Khmer Rouge Trials: Serving to End or Compound Cambodia's Culture of Impunity?
Free and open to the public.
Reception to follow.
About the event In a conversation moderated by Susan Waltz, Margo Picken and John Ciorciari will discuss the positive and negative effects of the UN-backed Khmer Rouge trials that began several years ago in "extraordinary chambers" of the courts of Cambodia. Will they bring "closure" to the country's dark past? What impact have they had on the situation of human rights in Cambodia today? This event is co-sponsored by the Human Rights Initiative at the University of Michigan's International Institute.
About the speakers
Margo Picken joins us following a senior fellowship with the London School of Economics. Margo has worked in the field of human rights for much of her professional career. Most recently, she worked for the United Nations as director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia from 2001 to 2007. She was responsible for the human rights program of the Ford Foundation from 1988 to 1995. She established and directed the Office of Amnesty International at the United Nations in New York from 1976 to 1987. She holds a master's degree in International Relations from the University of London.
John Ciorciari's interests include international law, politics, and international finance. His current research projects focus primarily on the Asia-Pacific region, and examine foreign policy strategies, human rights, and the reform of international economic institutions. He has served as a National Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and as a Shorenstein Fellow at the university's Asia-Pacific Research Center. From 2004-07, he served as a policy official in the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of International Affairs. Since 1999, he has been a legal advisor to the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which promotes historical memory and justice for the atrocities of the Pol Pot regime.