Fair Trial Rights and Human Rights
Monday, November 03, 2008 - Editor:
To reinforce the Fair Trial as well as the Right Human Right in Cambodia, the Center for Social Development (CSD) held a forum at Pannasastra University in Phnom Penh City on Tuesday.
To start with, the executive director of CSD Ms. Theary C. SENG and Professor of law and communications Ray LEOS welcomed the participants; most of them are students from different universities. She also briefly described the human rights and fair trial rights situation and some her organization’s activities whose members have been provided with human rights theories and then they are required to spread their real knowledge to their society, helping Cambodian people understand their rights in Cambodia.
Then, the forum showed a 25 minute firm called Time for Justice, part II. The firm is mainly about the Khmer Rouge Trial of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). It educates Cambodian people over the process of the trial. The case is absolutely complicated so it lasts many years to cover. Both Cambodian victims, of Pol Pot regime, and foreigners are curious about such the biggest trial in poor country Cambodia. How the judges sentence the Khmer Rouge top leaders.
The forum had five speakers from different organizations. Mr. Richard J. ROGERS, the officer in charge of the defense support section at the ECCC, is one of the five speakers in that time. Meanwhile, the UN has spent around one million US dollars upon each defendant of Pol Pot regime, according to his speech. Many people have wondered why the UN spends millions US dollars on them. The accused are people that are suspected of having committed any crime. Some times, they are tortured to get the confession. That why some defendants are shock or afraid of the torture and they confess as if they were guilty. Therefore, they also need some legal rights to protect them from unfair trial.
The participants had one hour to discuss over the raising issues and ask the questions to the speakers. It is the most important chance for the joiners who have questions related to the Khmer Rouge tribunal as well as the process of Cambodian courts.
