Transitional Justice Education through the local: The Rescuers Project in Cambodia

In Cambodia, 70% of the country’s population was born after the end of the Khmer Rouge regime. Understanding and acknowledging the past means that it is important to engage with the country’s vast young population. However, the passage of time has posed some difficulties for the transitional justice process here. Several accused and convicted individuals at the ECCC have passed on, along with many victims and witnesses due to old age and poor health. Reparations projects, which are collective and moral in nature only (and not financial), have therefore focused not on compensation, but on guarantees of non-repetition, satisfaction and rehabilitation. Such a focus means there is a crucial need to involve the generations born after the KR regime and even the generation born after the Paris Peace Accords in 1991. NGOs have taken on this task through both judicial and non-judicial reparations projects, to educate youth in Cambodia about the history of the Khmer Rouge, and to encourage inter-generational dialogue. Despite important changes to Cambodia’s educational curriculum, understanding of what happened during the regime, and why it happened, remains limited. What also remains limited are the conversations young people are able to have within their families and communities, about what those who lived through the regime experienced. This paper will therefore elaborate on, and discuss initial findings from, the Rescuers Project in Cambodia. This outreach project was conceived of and implemented by the author as part of her PhD fieldwork, and Youth for Peace, an NGO with a long history in Cambodia of working on peace and youth education. The Rescuers Project is an outreach project that seeks to tell the stories of ordinary people who survived the Khmer Rouge regime, who became “rescuers” during the regime, and in doing so, promote the importance of inter-generational dialogue and the importance of civil and moral courage in Cambodian society. It aims to increase awareness and understanding of survivor narratives from those who demonstrated rescuing behaviour, and to promote compassionate behaviour as a pathway to non-recurrence. Implementing this project from October 2021 to July 2022, the author and YFP selected 18 youths, who were trained in conducting interviews with survivors of the regime, Khmer Rouge history, narrative methods, and basic psychosocial and do no harm principles, before they were sent to 5 different provinces to conduct interviews with survivors. Survivors had been pre-selected and met with to ensure they were willing to share their stories and engage with students in a context like this. Focus group discussions were also conducted with students before, and after, their provincial trips to better understand their experiences through this project. This paper therefore seeks to elaborate on such a locally led and innovative project that engages in transitional justice education from outside a more traditional curriculum-based approach, and through inter-generational dialogue, fosters learning and understanding of Khmer Rouge history, and engagement with both survivors and young people, thereby embracing a turn towards the local, within transitional justice.