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Our History

The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, duly recognized under Internal Revenue Service code as an active 501(c)(3) organization in the United States, with a headquarters in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and 19 associated offices or sites in Cambodia that have been officially recognized by the Cambodian Ministry of Interior.

DC-Cam was founded in 1995, as an adjunct of Yale University, pursuant to the Cambodian Genocide Justice Act of 1994, Public Law 103–236, for purposes of collecting relevant data on the crimes of genocide and other atrocity crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979).

In 1997, DC-Cam became an independent legal entity recognized under both Cambodian and U.S. law, with a core mission to collect, preserve, and raise public awareness of the history of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Consistent with its core mission, DC-Cam has amassed an archive of well over a million items related to not only the history of the Khmer Rouge, but also the history of the Cambodian government, Southeast Asian history, the history of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and the history of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) support to the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. In addition, DC-Cam has also amassed an archive of sensitive records from the Cambodian War (1970-1975) and history preceding, such as the late King Norodom Sihanouk’s personal files and personal files of the late Colonel Les Kosem (a prominent Cambodian officer in the Vietnam War and other conflicts).

Since 1997, under the leadership of Executive Director Youk Chhang (a U.S.-Cambodian citizen and a former staff member of the International Republican Institute (IRI)), DC-Cam has built an uncompromisingly firm and transparent financial foundation, carefully overseeing and managing its valuable resources without any trace of the corrupt practices otherwise endemic to the Southeast Asian region. DC-Cam is regularly audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a highly respected independent auditing firm.

Mr. Chhang, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge period, was named by Time Magazine as the Magazine’s “60 Asian heroes” in 2006 and one of “Time’s 100” most influential people in the world in 2007 for his stand against impunity in Cambodia and elsewhere.  In 2000, he received the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom; in 2017, he was awarded the Center for Justice and Accountability’s Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award; and in 2018, he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, which is commonly called the “Nobel Prize for Asia.” In 2024, he also received the Royal King’s Medal from his Majesty, Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia.  Moreover, unlike almost all the myriad non-governmental organizations in Cambodia, DC-Cam enjoys friendly and strong relations with the Cambodian Government and its cabinet of ministers.  The many personal relationships Mr. Chhang has maintained with several of the ministers, the Royal Family, and the Cambodian President’s senior advisor, among others, date back several decades, giving him access to the highest corridors of government.

DC-Cam has been a critical driver and stakeholder to Cambodia’s efforts to obtain justice for the crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge regime and provide support and services to survivors of the regime and their families. Through its extensive archive, DC-Cam has been pivotal to the work of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)—a U.N.-Cambodia tribunal, supported by the USG, which was charged with the prosecution of senior leaders and those most responsible for the crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge regime.

DC-Cam focuses on genocide education as a means for genocide prevention, and to this end and in collaboration with the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, DC-Cam has been the principal organization responsible for the Cambodian nation’s genocide education curriculum and related outreach programs, which has become admired by countries in the region and held up as a model for post-conflict governments and organizations around the world.

Apart from its development of a genocide education program focused on Khmer Rouge history, DC-Cam has developed an extensive Southeast Asian atrocity crimes prevention education program, which has been piloted with educators in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, in close collaboration with United Nations’ Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (UN-OSAPG).

In 2022, DC-Cam renamed its headquarters the Queen Mother Library (QML), in honor of the life of the Royal Government of Cambodia’s Queen Mother, Norodom Monineath Sihanouk, and both the Queen Mother and his Majesty, Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, have provided official expressions of support to DC-Cam/QML’s plans for the establishment of a permanent institute. This support has been provided in part as a recognition of DC-Cam’s positive influence on Cambodian politics in terms of creating a public space for dialogue and research on difficult topics in Cambodian history and contemporary affairs. DC-Cam is the publisher for the Queen Mother’s personal diary during a particularly challenging period of Cambodian history.

DC-Cam has been an open friend, partner, and advocate for the United States Government (USG) and American people, extending U.S. influence, values, and narratives far beyond its low-cost physical footprint in Cambodia.

