Cambodian PM opposes private funds for Khmer Rouge genocide trial News
Cambodian PM opposes private funds for Khmer Rouge genocide trial

[JURIST] Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen [Wikipedia profile], a former Khmer Rouge soldier, responded to an opposition proposal Wednesday by saying that the families of the 1.7 million victims of the hardline communist Khmer Rouge [Wikipedia backgrounder] regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 should not be paying for genocide trials [JURIST news archives]. Members of the Sam Rainsy Party [party website] had proposed using private donations [JURIST report] to help offset the more than $10 million deficit in the projected $56.3 million budget required to try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders. The UN has pledged $38 million for the court, while the impoverished nation of Cambodia can only afford to pay just over $1 million. Critics suggest that Hun Sen does not want to trials to go ahead, although it's clear that he himself had no role in any Khmer Rouge atrocities. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.