ABSTRACT

This chapter examines representations of victims through practices of participation in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia trials and discusses the constitution of a Court and the gatekeeper of the Closing Order to the Trial Chamber. It examines three participatory roles through which victims are represented during trial: the visitor, the civil party and the testifier and explores the manner in which trials provide both a space and a mode of speech through which subjects appear as victims. By paying attention to the way representation is both an activity of constitution and of relation between representative and represented, the possibilities and limits of the appearances of victims as participants in trial come into view. In becoming a civil party participant, the authority to speak is both granted and given away. The status of the civil party shifts from individual to collective, and the role of spokesperson is in question.