Abstract / Summary:
Trials against the Khmer Rouge leaders started this year. In these trials young lawyers will be involved as monitors, additionally to local and international judges. The professionals will be confronted with traumatized survivors of genocide and crimes against humanity. Many of these individuals will suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, which, amongst others, severely impedes memory processes. Although these disturbances directly influence the trial situation, judges know little about them. We therefore want to bridge the gap between psychological and legal knowledge and offer training and support to legal professionals. Consequently, we plan to compare psychological and legal reports on the same hearings, and to establish/evaluate continuous psychological training and supervision of the ECCC-monitors/-lawyers during the trials. Finally, reconciling psychological and legal knowledge will not only allow judges to interact with victims and witnesses more consistently, but it will also contribute to the overall purpose of the Court: to establish reconciliation.
