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Project
Asian International Justice Initiative (AIJI): Archived Project
Leaders of the 2015 AIJI Summer Institute in Bali, Indonesia. Director of AIJI, David Cohen, is on the right.

This project is still active, but it is no longer affiliated with the East-West Center Research Program.

The Asian International Justice Initiative (AIJI) develops capacities and partnerships related to international justice, judicial reform, the rule of law, and human rights in the Asia-Pacific region. The focus is on members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Previously, AIJI was a collaboration between the East-West Center (EWC) and the WSD HANDA Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University (previously known as the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center). During its collaboration with the Center, AIJI was involved in a wide range of projects in Southeast Asia, some focusing on the national level in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste and others aimed more broadly at the regional level in ASEAN.

Recent AIJI Projects

Strengthening the ASEAN Regional Human Rights System

ASEAN regional integration provides valuable opportunities for enhancing the rule of law, good governance, and human rights in Southeast Asia. AIJI collaborated with ASEAN to support human-rights research and policy advocacy in the ASEAN region.

  • ASEAN-related research and capacity development: AIJI supported the development of ASEAN’s Human-Rights Resource Centre (HRRC), a network of 12 major universities in the region. The HRRC provides research and training on a range of human-rights issues including, most recently, freedom of religion, the rule of law, business and human rights, migration, and gender-based violence and discrimination. More information is available at http://hrrca.org.
  • Summer Institute in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights: AIJI’s annual Summer Institute brought regional and international experts together with the three ASEAN human-rights bodies and other officials. Focusing on a theme of importance to ASEAN each year, the Summer Institute provided a forum for key stakeholders to interact and discuss timely and important human-rights issues.

Rights of Women and Children and Human Trafficking

  • Human trafficking in Southeast Asia: The entry into force in 2017 of the ASEAN Convention on Trafficking in Persons (ACTIP) created an opportunity to advance the implementation of anti-trafficking initiatives in Southeast Asia. AIJI published reports on the challenges of assessing the scale of human trafficking and on best practices for data collection and analysis. These studies provided policymakers with a roadmap toward a more unified ASEAN data-collection and analysis system as a resource for combatting human trafficking.
  • Ending conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence: In 2016, AIJI produced a documentary series for Cambodian television entitled Time to Speak Out. Together with an accompanying international documentary, Breaking the Silence, the film explored the prosecution of crimes of sexual violence and forced marriage at the Khmer Rouge trials. These films were produced in partnership with Khmer Mekong Films as part of the British Government’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI). AIJI also conducted training for judicial professionals and civil-society leaders to promote awareness and capacity on this critical issue.

Rule of Law and Justice-Sector Capacity Development

  • Judicial capacity building and human-rights training in Indonesia: Starting in 2003, AIJI was involved in a variety of judicial capacity-building projects in partnership with the Supreme Court and the Attorney General’s Office of Indonesia. Projects included a policy-oriented assessment of the discriminatory implementation of the Blasphemy and Electronic Communications laws and a training program for the Supreme Court on international criminal law and maritime security. AIJI also worked with the National Human-Rights Commission to improve the Commission’s capacity to investigate and submit cases of gross human-rights violations for prosecution by the Attorney General.
  • Legal and human-rights education in Cambodia: AIJI worked with Cambodian universities―including Royal University of Law and Economics, Pannasastra University, and the University of Cambodia―to improve the quality of human-rights and legal education and to support capacity building among Cambodian legal academics and lecturers. During intensive courses, lecturers at these universities received training in fair-trial rights and interactive-teaching methods. Afterwards, they received ongoing mentorship and teaching advice. 
  • Support for judicial reform in Timor-Leste: AIJI Director, David Cohen, is a recognized expert on Timor-Leste and has been deeply engaged with transitional-justice efforts there since 2001. In 2017, AIJI inaugurated a multi-year training program for the Prosecutor-General’s office, which was expanded in 2018 to include training for the judiciary at all levels.
  • Anti-corruption project in Indonesia: Beginning in 2015, AIJI implemented a project in partnership with the Institute for Human-Rights Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) and the Institute for an Independent Judiciary (LeIP). These institutes trains lawyers and academics to monitor the newly established Indonesian regional Anti-Corruption Courts. Funded by the European Union, AIJI's involvement involved monitoring five Anti-Corruption Courts and producing assessments of these courts’ performance. The assessments provided the basis for revising the curriculum on corruption at Indonesia’s national judicial training centers.
  • Judicial capacity building and human-rights training in the Philippines: At the request of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in 2016, AIJI inaugurated a multi-year training program on international criminal law and maritime security for the Philippine judiciary. Program participants were judges at all levels as well as lawyers from relevant government ministries and institutions.

