Seng, Theary C.

Theary C. Seng is a human rights lawyer and the founding president of CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education, which incorporates the Center for Justice and Reconciliation. In 2006, Seng headed the Center for Social Development, where she conducted public forums on “Justice and Reconciliation” in all the provinces of Cambodia, which many deemed “Cambodia’s informal Truth and Reconciliation Commission”.

During the genocide, the Khmer Rouge killed both her parents after having spent 5-6 months in prison.

Seng graduated from Georgetown University and the University of Michigan Law School and is a member of the New York Bar Association.
She has written about her life in a book entitled Daughter of the Killing Fields. Seng made history when she testified as the first civil party recognized by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) against the Khmer Rouge's "Brother Number Two", Nuon Chea, on February 7th, 2008.