UN Insists Tribunal Strengthen Management

R-L: United Nations Development Programme Country Director Jo Scheuer, Sean Visoth, Director of the Khmer Rouge tribunal's Office of Aministration, and Rafael Dochao Moreno, Charge d'Affaires European Commission, give a press conference at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. UN officials denied allegations of financial mismanagement at Cambodia's genocide tribunal. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
25 April 2008

The UNDP called on Khmer Rouge tribunal administrators Friday to improve some of their operations in order for the courts to continue to meet international standards, but said a recent review had found some improvements.

A UNDP-sponsored review in February made “positive findings,” said Cambodia’s UNDP director, Jo Scheuer, said at a Press conference Friday. “The special review team noted significant improvement in all of these areas and there is no recent allegation of mismanagement in the ECCC.”

But that did not mean the management system of the courts was now perfect, he said.

The independent Open Society Justice Initiative said in 2006 the courts were facing allegations of corruption.

The corruption allegations and previous findings of poor management practices are important because donor countries like the US say the tribunal, known officially as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, must meet international standards before more money is promised.

“There is a need for continued capacity development support to the ECCC, [so that] systems are further strengthened in order to continue to meet international standards,” Scheuer, said Friday, referring to the tribunal by its official acronym.

“The report also identifies some areas that need to be further strengthened, such as in goal setting and performance evaluation, in the conduct of job interviews, job classification and the definition of appropriate minimum qualifications for recruited positions,” he said.

The tribunal’s administrative director, Sean Visoth, said at the press conference the tribunal was “capable and committed.”

“I am not satisfied with the results of this review,” he said. “But I was always confident to say [the courts were] maybe not perfect, maybe not the best possible, but capable and committed.”

As administrative director, he had never “resisted nor rejected” proposals to address shortcomings in the courts.

“The ECCC has suffered considerable damage, including to the morale of the staff, on this issue, over the past eighteen months, following certain broad-brush allegations that were raised in late 2006 and early 2007,” he said. “These included recruitment of unqualified staff, excessive salaries and supposed kickback by judges and other officials for appointment at the ECCC.”

Cambodian judges have strongly denied they pay kickbacks in order to sit in the courts.

Amnesty International Calls on Tribunal Jurists to Meet Global Standards

Veasna Mean, VOA Khmer
Cambodia
05/06/2007

The rights group Amnesty International called on Khmer Rouge tribunal jurists meeting this week to ensure the trials will meet international standards.

Twenty-nine Cambodian and international judges and prosecutors are meeting this week to agree on internal rules for a tribunal, after stalled talks and long delays jeopardizing the trial.

Amnesty said it was concerned that draft rules being discussed "failed to establish an effective mechanism to provide protection and support to victims and witnesses," were inconsistent with international law standards on reparations for victims, and failed "to ensure the protection and support of survivors of sexual violence." International standards that bar trials in absentia had not been included in the draft rules.

Tribunal co-prosecutor Chea Leang said those concerns had already been addressed in the rules draft.

"The first meeting addressed Cambodia law," she said. "The second meeting addressed international standards. So the points on international standards have been included in the internal rules, and when you want international standards, what more do you want?" She declined further comment while meetings continued.

Hisham Mousar, a legal expert for the rights group Adhoc, who is monitoring the tribunal, said Amnesty's concerns could be addressed following the adoption of the internal rules, especially regarding victim, witness and perpetrator rights.

Amnesty International: ECCC Internal Rules must meet international standards

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: ASA 23/007/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 100
4 June 2007

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Internal Rules must meet international standards

Amnesty International today called on the judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), as they open their plenary session, to ensure that the draft Internal Rules meet the highest standards of international justice.

The Internal Rules, due to be considered and adopted at this session, govern many important aspects of how the ECCC will work in practice. They must ensure that the ECCC trials are conducted fairly and that they fully implement the rights of victims. Although the Internal Rules are based on procedures in Cambodian law, there is a requirement that they are consistent with international standards.

This is the first time that the judges will meet in plenary to consider the Internal Rules since they were unable to reach agreement on a first official draft in November 2006. Amnesty International reviewed that draft and noted significant flaws, in particular:

• The draft Internal Rules failed to establish an effective mechanism to provide protection and support to victims and witnesses.
• Although the draft Internal Rules provided for reparations for victims, the scope and forms of reparations are vaguely defined and, in some instances, inconsistent with international law and standards).
• The draft Rules fail to incorporate rules necessary to ensure the protection and support of survivors of sexual violence.
• International rules prohibiting trials in absentia were not fully incorporated into the Rules.

To assist the Court in addressing some of these flaws, the organization submitted recommendations to the ECCC to effectively address victims and witnesses issues in the Internal Rules.

Since the November plenary, a committee within the ECCC has worked on the draft Internal Rules and has prepared a revised version which will now be considered by the judges. Unfortunately, the ECCC decided not to make the revised Internal Rules public, therefore it is not known to what extent the flaws in the previous version have been addressed.

Amnesty International urges the judges to ensure that the Internal Rules fully respect the right to a fair trial and the rights of victims. The organization believes that both aspects are fundamental to the credibility and the success of the ECCC. Anything less would seriously undermine the important and long overdue effort to ensure justice for the people of Cambodia.

Background

In June 2003, the United Nations and the government of Cambodia signed an agreement to establish the ECCC to bring "to trial senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea and those who were most responsible for the crimes and serious violations of Cambodian penal law, international humanitarian law and custom, and international conventions recognized by Cambodia, that were committed during the period from 17 April 1975 to 6 January 1979."

On November 2006, the ECCC published a draft of the Internal Rules and invited submissions from civil society. The Internal Rules define their purpose to "consolidate applicable Cambodian procedure for proceedings before the ECCC and, pursuant to Articles 20, 23, and 33 of the ECCC Law and Article 12.1 of the Agreement, to adopt additional rules where these existing procedures do not deal with a particular matter, or if there is uncertainty regarding their interpretation or application, or if there is a question regarding their consistency with international standards."

The judges met to consider the Rules at the end of November but did not reach agreement on a number of issues.