Transitional Justice and Dealing with the Past

  • Khmer Rouge Tribunal monitoring and community outreach in Cambodia: AIJI administered a trial-monitoring program at the Khmer Rouge trials, beginning in 2009. The program aimed to boost public awareness of the trials through the dissemination of weekly reports summarizing and analyzing the proceedings. AIJI worked with Khmer Mekong Films to produce television programs covering topics of interest at the trials, including Duch on Trial, covering Case 001, and Facing Justice, covering Case 002. The program also trained young lawyers in monitoring and legal analysis at an international tribunal. In 2017, AIJI completed a multi-media project that explored the Tribunal’s legacy through Cambodian eyes. For more information, visit the program’s blog at http://krtmonitor.org/.

Earlier AIJI Projects

  • ASEAN Summer Institutes in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

AIJI’s Summer Institutes in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights were regionally based workshops held in partnership with organizations in Southeast Asia. Workshops were co-hosted by partners in Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore, focusing on “International Justice and Peace-Building” (2008), “Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Human Rights” (2009), “Internal Conflicts in the Asia Pacific Region” (2010), “Rights of Women and Children” (2011), “Business and Human Rights” (2012), “Migration and Human Rights” (2013), “Combatting Violence Against Women and Children in Conflict Situations and Beyond" (2014), and “Migration and Trafficking” (2015). Beginning in 2012, the Summer Institute focused on convening participants from the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), the ASEAN Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC), the ASEAN Committee on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ACMW), and the ASEAN Secretariat.

  • Trial Observation at the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh

In 2012, AIJI initiated a project to observe and report on criminal trial proceedings at the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh. Almost 40 years after Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, the government decided to prosecute alleged local collaborators who sided with the Pakistani armed forces to perpetrate war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The war crimes process in this special national tribunal was based on a 1973 law, the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act. Based on years of experience with trial monitoring and rule-of-law promotion in the region, AIJI sent a team of international law experts to work with national trial observers. The goal was to establish a daily presence in the courtroom and produce reliable, objective public reporting on the proceedings. During one year of continuous monitoring, AIJI maintained a dedicated blog site that included daily trial summaries and periodic digests. The program was supported, in part, by a grant from the Open Society Foundations.

  • Transitional Justice and Community Outreach in Cambodia

Outreach Activities and Workshops (2015). In partnership with the Royal University of Law and Economics and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), AIJI conducted a workshop on "Fair Trial Rights and the ECCC Legacy" in 2015. Thirty-six participants represented a range of prominent civil-society organizations that work on domestic judicial initiatives and the ECCC. Topics included fair trial rights internationally and at the ECCC plus broader issues related to the ECCC legacy and the mainstreaming of fair trial rights into legal education and training. AIJI also conducted international law training sessions on “Prosecuting Forced Marriage at the ECCC and Beyond,” “Understanding Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE) at the ECCC,” and “Confronting Ambiguities and Procedural Conflicts Between Adversarial and Inquisitorial Legal Systems in a Hybrid Tribunal.” In addition, AIJI staff conducted a fair trial rights training course for the Royal Academy of Judicial Professionals. Participants in this training course included 25 provincial court clerks from across Cambodia.

“Voices for Reconciliation” Community Outreach (2013–2015). AIJI launched a “Voices for Reconciliation” project in 2013, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) office in Cambodia. This was a two-year project that aimed to help address national trauma resulting from the Khmer Rouge period. The project fostered dialogue at the grassroots and national level, complementing Cambodia’s transitional justice mechanism, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The aim was to support reconciliation in Cambodia by increasing knowledge of ECCC proceedings and encouraging conversation on the process of justice. Using an innovative people-to-people approach that combined broadcast media with community-based forums, the project built on a unique feature of the ECCC proceedings—a nationwide civil party network—to foster healthy and empowered attitudes toward a culture of peace.

The project was coordinated by AIJI and implemented in partnership with Khmer Mekong Films (KMF), the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), and the Cambodian Defenders Project (CDP). ADHOC had previously developed a nationwide network of Civil Party Representatives (CPR) to facilitate communication with people living in remote rural communities. About 125 CPR volunteers served as messengers, communicators, and facilitators in more than 20 Cambodian provinces.

