this internationalized tribunal at the early stage as possible and with consultation and active participation of key stakeholders.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Therefore, we should work together like in many other fields in order to enable fruitful discussions and dialogues on these legacy issues among key stakeholders, including the ECCC Legacy Working Group that was created last year, the Government\u2019s Legal and Judicial Reform Council, ECCC legal professionals such as judges, prosecutors, lawyers, legal officers, practicing legal aid NGOs and their lawyers, and donors.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
With your active participation, I strongly hope that our discussion today can achieve the planned objectives and will contribute to a longer-process for the ECCC legacy that can potentially impact our national legal and judicial reforms.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Lastly, on behalf of the co-organizers, CHRAC and OHCHR, I appreciate your participation and contribution, and I look forward to hearing a fruitful debate.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Thank you very much.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The LEGACY Workshop began with opening remarks from Mr. Thun Saray, who emphasized the importance of the ECCC in acting as a model for the judiciary, and a catalyst for ongoing efforts to promote legal and judicial reform in Cambodia. He noted the importance of all key actors working together \u2018in order to enable fruitful discussions and dialogues on legacy issues\u2019 and to ensure that the many \u2018lessons learned from the ECCC can be positively transferred to the national courts\u2019. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unused"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671,"href":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adhoccambodia.org\/km\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}