Museum Studies alumna curates exhibition at Munk School of Global Affairs

Museum Studies Graduate, Carla Rose Shapiro, has curated an exhibition entitled “From Impunity to Accountability? The Khmer Rouge Tribunal,” which will run until November 7th, 2011. A symposium took place in parallel under the same title on October 18th.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal exhibition explores issues of accountability that resulted from the crimes of this era. The exhibit was produced by the Phnom Penh-based Documentation Centre of Cambodia.

The symposium, which examined the challenges facing the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) or Khmer Rouge Tribunal, featured Former International Co-Prosecutor for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Robert Petit, who addressed the importance and limits of the criminal justice process for genocide. Survivor, Kunthear Thorng, and ECCC legal intern, Kate Robertson, provided additional perspectives on the matter. The event was moderated by University of Toronto International Criminal Law Lecturer, Andrea Russell.

Carla finished her Masters of Museum Studies in 1993. She then went on to obtain a PhD in media and cultural studies in the United Kingdom, but came back to the University of Toronto to do her Post Doc in History during which she studied the parallels between the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, and the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (commonly known as the Cambodian Genocide). During this period, she worked both as an academic and as a curator, collaborating with the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs. This allowed her to come back to the Munk School as a visiting scholar in 2009.

Following a visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Carla decided to bring the exhibit, produced by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, to Toronto. However, as it was originally targeted to audiences in Cambodia, Carla realized the need for context about the Khmer Rouge, some history of the ECCC, and background information about the cases exposed. This would allow the material to appeal to students from the University of Toronto and other universities, academics, human rights organizations, and the local Cambodian community.

These new requirements led Carla to contact the International Human Rights Program at University of Toronto’s Law School, and to organize a symposium that would enhance and contextualize the exhibit. While putting this together the need to hear about justice and accountability from different perspectives became evident, and child-survivor Kunthear Thorng as well as international prosecutor Robert Petit were contacted to participate.

Carla expresses the numerous problems that have been faced by the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Four of the senior Khmer Rouge leaders have been charged with genocide, but this charge will be difficult to prove. The trials have had a very high cost and have had to face many political obstacles and sensitivities. In addition, legal barriers have been an issue due to the lack of records as well as the difficulty determining the Court’s jurisdiction.

Carla also stresses the lack of attention and resources directed to the Cambodian issue over the years, however, she recognizes Canada’s significant contributions, visible in the ECCC, and other international courts of law.

The event has received great sponsorship from the Asian Institute, the Dr. David Chu Community Network in Asia Pacific Studies, the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies and the Faculty of Information, among others.

“From Impunity to Accountability” has also received support from the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum. In July of 2012, the ROM will host their own exhibition about the Khmer Rouge era, “Observance and Memorial,” featuring prisoner photographs from the S-21 security prison in Phnom Penh. The iSchool’s support of Carla’s work may also allow Museum Studies students to get involved in the upcoming project.

For more information, please visit: http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?eventid=10201