Intergenerational Trauma: A Scoping Review of Cross-Cultural Applications from 1999 to 2019

It has been over 20 years since the publication of Danieli’s (1998) International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma, a seminal cross-cultural compilation examining the generational effects of mass trauma and intergenerational trauma (IGT). In the years since this book appeared, research on IGT has continued to be applied to many cultural groups, including those who have survived the Indian Residential Schools, the Khmer Rouge regime, or the Rwandan genocide. Previous reviews of IGT research have focused mainly on survivors of the Holocaust, which limits the cross-cultural application of this field of study. The purpose of this article is to provide a scoping review of scholarship published between 1999 and 2019 that aims to understand how IGT has been studied in cross-cultural applications. Overall, 29 articles were identified and reviewed. In light of the fact that cross-cultural perspectives on IGT are still emerging (Sirikantraporn & Green, 2016), the methodology and the cultural considerations described in this review can inform future cross-cultural IGT research.

Outsourcing Outreach: ‘Counter-translation’ of Outreach Activities at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

This article examines the outreach activities of the ongoing trials in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The ECCC was designed to hold the leaders of Cambodia's notoriously violent Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979) accountable. Outreach programmes have now become part of transitional justice initiatives as means to anchor their work in local and national consciousness in target countries. Using ethnographic data gathered in 2019–2020, this article explores how outreach activities have changed over time as they have become subject to new influences. I focus in particular on how some local actors have begun appropriating them in ways that represent a ‘counter-translation’ of the intentions originally propagated by the architects of the ECCC.

Victim Participation at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Challenges to the Civil Party Framework and Lessons for the Future

<p>This paper examines the victim participation framework at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC or Court), established to deal with crimes during the Khmer Rouge regime. The background which has led to the creation of the ECCC will be explained, before the paper will look at the way the Court is structured to include civil parties. The Court has consistently limited the civil parties’ role since its establishment and these limitations and the justifications are outlined in the paper. Solutions in the context of the ECCC are then considered, although due to the political environment, no changes in favour of victim rights are likely. Future models are considered, with the benefits of a Truth and Conciliation Commission’s analysed by looking at Sierra Leone and East Timor, as examples of successful frameworks where both a Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission proceeded simultaneously. This paper concludes that although every situation requiring a judicial response will be different, the option of having both a Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission can fulfil multiple victim needs.</p>

Victim Participation at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Challenges to the Civil Party Framework and Lessons for the Future

<p>This paper examines the victim participation framework at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC or Court), established to deal with crimes during the Khmer Rouge regime. The background which has led to the creation of the ECCC will be explained, before the paper will look at the way the Court is structured to include civil parties. The Court has consistently limited the civil parties’ role since its establishment and these limitations and the justifications are outlined in the paper. Solutions in the context of the ECCC are then considered, although due to the political environment, no changes in favour of victim rights are likely. Future models are considered, with the benefits of a Truth and Conciliation Commission’s analysed by looking at Sierra Leone and East Timor, as examples of successful frameworks where both a Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission proceeded simultaneously. This paper concludes that although every situation requiring a judicial response will be different, the option of having both a Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission can fulfil multiple victim needs.</p>

Hidden Identities in Contemporary Cambodian Photography

This article examines the works of three photographers, Kim Hak (b. 1981), Khvay Samnang (b. 1982), and Neak Sophal (b. 1989), all born in the post-Khmer Rouge era and all established relatively early in their careers. These third-generation Cambodian photographers construct portraitures that steer away from identity to address the larger issues of individuals and local communities in present-day Cambodia, which still lives in the shadow of the trauma of the Khmer Rouge. Kim's photography avoids a direct representation of people who suffered through the Khmer Rouge regime and instead presents small, ordinary objects that were kept secretly in their household; Khvay documents the hardship of local communities in Phnom Penh and their questioned identity by portraying masked faces; Neak questions the hardship of the youth, women, and townspeople through the erasure of face in her series of photographs depicting various community groups in Cambodia. This subtle avoidance of portraying individuals in a direct, straightforward way signifies a multi-faceted interpretation of the traumatic past, its resilience, and the newly added social problems of contemporary Cambodia, which struggles in the aftermath of the genocide and more recent economic growth.

NGO Coordination and the Changing Aid Environment in Cambodia: Challenges and Opportunities

<p>Cambodia is one of the poorest and most aid-dependent countries in Southeast Asia. Historically NGOs have operated in Cambodia since the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. Since the Paris Peace Accord Agreement, signed by the Cambodian leaders in 1991, the number of NGOs has grown rapidly and played a pivotal role in delivering public services and advocacy. In an effort to improve efficiencies and effectiveness aid delivery mechanisms have become extraordinarily complex and cumbersome. They require all parties to have strong coordination efforts within their individual groups and amongst broader stakeholders. This thesis analyses the effectiveness of NGO coordination in Cambodia. It is based on recently completed in-country research involving participant observation and a series of semi-structured interviews. The paper explores NGO coordination and how the NGO community engages in the aid coordination processes led by the Cambodian government. The findings indicate that the NGO coordination efforts have encountered a series of challenges. These include cultural, political and institutional challenges and poor NGO coordination between the national and provincial levels. They have resulted in a) the absence of a collective voice, b) slow progress on NGO self-regulation, c) the fragmentation and duplication of NGO projects, d) a poor working relationship with the government e) little understanding of aid effectiveness and f) poor engagement in the aid coordination mechanisms. Thus, the NGO coordination efforts are relatively loose although progress has been made since the 1990s. Consequently, Cambodia's NGO sector remains immature and weak. There are, however, some opportunities for improvement through creating an environment that enables policy dialogue with the government.</p>