AIJI held three training programs to prepare for these community outreach dialogues. An Advanced Outreach and Facilitation Skills event was held for all project partner staff on group facilitation and conflict resolution. CPR training was held separately to build facilitation skills and improve the effectiveness and gender sensitivity of the meetings. Another event, focusing on Gender-Sensitive Transitional Justice Measures, provided 30 representatives from 12 civil-society organizations with gender-sensitive tools and measures applicable to restorative justice initiatives in Cambodia. This component was critical since six gender-sensitive dialogues across the country were held to assess the participation of women and other vulnerable groups.

Khmer Rouge Tribunal Community Outreach Film Series (2007–2014). During the pre-trial phase of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, from 2007 to 2009, AIJI joined partners from the Center for Social Development (CSD) and the Open Society Justice Initiative in Cambodia to create and disseminate a series of films explaining the rationale behind the ECCC. The films were produced by a local production company, Khmer Mekong Films (KMF). Four films were completed in the series, which was titled Time for Justice. They were shown on Cambodian television as well as by NGOs in Phnom Penh and the provinces. The films describe the reasons for the establishment of the ECCC and give the audience an introduction to the Courts itself through the eyes of a Cambodian family. The scripts were drafted by KMF and reviewed by the AIJI team, members of the NGO community, and staff at the ECCC, including members of the Office of the Co-Prosecutors, the Defense Support Section, and the Court's press and public affairs team. Once trials began in Case 001 and 002, AIJI built on the popularity of its pre-trial film series by producing weekly trial summaries of the proceedings. During Case 001, these aired weekly on CTN as part of a series called Duch on Trial. During Case 002, a similarly structured series was called Facing Justice. An article in Time magazine called Duch on Trial a “sleeper hit,” and estimated that up to three million viewers in Cambodia were watching the series every week out of a population of 15 million.

Workshops at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (2007–2008). Shortly after the Khmer Rouge Tribunal became operational, AIJI worked closely with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) to facilitate legal workshops for both the Office of the Co-Prosecutors (OCP) and the Defense Support Section (DSS). The goal of the workshops was to provide lawyers at the Tribunal with intensive, focused training in international criminal law that would enhance their knowledge of jurisprudence and their expertise in the field. AIJI worked closely with senior members of both the OCP and the DSS to ensure that the workshops responded directly to the needs of the participants. The workshops brought together experts whose combined experience in international tribunals spanned the globe—from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, East Timor, and the Hague.

Coordination Workshop for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) (2006). In early June 2006, AIJI facilitated an NGO Coordination Workshop that brought a group of five international experts to Phnom Penh to discuss potential areas of coordination and cooperation among NGOs and civil society in their engagement with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The workshop addressed some of the expectations of the NGO community regarding what was feasible in terms of their engagement with the court.

  • Transitional Justice in Timor-Leste

Conference on Lessons Learned from Timor-Leste (2006). In May 2006, AIJI sponsored a conference on “Lessons Learned from Timor-Leste” in Bangkok. The purpose of this conference was two-fold: to create a forum for the East Timorese participants to plan a forthcoming publication on the Special Panels for Serious Crimes; and to bring together a group of 10 judges and head administrators from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) with 10 key participants from other international and United Nations-administered tribunals to share valuable information, experience, and advice from those who had worked previously at UN-established tribunals to those about to enter the trial phase in Cambodia.

  • Justice Sector Capacity Building in Indonesia

Papua Project (2012–2014). In 2014, AIJI completed a two-year project in Indonesia’s troubled Papua Province that provided human-rights and conflict-prevention training to more than 100 judges, prosecutors, police officers, prison officials, and regional officials of the National Human Rights Commission. Out of this unique multi-stakeholder collaboration, 22 participants completed the full three-stage “Training the Trainers” program to help build further human-rights capacity in Indonesia’s easternmost provinces.

Judicial Training Workshops (2003–2014). Beginning in 2003, AIJI engaged in a variety of judicial capacity-building projects in partnership with the Supreme Court and the Attorney General’s Office of Indonesia. Projects included human rights and humanitarian law workshops in support of the human rights courts of Indonesia, the Human Rights Directorate of the Attorney General’s Office, the National Human Rights Commission, the National Witness Protection Agency, Indonesian Legal Aid, and the Indonesian National Police. In addition, the AIJI Director served as the International Expert Advisor for the Commission on Truth and Friendship.

