After weeks of mounting concern that civil party reparations projects at the Khmer Rouge tribunal may go unfunded, the court’s trial chamber last week granted a request by civil party lawyers, giving them an additional 12 days to file their final submissions on reparations.

In its filing, the chamber reasoned that since it had given parties additional time to prepare closing briefs, it “consider[ed] it fair also to extend the deadline for Civil Party submissions on reparations”, giving the parties until October 8 to file them, as opposed to September 26.

The announcement came just one day after the Open Society Justice Initiative accused the court of being “negligent” in failing to provide adequate support for reparations funding efforts.

Civil party lead co-lawyer Elisabeth Simonneau-Fort said in an email last Thursday that the development was “welcome”, but noted that it still fell short of a perfect solution.

“We appreciate it,” she said. “But, of course, it does not resolve all our concerns about fundraising.”