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Satisfaction with the lawyer as reported by the respondents How satisfied are you with your lawyer? (%)

Satisfaction with the lawyer as reported by the respondents How satisfied are you with your lawyer? (%)

Source publication
Research
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This report describes the findings of two surveys conducted in Cambodia. The first survey was conducted between October 3, 2008 and May 22, 2009. Participants were born before 1975 and considered themselves to be victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. The total sample consisted of N=1,077 respondents. About one quarter of the sample (n=247) had applied...

Citations

... Existing research involving trauma survivors and the mental health providers supporting them suggested that survivors engage in advocacy for a range of reasons. For instance, a survey of participants who provided testimony in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC; a type of international war crimes tribunal) found that their most common reasons for participation were seeking justice, revenge or reparations; duty to family; and feeling personally compelled as a form of individual coping, perhaps by sharing their experiences aloud (Stammel, Burchert, Taing, Bockers, & Knaevelsrud, 2010). ...
... The results from TASSC's internal studies, as summarized above, appear broadly consistent with published research related to survivor engagement in advocacy. For instance, implicit references to truth-speaking, justice, and serving others (in this case, family members) in TASCC participants' responses echo the motivations to participate in public truthspeaking in the ECCC in Cambodia identi- Stammel, Burchert, Taing, Bockers, & Knaevelsrud (2010). Similarly, the themes of pride, relief, feeling listened to and feeling motivated to continue engaging in advocacy identified by TASSC have also been reported in studies on testimonial therapy in India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and the Philippines (Agger, Igreja, Kiehle & Polatin, 2012;Jorgensen et al., 2015), public advocacy by women survivors in Peru (Laplante, 2007;Suarez 2011), and participants in the Special Court for Sierra Leone (Stepakoff, Shawn Reynolds, Charters, and Henry, 2015). ...
Article
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Introduction: As an IRCT member organization supporting survivors of torture, the Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition (TASSC) International places survivor engagement at the core of their work, aiming to provide safe and inclusive spaces for survivors to speak out and take meaningful action to prevent torture. This article describes TASSC's model for engaging survivors in advocacy and presents evidence on the personal impacts such engagement can have. Method: Each year from 2016-2019, TASSC administered a simple survey with questions for survivors to complete after their annual "Advocacy Day" in Washington D.C. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected to inform internal service provision and the design of future events. Results: Across the four years a total of 140 survivors and compatriot human rights advocates participated in the annual Advocacy Day, and a majority completed the surveys. In their survey responses, survivors agreed they had many positive thoughts and feelings after advocacy. Their reported positive experiences included a sense of being listened to and heard by an understanding and responsive audience, the power of feeling part of a group that was speaking out on behalf of themselves and others, and a sense of motivation and hopefulness for the future. Discussion: Although undertaken primarily to inform internal processes, TASSC's surveys with survivors who engaged in advocacy shed light on the potential value of well-designed advocacy experiences. Consistent with past research, survivors reported strong motivations around and compelling benefits from participating, despite the challenges that the deeply personal nature of their engagement could present. This feedback suggests TASSC has a strong model that could be replicated elsewhere, but it would be beneficial to further investigate the experiences of survivors engaging in advocacy in other country settings.
... Victim Participation in Cambodia's Transitional Justice Process and respect for the rights of the defence (Jasini and Phan 2011;McGonigle 2009;Studzinsky 2009;Werner and Rudy 2010;Yesberg 2009), significant empirical studies have been undertaken over the past ten years. This includes both qualitative (Herman 2014;Jasini 2016;Stover, Balthazard, and Koenig 2011) and large-n quantitative surveys (Kirchenbauer et al. 2013;Pham et al. 2009;Pham et al. 2011a;Stammel et al. 2010;Strasser et al. 2015). The main focus of most studies was laid on civil parties, including specific groups amongst civil parties such as civil party representatives (Kirchenbauer et al. 2013;Sperfeldt et al. 2016), civil parties admitted in Case 002 due to forced marriage under the Khmer Rouge regime (Strasser et al. 2015), or civil parties within the Cambodian diaspora in the US (Catalayud et al. 2011). ...
... The main focus of most studies was laid on civil parties, including specific groups amongst civil parties such as civil party representatives (Kirchenbauer et al. 2013;Sperfeldt et al. 2016), civil parties admitted in Case 002 due to forced marriage under the Khmer Rouge regime (Strasser et al. 2015), or civil parties within the Cambodian diaspora in the US (Catalayud et al. 2011). However, some studies also addressed the experiences of complainants or of the broader population in Cambodia (Pham et al. 2009;Pham et al. 2011a;Stammel et al. 2010). ...
Technical Report
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This report is the outcome of a research project1 that aimed to understand victims’ perceptions of justice and reconciliation in post-conflict Cambodia and how their inclusion in the transitional justice process has influenced this.
... Impaired intellectual functioning can influence the ability of a witness to understand questions and to articulate their answers (Gudjonsson, 2006). In a study by the Berlin Center for the Treatment of Torture Victims (Stammel, Burchert, Taing, Bockers, & Knaevelsrud, 2010), among 1077 Cambodians who had applied to become civil parties before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), about two thirds of the participants indicated that they can only read or write a little bit and that they spent on average four years in school. ...
Chapter
Combining interdisciplinary techniques with original ethnographic fieldwork, Christoph Sperfeldt examines the first attempts of international criminal courts to provide reparations to victims of mass atrocities. The observations focus on two case studies: the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, where Sperfeldt spent over ten years working at and around, and the International Criminal Court's interventions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Enriched with first-hand observations and an awareness of contextual dynamics, this book directs attention to the 'social life of reparations' that too often get lost in formal accounts of law and its institutions. Sperfeldt shows that reparations are constituted and contested through a range of practices that produce, change, and give meaning to reparations. Appreciating the nature and effects of these practices provides us with a deeper understanding of the discrepancies that exist between the reparations ideal and how it functions imperfectly in different contexts.
Chapter
Victim participation is considered a great innovation of the Rome Statute, and an improvement from the previous international criminal tribunals that failed to attend to victims’ needs and interests. This article compares the victim participation regimes at the ICC and the ECCC. Through this comparative examination, it detects a common trend towards a more streamlined approach despite of the fundamental differences between the victim participation regimes at these two courts. It is then submitted that this trend is unavoidable given the inherent limits of criminal proceedings. Any attempts to refine the victim participation regime have to take into consideration these limits, and to recognize the fact that criminal proceedings is not a panacea. It can only be part of the combined efforts by various mechanisms to truly uphold victims’ rights.
Article
Trauma theory has long been confined to the domain of psychology with a concern for clinical situations and vignettes. The framing of trauma as an individual or psychological problem is unable to explain what causes changes in public attitudes toward trauma victims because it fails to recognize the collective dynamics and social dimension of trauma. The collective dynamics of trauma have emerged as a vital theme in recent works including constructivist sociological models of collective trauma representations and of the changing impact of international norms. This article engages with these models in the context of the Cambodian genocide by the Khmer Rouge and explores the shifts in public perceptions of formerly stigmatized survivors, considering that trauma recovery is a never-ending process with an uncertain outcome. It is argued that the public perception of what constitutes individual trauma and who is acknowledged as victim depends largely on cultural and political contexts. Field interviews with several victims of forced marriages, a mental health expert, and a former judge illustrate what needs to be done to help traumatized survivors find closure and obtain reparations.