DC-Cam
Definition
Documentation Center of Cambodia. NGO established in 1995 as a field office of Yale University's Cambodian Genocide Program and became independent in 1997, to document crimes of the Khmer Rouge period (1975-79); maintained archives used by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and coordinated forensic work at Khmer Rouge sites.
- Full name
- Documentation Center of Cambodia
- Founded
- 1995, independent from 1997
- Origin
- Field office of Yale's Cambodian Genocide Program
- Focus
- Documenting Khmer Rouge crimes, 1975-79
Common questions
How did DC-Cam's archives support the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia rather than just serving as a historical record?+
The ECCC hybrid tribunal drew on DC-Cam's documentary archives as evidentiary material in its proceedings against senior Khmer Rouge leaders, making DC-Cam's decades of civilian-led documentation and site coordination work a direct evidentiary resource for prosecutions rather than only a research archive.
Why does DC-Cam's transition from a Yale field office to an independent organisation matter for evaluating its archive?+
Independence in 1997 shifted the archive's institutional custody and governance to a Cambodia-based body, which is relevant to chain-of-custody and provenance questions when its holdings are used as evidence, since the organisation's legal status and control over the material changed at that point.
Related terms
- EULEX
- European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo. Deployed in 2008; included a forensic component responsible for assisting Kosovo authorities with missing-persons...
- Evidence Contamination by Political Process
- The compromise of forensic evidence through interference by parties with a stake in the investigation's outcome: selective disclosure, substitution of remains, access...
- FAFG
- Fundacion de Antropologia Forense de Guatemala. National forensic anthropology organisation established 1992, carrying out exhumations related to Guatemala's internal armed conflict (1960-1996);...
- OHCHR Field Manual
- The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Field Manual on Human Rights Monitoring. Provides operational guidance for human rights...
- Operational Security (OPSEC)
- The set of practices a threat actor uses to prevent adversaries from identifying them or their infrastructure. In dark web investigations, OPSEC...