Alex Batesmith

Can you tell us about your research, work and expertise in Southeast Asia?

My engagement with Southeast Asia began in 2006 when I spent three years as a United Nations prosecutor in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, working on cases involving genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. I was the lead UN prosecutor in the investigation and initial phase of the public trial of Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, the first case at the Tribunal.

I subsequently practised for ten years as an independent consultant in international criminal law, transitional justice, rule of law, justice sector capacity building and project evaluation in over a dozen different countries, focusing particularly on South East Asia. I worked extensively on post-conflict justice development projects for numerous international organisations, including the United Nations Development Programme, the International Development Law Organisation, the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and GiZ, the German development organisation.

Before I became an academic in 2015, I undertook seven separate consultancies to Myanmar, working with justice sector professionals to train, mentor and advise prosecutors, judges and defence lawyers. I was the manager of the Rule of Law Centres Project, a multi-year initiative to make principles of justice more accessible to the public in Myanmar.

I continue to be connected to former colleagues, lawyers and activists within both Myanmar and Cambodia, and have published articles and contributed to edited collections on professionals working under both authoritarian regimes relating to the rule of law, access to justice and professional identity.

Any anecdote you would like to share?

I speak VERY basic Khmer, the Cambodian language. And I particularly enjoy the food of Southeast Asia - but even I found it a struggle to eat fried spiders at a roadside cafe on the way from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.