The Extraordinary Chamber of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is an official judicial body in Cambodia created in 2001. Its main function is to litigate human rights abuses of the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.
Presently, the ECCC accepted to investigate crimes against sexual minorities as potential crimes against humanity. Southevy, a 70-year old transgendered woman activist who is one of Cambodia ’s pioneers in advocating for sex workers rights & organizing sex workers, lodged the first civil party complaint with the ECCC for the investigation of crimes against transgendered women during the Khmer Rouge regime.
Southevy has been an active member and organizer for the Womyn’s Network for Unity, an NGO in Cambodia and an active member of the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers for the past 18 months. She is a sex worker as well.
In the Philippines , Southevy can be compared to Walterina Dempster, popularly known as Markova. Markova is a transgendered woman and was a comfort gay during the Japanese occupation in the Philippines . She and two of her friends were detained in a Japanese camp as a sex slave.
The recognition made by an International Court to sexual minorities is a breakthrough in  LGBTI rights advocacy. It will be our victory if gender based violence in general and discrimination and abuses to sexual minorities (LGBTI) in particular, be considered a crime against humanity.
Read the ECCC Media Release
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