By:
• Michelle Vachon

• November 10, 2024 , 9:00 PM

PHNOM PENH — The United Nations’s genocide prevention office and the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) have signed a partnership agreement to work on education, prevention and other measures against genocide.  

"This partnership represents a crucial step in our ongoing efforts to prevent genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity," said Alice Wairimu Nderitu, UN under-secretary-general and special adviser on the prevention of genocide, according to a statement from her office. "By combining the UN's global reach with DC-Cam's deep expertise and regional knowledge, we strengthen our ability to identify and respond to early warning signs of genocide and other serious international crimes, as well as to design and implement effective and sustainable preventative action." 

According to Youk Chhang, executive director of DC-Cam, this agreement basically formalized cooperation that had been taking place between the U.N. office and DC-Cam since 2020. This has included collaborating on the development of material for the classroom and also the general public in Asia and Southeast Asia as education can be a means of preventing genocides, he said. “We also have been working on the African continent for some time, since 2009 in fact.

“We are working on Sudan right now for documentation,” he said. “One of the focuses must be documenting all the possible information that might be used for the process of justice after the conflict is over, and that’s our expertise.” Since the start of the conflict 18 months ago, millions of people have been displaced in Sudan and tens of thousands of people killed, according to UN officials and observers. They have also mentioned reports of atrocious crimes, including indiscriminate killings of civilians and sexual violence against girls and women. 

“Sudanese women…actually, personally, made the request to DC-Cam,” Chhang said. “We are now looking into the possibility of visiting refugees, among other things to show them how to document…the possible resources, materials, that can be used for a justice approach.”

This took place in Cambodia as around 500,000 of the 2 million records and archives compiled by DC-Cam over decades, and which include testimonies of people who lived during the Khmer Rouge regime of April 1975/Jan.1979, were put, at their request, at the disposal of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, commonly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, during which Khmer Rouge leaders were put on trial. 

With this in mind, Chhang said, “urgent…we are pushing collaboration between DC-Cam…and the Kingali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda.” This memorial was built to commemorate the death of around 800,000 Tutsi killed by the Hutus in 1994. “We think there are many similarities [regarding the genocides] in Cambodia and Rwanda.

“While we think our situation is unique, and no one would understand, I think that in Cambodia and Rwanda, [there can be] lessons learned, best practice [to study] so that a country in conflict similar to Rwanda or Cambodia can look into this to resolve their own conflicts,” he said. 

UN Under-Secretary-General Alice Wairimu Nderitu agreed. "By combining the UN's global reach with DC-Cam's deep expertise and regional knowledge, we strengthen our ability to identify and respond to early warning signs of genocide and other serious international crimes as well to design and implement effective and sustainable preventative action."