ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a ‘thicker’ understanding of victim visibility within international criminal law by exploring how victim recognition is shaped by the specific political context within which a court operates. It discusses how victimhood continues to be ‘produced, perceived and interpreted’ by the various actors engaged in the work of the court. Thus, an analysis of how the pyramid of victimhood has been shaped by various actors can highlight law ‘as a dynamic and, in some ways, even contingent process’. The chapter focuses on the role of judges in both creating and subsequently implementing civil party participation, drawing on theories of judicial behaviour to do so. The Tribunal’s mandate is specifically limited to trying senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge and those most responsible for domestic and international crimes committed during the period from 17 April 1975 to 6 January 1979.