Selected Publications

Brunner, Jessie (2018). Getting to good human trafficking data: Everyday guidelines for frontline practitioners in Southeast Asia. Stanford, CA: WS Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice; Honolulu, HI: East-West Center; West Java, Indonesia: Human Rights Resource Centre.

McCaffrie, Caitlin, Somaly Kum, Daniel Mattes and Lina Tay (2018). “So we can know what happened": The educational potential of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Stanford, CA: WSD HANDA Center for Human Rights and International Justice and East-West Center.

Cohen, David, Daniel Mattes, and Caitlin McCaffrie (2017). Justice on appeal: Commentary on the Case 002/01 Final Judgment at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Phnom Penh: WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice and East-West Center.

Palmer, Emma, and Christoph Sperfeldt (2016).  International criminal justice and Southeast Asia:  Approaches to ending impunity for mass atrocities. AsiaPacific Issues No. 126.  Honolulu:  East-West Center.

Sperfeldt, Christoph, Melanie Hyde, and Mychelle Balthazard (2016). Voices for reconciliation: Assessing media outreach and survivor engagement for Case 002 at the Khmer Rouge trials. Honolulu: East-West Center and WSD HANDA Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

Brunner, Jessica (2015). Inaccurate numbers, inadequate policies: Enhancing data to evaluate the prevalence of human trafficking In ASEAN. Honolulu: East-West Center.

Cohen, David, and Leigh-Ashley Lipscomb (2015). Justice at the crossroads. IPAC Report No. 22. Jakarta: Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict.

Cohen, David, Melanie Hyde, and Penelope Van Tuyl, with Stephanie Fung (2015). A well-reasoned opinion? Critical analysis of the first case against the alleged senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Honolulu: East-West Center.

Hyde, Melanie, Emma Palmer, and Sarah Williams (2014). Transformative reparations for sexual and gender-based violence at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC): Reflections, recommendations and next steps. Report of a Workshop held on 28 November 2014 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Sydney: Australian Human Rights Centre and the Asian International Justice Initiative.

Sperfeldt, Christoph (2014). Broadcasting justice: Media outreach at the Khmer Rouge trials. Asia Pacific Issues No. 115. Honolulu: East-West Center.

Cohen, David (2010). ASEAN’s Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights and civil society initiatives in Southeast Asia. Asia Pacific Bulletin No. 51. Washington, DC: East-West Center.

Lipscomb, Leigh-Ashley (2010). Beyond the truth: Can reparations move peace and justice forward in Timor-Leste? AsiaPacific Issues No. 93. Honolulu: East-West Center.

Kelsall, Michelle Staggs (2009). The new ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights: Toothless tiger or tentative first step? AsiaPacific Issues No. 90. Honolulu: East-West Center.

Kelsall, Michelle Staggs, Mary Kristerie A. Baleva, Aviva Nababan, Vineath Chou, Rachel Guo, Caroline Ehlert, Sovannith Nget, and Savornt Pheak (2009). Lessons learned from the "Duch" trial: A comprehensive review of the first case before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Report produced by the Asian International Justice Initiative's KRT Trial Monitoring Group.

Cohen, David (2006). Indifference and accountability: The United Nations and the politics of international justice in East Timor. Special Report No. 9. Honolulu: East-West Center.

Cohen, David (2006). ‘Justice on the cheap’ revisited: The failure of the serious crimes trials in East Timor. AsiaPacific Issues No. 80. Honolulu: East-West Center.

Cohen, David (August 2002). Seeking justice on the cheap: Is the East Timor tribunal really a model for the future?  AsiaPacific Issues No. 61. Honolulu: East-West Center.

AIJI Team Members

  • David Cohen—Director, AIJI; Senior Fellow, East-West Center; WSD-Handa Professor in Human Rights and International Justice, Stanford University

David Cohen is a leading expert in the fields of human rights, international law, and transitional justice. He taught at the University of California (UC) Berkeley from 1979 to 2012 as the Ancker Distinguished Professor for the Humanities, and he was the founding Director of the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center, which moved to Stanford University in 2013 to become the Handa Center. He directed an international project on the World War II war crimes trials in Asia, the Pacific, and Europe and has monitored and reported on the East Timor trials before the Serious Crimes Panel in Dili and the Ad Hoc Human Rights Court in Jakarta. Cohen has also served as Advisor to the Executive Director and Governing Board of the Human Rights Resource Center for ASEAN. He received a J.D. degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law, a Ph.D. in Classics and Ancient History from Cambridge University, and honorary Doctorates in International Law from the University of Zurich and the University of Cambodia. He is the author of numerous publications.

