ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia)
Definition
The hybrid tribunal established in 2006 jointly by Cambodia and the UN to prosecute senior Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes committed between 1975 and 1979. Convicted Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2018.
- Established
- 2006
- Established by
- Cambodia and the United Nations jointly
- Tribunal type
- Hybrid domestic-international
- Notable conviction
- Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, genocide, 2018
- Crimes covered
- 1975 to 1979, Khmer Rouge era
Common questions
What does 'hybrid' mean for the ECCC compared with a purely international tribunal?+
It applies Cambodian law alongside international law and combines Cambodian and international judges and staff, sitting within the Cambodian court system rather than as a separate international body such as the ICC.
What kind of forensic evidence supported ECCC prosecutions?+
Mass grave excavation, skeletal analysis, and documentary evidence from the period were used to establish scale and pattern of killing, feeding into the genocide and crimes against humanity findings against senior Khmer Rouge leaders.
Related terms
- Desaparecidos
- The approximately 30,000 people abducted, tortured, and killed by Argentina's military junta between 1976 and 1983, whose fates were denied by the...
- EAAF (Equipo Argentino De Antropologia Forense)
- The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, founded in Buenos Aires in 1984 by Clyde Snow and a group of Argentine student scientists including...
- ICMP (International Commission on Missing Persons)
- The international organisation that has led DNA-based identification of missing persons from the former Yugoslavia since 1996, working from a laboratory in...
- ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda)
- The United Nations ad hoc tribunal established in November 1994 to prosecute the organisers of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Operated from Arusha,...
- ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia)
- The United Nations ad hoc tribunal established in 1993 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in the former...
- Perimortem Trauma
- Skeletal damage inflicted at or around the time of death, when the bone still retains its elastic properties. Distinguished from postmortem (after-death)...
- Primary and Secondary Graves
- In the Srebrenica context: primary graves are the original burial sites of executed victims. Secondary and tertiary graves are locations to which...
- Stover-Ryan Framework
- The 2002 ethical framework for war-zone forensic anthropology, addressing the four tensions specific to conflict-context casework: investigative pace versus survivor needs; scientific...