Youk Chhang

He became DC-Cam's leader in 1995, when the center was founded as a field office of Yale University’s Cambodian Genocide Program to conduct research, training and documentation relating to the Khmer Rouge regime.

Chhang continued to run the center after its inception as an independent Cambodian non-governmental organization in 1997 and is currently building on DC-Cam's work to establish the Sleuk Rith Institute, a permanent hub for genocide studies in Asia, based in Phnom Penh.

[2][3] On 17 April 1975, the day of the fall of Phnom Penh, Chhang was alone at home, and was separated from his family in the subsequent Khmer Rouge-ordered evacuation of the city.

[5][6] Before leading DC-Cam, Chhang managed human rights and democracy training programs in Cambodia for the U.S.-based International Republican Institute and was an international staff member assisting the Electoral Component of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).

Chhang is a senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights at Rutgers University-Newark.