On 31 May 2019, the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the United Nations Legal Counsel, Mr. Miguel de Serpa Soares, deliveredand moderated a panel discussion organized by the Steering Committee for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in conjunction with the Office of Legal Affairs. The event took place at the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations and focused on “The recent milestone judgment in ECCC Case 002/02: Looking at the implications for international criminal accountability, in Cambodia and beyond”.
The ECCC was established by agreement between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the United Nations to bring justice to the people of Cambodia for the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. The ECCC is a unique judicial institution established within the Courts of Cambodia, but with international participation and funding made available through voluntary contributions from the Member States of the United Nations. The judgments and convictions issued to date by the ECCC have made significant contributions to the development of international criminal law.