Bad Judgment

Here it is. The result of tens of thousands of dollars spent and a weeks worth of meetings. A two page statement pledging.... to have more meetings. They point out some of the areas of pretty serious disagreement, but don't bother trying to find any words about areas were they agreed in this statement.

JOINT STATEMENT BY NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL JUDICIAL OFFICERS of the ECCC

Phnom Penh, 25 November 2006

We wish to acknowledge above all the importance of these proceedings for the people of Cambodia. We also understand the heavy responsibility we have to do our utmost to move forward with this important work.

As national and international judicial officers we have met in Plenary Session over the past six days. All of us have a strong determination to succeed in our goal of establishing a firm foundation for the court. No one wishes to delay these long-awaited trials.

Nevertheless, we regret to announce that we have been unable to complete our task of adopting Internal Rules for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

The rules we have been working on are necessary as they will provide the procedural underpinning required for every phase of the proceedings – from preliminary investigation, to judicial investigation, to trial and through appeal. They also delineate the roles of all parties, the co-prosecutors, defence and victims.

The Draft we considered had over 110 rules with hundreds of sub-rules. These draft rules were posted on our website and submissions were invited. We received numerous comments and suggestions from NGOs, legal scholars and other interested observers from across the world.

During this Plenary Session we discussed general matters and had time to focus in detail on about a third of these Draft Rules. We have come to realise that the task we were given to achieve in one week was far too ambitious.

We have also become aware that we have some basic differences. In particular, we have found that we currently have substantive disagreement about several key issues. Amongst these are:

• How to integrate Cambodian law and international standards;
• The role of the Defence Support Unit including the issue of how defence lawyers will be qualified;
• The role of the Co-Prosecutors and its impact on the voting procedure;
• How the Extraordinary court will operate within the Cambodian court structure.

Additionally we have not had an adequate opportunity to address in detail some of the vital issues before the court, in particular the role of victims and civil party rights.

A committee will continue to work between now and the next Plenary Session in an effort to find a path toward resolving the differences.

Although this continues to be a challenging process, all judicial officers are determined to do our best to resolve these issues, if at all possible. We recognise how important our work is in bringing justice to the Cambodian people for crimes committed almost thirty years ago in order to help to continue the process of ensuring social harmony.