As a grateful beneficiary of USG support, DC-Cam is a prominent symbol of USG commitment to the country and region’s civil society and the pursuit of American foreign policy interests in the region.  Further, as a transmitter of generous USG support, DC-Cam has provided a diverse array of important services and resources to not only the Cambodian public, Cambodian Americans, and American visitors to Cambodia, but also populations around the world, supporting U.S. foreign policy and national security interests far beyond the borders of the Cambodian nation.

DC-Cam has become a critical source for respected information in the country and world; a grassroots organization that is a trusted voice for the interests of survivors of genocide and members of remote and marginalized communities; and a U.S.-affiliated educational institution that provides training and support on atrocity crimes prevention, peace education, and other curricula related to American values in democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.  Further, in collaboration with the International Center for Transitional Justice, DC-Cam also oversees, mentors, and supports an international consortium of documentation centers that shares information, techniques and best practices related to the documentation and prevention of atrocity crimes and related acts. DC-Cam is also a close supporter/partner to the United States of America National League of POW/MIA Families, 501(c)3 humanitarian organization in Washington, D.C.

With 19 sites (16 offices/facilities and 3 sites for development) located predominantly in rural areas around the Cambodian country, DC-Cam has established itself as a U.S.-affiliated civil society organization committed to having a permanent presence in the communities it serves. The Cambodian Ministry of Interior officially recognized all 19 sites in November 2024. Further, with its 3,000+ strong youth volunteer program, CamboCorps (which draws inspiration from the U.S. Peace Corps and AmeriCorps), DC-Cam has an established (1995-2020), scalable and sustainable program for shaping the next generation of Cambodia’s young leaders. A list of DC-Cam’s 19 centers, offices and sites is provided below.

  • Queen Mother Library
  • Documentation Center of Cambodia Headquarters
  • Prey Veng Genocide Education Center
  • Cham Silk: Color of Memory
  • Kampong Cham Documentation Center
  • S’Tieng Ethnic Community Center
  • Koh Thma Documentation Center
  • Hill Tribes Memory Community Center
  • Mekong Riverside Decks & Eco-Boats (site)
  • Stung Treng Documentation Center (Borei O’Svay-Sen Chey)
  • Anlong Veng Peace Center
  • Trapaeng Veng Village (site)
  • Veal Veng Reconciliation Center
  • Takeo Genocide Education Center
  • Bak Nim Healing Center
  • Chinese Research Program & Herbology in Cambodia (site)
  • Takeo Genocide Education Resource Center (Regional Teacher Training Center)
  • Prey Veng Genocide Resource Center (Regional Teacher Training Center)
  • Kampong Cham Genocide Resource Center (Regional Teacher Training Center).
    (Photo: Youk Chhang (middle), Khmer Leu village, Takeo province, 1995)

Since its inception, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) has been at the forefront of documenting the myriad crimes and atrocities of the Khmer Rouge era. DC-Cam was founded after the U.S. Congress passed the Cambodian Genocide Justice Act in April 1994, which was signed into law by President Clinton. That legislation established the Office of Cambodian Genocide Investigations in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in July 1994, which was charged with investigating the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979).

In January 1995 and June 1997, the State Department announced grants to Yale University, enabling Yale’s Cambodian Genocide Program (CGP) to conduct research, training and documentation on the Khmer Rouge regime. The CGP was to assemble evidence concerning the leadership of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) and to determine whether the DK regime violated international criminal laws against genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The CGP is an academic program and is not equipped to conduct a legal trial of the Khmer Rouge leaders. It had three main objectives: 1) to prepare a documentation survey and index, 2) to undertake historiographical research, and 3) to provide legal training. In pursuit of these objectives, the CGP founded DC-Cam as a field office in Phnom Penh in January 1995 under the leadership of its Program Officer, Mr. Youk Chhang, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge’s “killing fields.”

After the initial State Department grant to the CGP expired at the end of 1996, DC-Cam became an independent Cambodian research institute on January 1, 1997. Since that time, it has continued its extensive research and documentation activities. DC-Cam is not a for-profit, governmental or political organization, and we are not a judicial body. DC-Cam is acknowledged as an independent and nonpartisan institute in Cambodia, and we disseminate information on the Khmer Rouge regime based on our impartial inquiry into facts and history.

