Cambodia
Cambodia: Unearthing the Past
Political Science 149
Research
Professor: Zook
Reader: Ilham Hosseini
The distribution of justice regarding a buried for over twenty-eight years story of gross violations of human rights in Cambodia triggers the question of how to work out a strategy that allows for the creation of institutions that are simultaneously working in accord with international standards of justice and adequately responding to the needs of Cambodians themselves. The aim of this research is less concerned with outlining legal procedures that the United Nations Security Council should act upon while conducting the tribunal than analyzing a set of conditions that should be fulfilled before the international body of justice holds proceedings in Cambodia. This analysis assays a set of analogous historical and political aspects that occurred in both East Timor and Cambodia that could impede the United Nations’s (UN) warrant to establish international tribunals in both nation-states. Moreover, as the research looks into the framework of UN action in East Timor, it concludes that the UN’s plan of establishing justice had not adequately responded to those factors; therefore, the process of conducting trials according to international standards was curtailed. The lack of a coherent strategy and worked out alternatives for those factors before that trial was conducted could create a similar outcome in the Cambodian case: the blockage of establishing justice.1 Presuming that establishing a strategy for the effectual distribution of justice in Cambodia should consider both the unique condition of Cambodia itself and the factors that obstructed establishing justice according to international standards in a similar case, research argues that an additional mechanism, such as a truth commission should be established prior to the legal proceedings, as it can empower both the UN and Cambodia as a nation to work together to set up an
Political Science 149
Research
Professor: Zook
Reader: Ilham Hosseini
The distribution of justice regarding a buried for over twenty-eight years story of gross violations of human rights in Cambodia triggers the question of how to work out a strategy that allows for the creation of institutions that are simultaneously working in accord with international standards of justice and adequately responding to the needs of Cambodians themselves. The aim of this research is less concerned with outlining legal procedures that the United Nations Security Council should act upon while conducting the tribunal than analyzing a set of conditions that should be fulfilled before the international body of justice holds proceedings in Cambodia. This analysis assays a set of analogous historical and political aspects that occurred in both East Timor and Cambodia that could impede the United Nations’s (UN) warrant to establish international tribunals in both nation-states. Moreover, as the research looks into the framework of UN action in East Timor, it concludes that the UN’s plan of establishing justice had not adequately responded to those factors; therefore, the process of conducting trials according to international standards was curtailed. The lack of a coherent strategy and worked out alternatives for those factors before that trial was conducted could create a similar outcome in the Cambodian case: the blockage of establishing justice.1 Presuming that establishing a strategy for the effectual distribution of justice in Cambodia should consider both the unique condition of Cambodia itself and the factors that obstructed establishing justice according to international standards in a similar case, research argues that an additional mechanism, such as a truth commission should be established prior to the legal proceedings, as it can empower both the UN and Cambodia as a nation to work together to set up an
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