人类决心克服邪恶的根本在于,人们相信文明正在逐步走向战争,群众暴行和不人道行为最终被消灭的那一天。 盛大的政治演说和司法程序吸引了我们对快速变革的渴望,但它是小型的,社区层面的胜利 – 在教室,城镇广场和家庭生活空间 – 真正推动了进步。 2015年Anlong Veng和平中心的成立就是这样一个胜利。
这些群体之间的紧张关系并不是很明显,但在与居民交谈时,很明显这些群体对他们共同的历史有着截然不同的看法。一些前红色高棉人带着喜爱的情绪回顾过去,而许多幸存者则带着仇恨,恐惧和悲伤回顾过去。尽管有这些不同的观点,但该地区是和平的,并证明了冲突后社会打破暴力循环的能力。在这个独特的环境中,安龙翁和平中心致力于帮助柬埔寨从“杀戮之地”过渡到“和平与和解之国”。该中心目前正在记录KR成员和当地幸存者的故事,目的是保留更丰富的红色高棉运动历史,并促进KR与种族灭绝幸存者之间的对话(国家治愈的一个重要因素)。该中心正在保护和发展旅游的历史遗址。此外,国家和国际学者正在利用和平中心的资源对红色高棉历史和冲突后的和解与发展进行研究。最后,和平中心正在开发教育材料,以便柬埔寨人民和世界公民了解红色高棉的真实和完整的历史。柬埔寨公立学校目前只向学生讲述1975年至1979年(民主柬埔寨时期)所犯下的恐怖事件,无视1975年以前共产主义运动的历史,以及1979年以后发生的政治军事事件。安龙翁和平中心致力于扩大国家课程,包括红色高棉运动的整个轨迹(大约1955年至1999年)。希望从柬埔寨过去的暴力和当前的斗争中汲取的教训可以帮助其他国家避免这种冲突,并帮助冲突后国家建立一个繁荣的未来。
通过不懈的努力,Anlong Veng和平中心大胆实现其上级组织柬埔寨文献中心的目标。
This website was funded in part by a grant (Documentation and Democracy) from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development.
Concept by Ean Panharith and Youk Chhang
© 2023 Documentation Center of Cambodia
The Prevention and Punishment of the Crimes of Genocide
By Youk Chhang
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide stands alongside the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as one of the key pillars of international human rights law, and for this Human Rights Day in 2022, I want to highlight the critical importance of the responsibility to prevent atrocity crimes, which includes genocide. When atrocity crimes occur, there is an immediate need to stop these atrocious acts, followed by the equally urgent tasks of documenting, investigating, and ultimately prosecuting the perpetrators. However, from 1948 to today, we have not given enough attention to true prevention.
Atrocity crimes do not occur in a vacuum. There is a long chain of events and conditions that precede atrocity crimes. Isolation, segregation, and discrimination frequently, if not always, precede the rationalization of atrocity crimes against a group of people. And before people are discriminated against, they must be dehumanized. The process of dehumanization depends upon rationalizing hatred and distrust, and these processes are precipitated by misinformation, fueled by uninformed biases, stereotypes, and exploitative actors. They are also frequently dependent upon the disintegration, corruption, or lack of development of critical institutions, in particular institutions dedicated to dialogue and education. It is here that we must dedicate our greatest attention.
Since 1948, we have made great strides toward taking actions that interrupt, mitigate, and to a very limited extent, punish the chief perpetrators of atrocity crimes; however, these actions are not preventative but reactive in nature. No atrocities crime trial has ever prevented the next genocide, and no sanctions or punishment can bring back the dead or undo the trauma that extends across multiple generations. Indeed, the trauma of atrocity crimes in the distant past are often the forgotten seeds for the next wave of violence and inhumanity of the future.
If we are to truly adopt strategies that are effective, far reaching, and decisive in preventing atrocity crimes, then our priorities must be re-oriented to the opposite end of the spectrum, where the seeds of the next genocide are cultivated. Our responsibility in complying with foundational human rights documents should be measured not solely by our success at responding, investigating, and prosecuting atrocity crimes, but by our efforts in supporting institutions, initiatives, and actions that have a positive influence in preventing all forms of inhumanity. The most effective strategy at preventing the next genocide is centered on actions and policies that interrupt and reduce the risk of escalation at the earliest stages of inhumanity.
Cambodia recently removed human rights days from public calendars. I think we should reconsider this collective decision. Cambodia has achieved extraordinary success in its genocide education programme, which is the essence of atrocity crimes prevention. And so, to capitalize on this success and Cambodia’s regional and even global leadership in this area, we should hold an annual dialogue on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. As the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) closes its doors, there is no better time than now to preserve Cambodia’s leadership and momentum in realizing the core objectives of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) is proud of the support it has given to the ECCC’s work, which was fundamental to giving victims an opportunity to participate in the justice process and realize some sense of closure from the Khmer Rouge genocide. DC-Cam is also eager to support an annual conference on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. As we commemorate this Human Rights Day, we would be mindful to recognize our fundamental human rights documents are not only universal commitments, but also standards for evaluating the kind of world we are leaving for the next generation.
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Youk Chhang is Executive Director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia. The Center dedicating to Justice, Memory, and Healing for survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide.
Photo above: Children at Angkor Wat, 1979. After the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime on 7 January 1979, hundreds of thousands of children were left orphaned. From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge led Cambodia into tragedy causing the deaths of over 2 million people. Although two millions were killed, five millions more survived to tell their story. The perpetrators of these crimes also survived. Photo: Documentation Center of Cambodia Archives.
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