The Fluctuating Visibility of Everyday Violence in Khmer Rouge Era Cambodia

27 Pages Posted: 9 Aug 2021 Last revised: 27 Apr 2022

See all articles by Randle C. DeFalco

Randle C. DeFalco

Widener University - Widener University School of Law

Savina Sirik

University of Gothenburg, School of Global Studies

Date Written: 2021

Abstract

This Article explores how the atrocities committed in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979) have been narrated over time and how, through such narration, slow and attritive “everyday” forms of atrocity violence have been alternately rendered visible or invisible. It does so by looking at how Khmer Rouge era atrocities have been framed, while focusing on identifying what forms of violence and killing have been branded, legally and socially, as “atrocity crimes” and what forms of violence have been obscured, backgrounded or otherwise deemphasized. In doing so, the Article assesses the relationship between international, national, and local understandings of this complex history, expressing concern that dominant narratives developed by national and international elites may be influencing or even displacing localized notions of violence, atrocity, and justice. The Article concludes by calling for efforts to actively foreground everyday as well as spectacular manifestations of atrocity violence and experiences thereof.

Keywords: Atrocity, International Criminal Law, International Criminal Justice, Transitional Justice, Cambodia, Khmer Rouge, ECCC, Memory, Visibility, Violence

Suggested Citation

DeFalco, Randle C. and Sirik, Savina, The Fluctuating Visibility of Everyday Violence in Khmer Rouge Era Cambodia (2021). 31 Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal 217 (2022), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3898763 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3898763

Randle C. DeFalco (Contact Author)

Widener University - Widener University School of Law ( email )

4601 Concord Pike
P.O. Box 7286
Wilmington, DE 19803-0474
United States

Savina Sirik

University of Gothenburg, School of Global Studies ( email )

POB 700
Gothenburg, SE 40530
Sweden

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