Delegates in Fifth Committee Support Secretary-General’s Proposed 2025 Funding to Maintain Operations of Cambodia Courts’ Extraordinary Chambers in 2025
Delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today supported the Secretary-General’s proposal to provide the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia with nearly $2 million in 2025 to keep the Chambers running smoothly and bolster the international community’s fight against impunity.
The representative of Singapore, speaking on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the Chambers requires sustainable and predictable funding to fulfil its mandate in the face of ongoing financial challenges. Beyond transitional measures and residual functions, the Chambers’ judicial officials and staff also carry out a nationwide outreach campaign to enhance public awareness of its achievements and legacy. Withholding adequate financial support at this critical juncture would not only undermine justice for the Cambodian people but “weaken the international community’s broader efforts to combat impunity and uphold the rule of law”, she added.
Echoing this view, the representative of Uganda, speaking for the Group of 77 and China, said the Chambers’ financial failure at this stage would be “a renewed tragedy in the quest for justice of the people of Cambodia, who have waited decades for these efforts to reach a belated fruition. It would also constitute a serious setback in the international community’s fight against impunity.”
He added that the Group remains concerned with the Chambers’ persistent financial challenges despite fundraising efforts that have left voluntary contributions chronically insufficient to cover the Chambers’ expenses. The Group strongly encourages the Secretary-General to keep mobilizing voluntary contributions from Member States to fulfil the persistent funding gaps.
The representative of Cambodia said the Secretary-General’s 15 October report on the matter lays out the significant judicial advancements the Chambers has made and the need to secure funding so it can fulfil its remaining responsibilities. This includes information dissemination and archive management in line with international standards. The Cambodia Government aims to cooperate with the Secretary-General’s request and reaffirms its ongoing support for the Chambers’ national financial component in 2025. He thanked the Secretary-General and Member States for their support, which has helped the Chambers advance its mandate and “preserve its legacy for future generations”.
Secretariat Delivers Its Reports
Christophe Monier, Director of the Programme Planning and Budget Division of the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, presented the Secretary-General’s reports on the use of the commitment authority and request for a subvention to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia(documents A/79/519 and Corr.1).
Outlining the Chambers’ progress over the past year, he said it had continued judicial residual work by supervising the Cambodian prison authorities’ enforcement of the life sentence of Khieu Samphan. In its non-judicial residual work, the Chambers completed work on a permanent archive repository at its new premises and transferred all case files to a secure climate-controlled environment. In addition, a Resources Centre with research spaces was opened to freely provide the broadest possible access to the Chambers’ archives. Outreach work to all 25 provinces began in 2024.
Despite an ongoing fundraising strategy to broaden its donor base and maintain the support of traditional donors through communications with various diplomatic missions, the sustained receipt of voluntary contributions has been consistently challenging over the years, he said. “As in previous years, the ECCC continues to implement cost-saving measures without adversely impacting its core work,” he said, pointing to the outsourcing of administrative services to the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and use of consultants and independent contractors, paid according to actual programme delivery.
As a result, the Secretary-General requests a 2025 subvention for the international component of $2 million, taking into account about $0.4 million in voluntary contributions and pledges. This would let the United Nations meet its obligations in accordance with its agreement with the Cambodian Government.
Abdallah Bachar Bong, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), presented its related report (document A/79/7/Add.23). Noting that the Chambers is now in a residual phase slated to last until 2025, he said he trusts that consultations between the Cambodian Government and United Nations will accelerate transfer of responsibilities from the international component to the national component. He called on all Member States to support the historic preservation and conservation of the Chambers’ archives “as a shared global responsibility to advance the cause of international justice”. Recalling that the Chambers was established on the basis of voluntary funding, and subventions were expected to serve as exceptional measures, he noted the subvention has become the main modality to financially support the Chambers’ international component. “The Committee maintains its view that the subvention to the Extraordinary Chambers should remain a commitment authority so as not to disincentivize voluntary contributions,” he added.
Exchange Rates and Inflation
Mr. Monier then presented the Secretary-General’s report “Revised estimates: effect of changes in rates of exchange and inflation” (document A/79/375). The recosting adjustments to the 2025 proposed programme budget total $133.8 million, including a $134 million increase under the expenditure sections and an estimated income increase of $0.2 million. The newly calculated rates include changes in inflation and exchange rates and updated estimates for posts.
Mr. Bong then introduced the Advisory Committee’s related report (document A/79/7/Add.22). He said the net increase of $133.8 million is due to the cumulative effects of recosting adjustments to the 2025 proposed programme budget, including $91.0 million related to post resources and $43.0 million related to non-post resources.
Acknowledging the challenges related to reporting the actual impact of recosting, the Advisory Committee believes the Secretariat should explore a pilot programme to simplify the recosting approach and use the most up-to-date rates for operational costs and contractual services in the annual programme budget formulation, he said. The Advisory Committee also recommends the Assembly ask the Secretary-General not to recost non-post resources in the annual programme budget from 2026, pending the comprehensive review of the annual programme budget cycle at the Assembly’s eighty-third session in 2028.
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