Who's Seeking to Participate in ECCC Proceedings?

To follow up on Seth's post, this map -- given to us by the Victims Unit and poorly reproduced here by me -- provides a nice illustration of the extent to which, and from where, victims have provided information through the Victim Information Forms.  As of the end of 2009, nearly 3600 individuals had submitted information as Complainants, and only slightly less applied to be recognized as Civil Parties.  Only a small number of VIFs came from the Cambodian diaspora.  In fact, the forms collected by ASRIC and delivered today -- nearly 200 -- almost double what had been provided from outside Cambodia to date.

It's striking how many victims are seeking to participate in the ECCC proceedings -- that is, become civil parties rather than submit information as complainants.  This means a hugely increased workload for the Victims Unit, which must process these, as well as on the co-investigative judges who must determine whether to accept the requests for civil party status.  It also means that there is considerable interest among victims to help shape the proceedings.  Not everyone is happy with the pressure it puts on the trials, as active victim participation hasn't been the norm in criminal proceedings internationally (or often domestically, for that matter).  But whether it works well or not, the ECCC is helping to underline the fact that, ultimately, international criminal justice must find ways to satisfy the needs of victims.