Theary Chan Seng (born 1971) is a Cambodian-American human-rights activist and lawyer, the former executive director of the Centre for Social Development, and president of the Center for Cambodian Civic Education (CIVICUS Cambodia). She is the author of ''Daughter of the Killing Fields'', a book about her experiences as a child during the Khmer Rouge regime. She was imprisoned in a mass trial of opposition supporters in June 2022 and is currently serving a six-year sentence in Preah Vihear province.

Early life

Born as Chan Theary Seng, she moved to the United States in December 1980 with her four brothers after the Khmer Rouge was defeated by the Vietnamese army. At the age of seven, Theary had lost both her parents and many relatives to the regime. After 1995, she volunteered with a number of labor and human-rights associations. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from the

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...

in 2000, and she has been admitted to the

New York State Bar Association The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of New York. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of jurisprudence; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justic ...

and

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...

. Seng returned to Cambodia in 2004.

Work

She was executive director of the Centre for Social Development, which largely focused on assuring a fair trial in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. She is now president for CIVICUS, an organization that works on civic education, reconciliation and peace-building. She has worked with many former victims of the Khmer Rouge. Theary organized a darts campaign in Phnom Penh when President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

paid his first official visit to Cambodia. The game featured former Secretary of State

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...

, which brought attention to asserted American guilt in bringing the Khmer Rouge to power after the bombing. Seng said that the American bombing in the early 1970s in Cambodia "had the direct consequence of killing half a million people and the indirect consequence of creating the conditions that gave us the Khmer Rouge. Kissinger is legally and morally responsible." She urged that the Khmer Rouge tribunal's mandate should be continued. During

Kang Kek Iew Kang Kek Iew, also spelled Kaing Guek Eav ( km, កាំង ហ្គេកអ៊ាវ, ; 17 November 1942 – 2 September 2020), ''nom de guerre'' Comrade Duch ( km, មិត្តឌុច, ) or Hang Pin, was a Cambodian convicted war ...

aka Duch's trial, she withdrew as a civil party because of a controversy at the court.

References

External links

civicus-cam.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seng, Theary Cambodian human rights activists 1971 births Living people University of Michigan Law School alumni Naturalized citizens of the United States Cambodian emigrants to the United States Women human rights activists 21st-century women lawyers People from Phnom Penh

Early life

Work

See also

References

External links