KRT Monitoring Team

AIJI has established a regional trial monitoring program at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Its team of ten monitors from Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, China, Switzerland and Germany will be writing weekly reports and periodic analysis on the Khmer Rouge Trials, as they unfold at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

The first trial is that of Kaing Guek Eav, alias ‘Duch’ and begins in Cambodia on March 30, 2009. Weekly reports on the trial proceedings can be accessed here.

Lead Monitors
Faith Suzzette DELOS REYES-KONG is a Filipono lawyer and lead monitor.  Before joining the KRT Monitoring Team, Faith was with the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, where she served for four years.

Noyel RY is a Cambodian lead monitor who has considerable experience in the KRT field as a media practitioner.  She used to work with the Center for Social Development, the Center for Justice and Reconciliation, and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Sovanna SEK is a Cambodian lawyer who has been working as a lead monitor for the KRT Trial Monitoring and Community Outreach Program since 2009.  She also served as the Deputy Director of the in-country Legal and Content Development Team of the Virtual Tribunal of the ECCC in 2010. Sovanna had completed an internship at the Office Co-Prosecutors at the ECCC and served as an attorney-at-law at the Community Legal Education Center where she advocated the protection of land rights.

Cess PRINCIPE is a Filipino lawyer who received her degree from the University of the Philippines.  Prior to seerving as a lead monitor of Case 002, Cess worked as a private practitioner litigating cases relating to women and children’s rights.

Monitors

Nora FUCHS is a Swiss trial monitor who received her Master of Laws degree from the Universities of Zurich and Neuchâtel, Switzerland and Oslo, Norway.  During her studies, she focused on international criminal law and international humanitarian law. Nora has completed an internship at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative and has since been working for the Swiss Ministry of Defense.

Samuel GILG is a Swiss trial monitor who received his Master of Laws degree from the University of Zürich in 2009. He completed internships at a District Court and a District Attorney's Office in Switzerland before joining the KRT Monitoring Team.

Kounila KEO is a Khmer monitor with a degree in Media and Communication from the Royal University of Phnom Penh.  She has been freelanding with Agence France Fresse since 2009 and had worked as BBC Media Actin's Digital Manager.  When she is not monitoring and writing news reports, she blogs about social issues and everything Cambodian at www.blueladyblog.com.  A blogger since 2007, Kounila conducts workshops on social media for university students, artists and professionals.

Samantha LEE is a monitor-intern from the United States.  She had recently completed her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations at Stanford University, where she focused on the politics of international human rights law and retrospective justice.  Sam has also served as a legal intern for the Greater Boston Legal Services Immigration Unit.

Ramu NACHIAPPAN is a 4th year Bachelor of Laws student at the National University of Singapore.  In 2011, he participated in the Oxford, Monroe E. Price Moot Competitition and has been engrossed in International law ever since.  He spent a semester in Georgetown University Law Center as part of his Student Exchange Programme.  He is interested in Human Rights Law, particularly in the unique problems faced by women and children in Asia.

Vidjia PHUN is a Cambodian trial monitor who holds a Master of Laws in Human Rights degree from the Central European University.  He teaches law courses at the Faculty of Law and Public Affairs of Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia, where he also administers a legal clinic.  Vidjia was involved in the Human Rights Resource Center’s baseline study on rule of law in the ASEAN region, a report on which was published in 2010. 

Leang SOK is a Cambodian translator-monitor.  He has worked in the field of human rights with the Center for Justice and Reconciliation and the Center for Social Development, focusing on victims' participation at the ECCC, as well as healing and reconciliation processes through transitional justice mechanisms.  He is currently a part time lecturer of Cultural Anthropology at Pannasastra University of Cambodia.  Leang has also been a professional translator/interpreter in local and international conferences in the country and abroad for the past six years.

  Kimsan SOY is a Cambodian trial monitor who holds a Master of Laws degree in Public International Law from the Transnational Laws and Business University, South Korea. He was a pioneering member of the first Cambodian team to have participated in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in 2009.  This experience has encouraged Kimsan to conduct in-depth research and analysis on international human rights law and international humanitarian law, particularly on the issue of responsibility to protect.

Chayanich THAMPARIPATTRA is a Thai lawyer who received her Bachelor of Laws from Thammasat University.  Chayanich has also studied the Australian legal system through an exchange program at the University of Queensland. Before coming to Cambodia, she spent more than two years as a consultant on International Labor Standards and Labor Laws for the International Labour Organization, during which, she also volunteered for local trade unions. 

Juan Pablo STEIN is an intern-monitor who received his degree in International Relations (focusing on international law and development economics) from the Catholic University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  During his studies and after, he worked with leading regional finance teams of multinational companies, including Accenture and Microsoft.

Flavia WIDMER is a Swiss trial monitor who studied law at the Universities of Zürich and Neuchâtel, Switzerland. She graduated in 2011 with a Master of Laws degree. In 2008, Flavia spent one semester at the Chicago-Kent College of Law's exchange program, focusing on International and Comparative Law (half of the LLM program). During her studies and shortly after, she worked for different business law firms in Zürich, Switzerland.

Alvin YAP is a Singaporean intern-monitor who recently graduated from the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore.  He was part of the team that represented Singapore at the 2012 Philip C. Jessep International Law Moot Court Competition, after winning the Singapore National Round of the competitition.  He completed a research paper under the guidance of Prof. Simon Chesterman on the topic of sexual violence against men during armed conflicts.