NGO Coordination and the Changing Aid Environment in Cambodia: Challenges and Opportunities

<p>Cambodia is one of the poorest and most aid-dependent countries in Southeast Asia. Historically NGOs have operated in Cambodia since the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. Since the Paris Peace Accord Agreement, signed by the Cambodian leaders in 1991, the number of NGOs has grown rapidly and played a pivotal role in delivering public services and advocacy. In an effort to improve efficiencies and effectiveness aid delivery mechanisms have become extraordinarily complex and cumbersome. They require all parties to have strong coordination efforts within their individual groups and amongst broader stakeholders. This thesis analyses the effectiveness of NGO coordination in Cambodia. It is based on recently completed in-country research involving participant observation and a series of semi-structured interviews. The paper explores NGO coordination and how the NGO community engages in the aid coordination processes led by the Cambodian government. The findings indicate that the NGO coordination efforts have encountered a series of challenges. These include cultural, political and institutional challenges and poor NGO coordination between the national and provincial levels. They have resulted in a) the absence of a collective voice, b) slow progress on NGO self-regulation, c) the fragmentation and duplication of NGO projects, d) a poor working relationship with the government e) little understanding of aid effectiveness and f) poor engagement in the aid coordination mechanisms. Thus, the NGO coordination efforts are relatively loose although progress has been made since the 1990s. Consequently, Cambodia's NGO sector remains immature and weak. There are, however, some opportunities for improvement through creating an environment that enables policy dialogue with the government.</p>

Remembering and silencing complexity in post-genocide memorialisation: Cambodia’s Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

In genocide, complex political actors can take on changing roles of perpetrator, victim or hero at different points in time. In post-genocide societies, political actors seek to shape memory of the violent past to forward their own interests, often undermining this complexity and painting a more black-and-white picture that ties in with Transitional Justice practitioners’ dichotomous assumptions about perpetrators and victims. This article looks at how complexity is remembered and silenced in a post-genocide memorial space that included many complex political actors during its tenure as a security centre: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia. Here, the audio guide and permanent and temporary exhibitions (as well as changes to these) allow for a co-existence of competing memories, demonising the Khmer Rouge regime for its immense cruelty and simultaneously constructing victimhood for former Khmer Rouge cadres. This could serve as a starting point for discussing complexity, but instead silences in the exhibitions and audio guide create an ambivalence in attributing these roles that masks this complexity.

Dollarization and macroeconomic performance in Cambodia since the first 1993 general election

This paper provides historical backgrounds of dollarization, the introduction of the Khmer riel and macroeconomic performance in the context of high dollarization after the Khmer Rouge regime which ended in year 1979. The high level of dollarization was caused by both economic and political factors. The history of large exchange rate depreciation and high inflation, trust in new local currency (which was abolished during the Khmer Rouge), political unrests, spending in U.S. dollars by international organizations for running elections, are among those factors. Macroeconomic environment was favourable as low inflation, stable exchange rate against U.S. dollar and high rate of GDP growth were achieved recently. Policy to gradually de-dollarize the economy is in place. However, dollarization cannot cushion Cambodian economy against recent global economic shocks such as global financial crisis in 2008 and Covid-19. A more active dedollarization policy shall be considered.

Intergenerational health impact of adverse environment in utero under civil conflict: evidence from Cambodia

PurposeThis study aims to empirically examine how the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979) in Cambodia continues to affect the health of the second generation.Design/methodology/approachThe 2000 and 2005 Cambodia Demographic and Health Surveys were used in the analysis. The study sample were women with a child/children in 2000/2005. The sample population was identified according to whether the person was in utero “91 months or earlier before the Khmer Rouge regime,” “46–90 months before the Khmer Rouge regime” and “1–45 months before the Khmer Rouge regime” and during the Khmer Rouge regime. The authors then regressed the size of babies of the targeted population on the timing of the mothers being in utero.FindingsMothers who were in utero during the regime had a higher likelihood of giving birth to smaller-than-average babies. Additionally, mothers born in the areas that had a higher probability of death of children aged five or under during the regime were at risk of giving birth to smaller-than-average babies if they were in utero during that time.Social implicationsThe findings have significant implications for today's society in practice, which still has a considerable number of people suffering from civil conflict and malnutrition. Civil conflicts not only severely affect current, but also future generations.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to assess the impact of the Khmer Rouge regime on the health of the second generation.