The Center continues to serve as a major source of information about this tragic period of human history for academics, lawyers, activists and the general public. DC-Cam is now operated entirely by Cambodians with support from scholars and experts in the USA, Europe, and Asia.

DC-Cam has two main objectives. The first is to record and preserve the history of the Khmer Rouge regime for future generations. The second is to compile and organize information that can serve as potential evidence in a legal accounting for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. These objectives represent our promotion of memory and justice, both of which are critical foundations for the rule of law and genuine national reconciliation in Cambodia.

To accomplish these objectives, DC-Cam carries out ongoing research to compile and analyze primary documentary materials collected through various means (including fact-finding missions abroad), attempting to understand how they fit into the overall historical context of the Khmer Rouge period. A society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history. Toward this end, DC-Cam is working to reconstruct Cambodia’s modern history, much of which has been obscured by the flames of war and genocide.

We have catalogued approximately 155,000 pages of primary Khmer Rouge documents and more than 6,000 photographs. The bulk of DC-Cam’s archives have not yet been catalogued, including more than 400,000 additional pages of documents and a wide array of other types of materials. By collecting, preserving and analyzing these individual pieces of historical memory, DC-Cam endeavors to help Cambodians understand the country’s difficult journey through the twentieth century.

As a permanent institute for the study of Cambodia’s history, DC-Cam helps lead the nation toward a more peaceful and prosperous future.

In addition, we regularly catalogue new materials we gather through various means and enter them into computer databases to produce annotated indexes to the archive’s contents. In cooperation with our international partners, we have assembled extensive bibliographic, biographic, photographic and geographic databases of information related to Khmer Rouge abuses. For example, we have located and mapped189 prisons, 19,403 mass graves, and 80 genocide memorials throughout Cambodia. These are invaluable tools for legal scholars, investigators, researchers and historians, shedding light on the details of past abuses and the reasons why they occurred. Our resources also help Cambodians know their own history and to come to terms with it.

Based principally on their examination of DC-Cam holdings, in 1999 a three-member UN Group of Experts found a prima facie case against certain former Khmer Rouge leaders for war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity. A memorandum from the United Nations, A/59/432 of 12 October 2004 stated: “It is expected that the Chambers will rely heavily on documentary evidence. Some 200,000 pages of documentary evidence are expected to be examined. The bulk of that documentation is held by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, an NGO dedicated to research and preservation of documentation on crimes perpetrated during the period of Democratic Kampuchea.” Indeed, we have contributed hundreds of thousands of pages to the UN-backed tribunal established to try some of the crimes of the Khmer Rouge, providing an essential documentary base for the proceedings.

Successfully achieving our two primary objectives of memory and justice will help build a foundation for the rule of law and genuine national reconciliation in Cambodia. We continue to pursue these objectives in several ways—cataloguing primary materials relating to the Khmer Rouge regime, expand the scope of our analysis of these primary materials in collaboration with international experts, and leading projects to keep alive the memory of Cambodia’s genocide. An example of the latter is our highly successful project on genocide education, which led to the adoption of our history textbook and teaching materials in high schools and colleges across the country.

Our quest for memory and justice has more to do with the future than with the past. It is about the struggle for truth in the face of an overwhelming power that virtually destroyed our society, a power that continues in more subtle ways to threaten our aspirations for a peaceful future. The violence of that power shattered Cambodian society and scattered the Cambodian people across the planet in a terrible diaspora. But no matter how far or near to the homeland, and whether they are survivors or the new generation born after the overthrow of Pol Pot, all Cambodians still suffer from a profound sense of dislocation. This dislocation is rooted in a loss deeper than material deprivation or personal bereavement. It is a loss that can never be recovered, and thus full healing of the wounds of genocide will require that something new be built to take the place of that which has been lost. By reconstructing a historical narrative of what happened to Cambodia, and by striving for justice where that is an appropriate remedy, we aim to lay a foundation upon which all Cambodians can find firm footing in moving toward a better future. Reconciliation in Cambodia will happen one heart at a time. Cambodians cannot forgive one another until they know who to forgive, and for what. DC-Cam’s focus on memory and justice seeks to assist Cambodians in discovering the truths upon which a genuine national reconciliation depends.