  • Christoph Sperfeldt—Senior Advisor and Collaborating Scholar, AIJI

Christoph Sperfeldt has more than 10 years of experience in research and capacity development in the areas of transitional justice, rule of law, and conflict transformation. From 2016 to 2018, Sperfeldt was AIJI's Deputy Director, and from 2011 to 2015, he was Regional Program Coordinator for Southeast Asia. Before joining AIJI, he worked as Senior Advisor with the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Cambodia from 2007 to 2011, as an Advisor both to the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC) and then to the Victims Support Section of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). Sperfeldt holds a master's degree in Political Science from the University of Jena in Germany, and a doctorate from the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) of the Australian National University. He has published widely in the field of transitional justice and human rights.

  • Dian Rositawati—AIJI Indonesia Program Director

Dian Rositawati coordinated the implementation of AIJI's programs and liaised with partner government and non-governmental institutions in Indonesia. She has been involved in judicial reform in Indonesia since 2000 and participated in the drafting of the Supreme Court Blueprints that have become the foundation of Indonesia's judicial reform. Rositawati served as a member of the Judicial Reform Working Group at the Supreme Court and provided assistance to the Supreme Court in reform programs in the areas of judicial training, case management, and judicial oversight mechanisms. She wa also a board member and director of the Indonesian Institute for an Independent Judiciary (LeIP). She holds a master's degree in law, development, and globalization and a Ph.D. from the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands.

  • Daniel Mattes—Program Consultant, AIJI Cambodia

Daniel Mattes holds an M.Sc. degree in global politics and global civil society from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a B.A. degree in international relations and Italian from Stanford University. He completed a dissertation analyzing the transnational activist response to capital-led rubber development in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri Province. Mattes monitored the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia’s Case 002.

  • Lina Tay—Program Consultant, AIJI Cambodia

Lina Tay holds a bachelor of law degree from the Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE) in Cambodia and a master of law degree in public international law from the Transnational Law and Business University in the Republic of Korea. During field study in Europe, Tay visited the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice, which sparked his interest in international criminal justice, especially the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia’s Case 002.

  • Somaly Kum— Program Consultant, AIJI Cambodia 

Somaly Kum holds a master of law degree in public law from the Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the National University of Management (NUM), and a bachelor's degree in management from Preah Kossomak Political Institute in Cambodia. Before joining AIJI, she worked as an intern and a program assistant with the Khmer Rouge Trial Justice Project and the Land and Natural Resources Rights Project for the Cambodia Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC).

  • Caitlin McCaffrie—Program Consultant, AIJI Cambodia

Caitlin McCaffrie holds an honors degree in international studies from the University of Adelaide in Australia, where her master’s thesis focused on French colonialism and France’s military intervention in Mali. She also holds bachelor’s degrees in arts and international studies, majoring in French, Chinese, and politics. Before joining AIJI, McCaffrie served as an intern with the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and the United Nations Office for Project Services.

  • Melanie Hyde—AIJI Advisor and former Cambodia Program Director

Melanie Hyde was responsible for coordinating a range of AIJI programs in Cambodia, including the Khmer Rouge Tribunal Monitoring Program at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Voices of Reconciliation Program, the Facing Justice television series, and various legal education initiatives related to rule of law and transitional justice. Hyde is an Australian qualified lawyer with a background in commercial law, human rights law, and international criminal law. She previously served as the Legal Advisor to AIJI, with a particular focus on legal education and fair trial rights. Prior to joining AIJI, she worked on gender justice and equality initiatives in Australia, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Cambodia, and Libya.

Collaborating Institutions

In addition to East-West Center and the WSD HANDA Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University, AIJI has collaborated with a number of university-based centers in different parts of the world. These include the Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE) and Pannasastra University in Cambodia, Macquarie University in Australia, the University of Zurich Human Rights Center in Switzerland, Universitas Udayana in Indonesia, the University of Munich and the War Crimes Documentation Center at the University of Marburg in Germany, the Ho Chi Minh City University of Law in Vietnam, and the International Institute for Child Rights and Development at the University of Victoria in Canada. AIJI also collaborates with criminal tribunals around the world.