STAFF PROFILE

Theary C. SENG is the Executive Director of the Center for Social Development (CSD), a local human rights organization based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia since its inception in June 1995. CSD works in the areas of court monitoring, good governance, parliamentary and elections monitoring, and community dialogue and national reconciliation through its public forums.

Theary was born in Phnom Penh in early 1971. Under the Khmer Rouge, she lived in Svay Rieng province bordering Vietnam, where the killings were most intense and where she spent five months in prison. The Khmer Rouge killed both her parents. She and her surviving family trekked across the

border for Thailand in November 1979 and emigrated to the United States one year later.

Since 1995, Theary has been in Cambodia volunteering with various labor and human rights groups. In January 2004, she moved permanently to live and work in her country of birth. Of choice, home is now again Cambodia.

Theary graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (Washington, DC) with a Bachelor of Science in International Politics in 1995 and from the University of Michigan Law School with a Juris Doctor in 2000. Theary is a member of the New York Bar Association and American Bar Association, and is awaiting membership to the Cambodian Bar Association.

Theary has written about her life in a book entitled Daughter of the Killing Fields, first published in London in September 2005. She is one of two judges on the TV-reality program “Youth Leadership Challenge”, now in its 2nd series first on TV5, now CTN. She is also a founding member and vice-president of the Women’s Association of Small & Medium Businesses (WASMB), and a Board member of Silapak Khmer Amatak (Cambodian Living Arts), Theary has been featured on television shows such as BBC World News, BBC Hard Talk, ABC “Foreign Correspondent”, CNN World’s Untold Stories program), Al Jazeera; radio programs of the BBC, RFI, ABC, NPR, RFA, VOA, VOD, etc., and quoted in countless national and international newspapers articles.

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As Deputy Executive Director, IM Sophea works actively with every unit of CSD and very closely with the executive director. With much dedication and initiation, Sophea does everything from project planning, coordinating, researching, consulting, managing communications to representing the executive director at meetings with other NGOs, donors and embassies. Before joining CSD in July 2006, Sophea worked as a project manager for Mitsubishi Corp in Phnom Penh for six years. Prior to that, he worked as a reporter for The Cambodia Daily. His leadership and management skill had been highly trained by numerous institutions in Japan, Taiwan,

Denmark and is a fellow of UK Chevening Fellowship Program on “What Makes Democracy Work”. He is the CSD point person for Publish What You Pay (PWYP) and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

Sophea holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Cambodia and a Bachelor Degree in English from the Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh. He is fluent in English and some Japanese.

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Rany PEN’s interests relate to human rights, justice, peace, and sustainable development. As Head of CSD’s Legal Unit, her areas of work and research focus on human rights and justice. Nonetheless, Rany seeks to give effect to her remaining interests which she feels are inseparable from her duties as a human rights defender. As she says, “being a human rights or public interest defender, you cannot work on one interest alone and exclude or, worse, violate the others.” Born and raised in Cambodia, Rany obtained her LL.B. from the prestigious Royal University of Law and Economy in Phnom Penh in 2002 and was awarded a scholarship to pursue her LL.M. in France, where she specialized in criminal law and criminology in

2004. Rany then joined CSD in May 2005 and was seconded to the International Criminal Court in The Hague as an international legal clerk. She rejoined CSD as the Court Watch Project Manager in February 2006 and then the Head of Legal Unit in December 2007. Together with her team, Rany oversees the Project that has been gradually expanded to cover 9 courts of law in Cambodia in 2007.

At CSD, Rany has authored a number of articles on justice, transparency and sustainable development. She is also involved in CSD’s activities on justice and national reconciliation, such as its nation-wide public forums. Rany has represented CSD at various workshops and seminars where she has delivered speeches on the Cambodian judicial system, reconciliation process, and on the need for transparency in its extractive industry. Regarding this last campaign, Rany was selected to represent CSD and Cambodian Civil Society at the “Publish What You Pay, Asia Pacific Regional Workshop” in Bali, Indonesia in 2007. Recently, Rany also attended an “International Human Rights Training Program” in Canada.

Acknowledging the need to build the capacity of young Cambodians to deal with legal matters, Rany volunteered as a part-time lecturer at her alma mater. Due to the full-time nature of her work at CSD, Rany has recently scaled down her teaching but continues to engage in her research interests through CSD’s advocacy and projects which pertain to the law and human rights.

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		CHOU Vineath is the manager of the Court Watch Project, deputy to Ms. Pen Rany in the Legal Unit. Vineath is a member of the Cambodian Bar Association. She has a LLB from the Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE) and a degree from University of Lumiere Lyon II with its French office located in Phnom Penh. Currently, she studies part time to finish her master’s degree in private law from RULE. A former CWP monitor, Vineath returns to CSD with an array of legal and human rights experiences as the rights-based Advocacy Coordinator with the Lutheran World Federation, a public interest
lawyer and then promoted to Project Coordinator of the Public Interest Legal Advocacy Project (PILAP) at the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) where she tenaciously fought for land rights for the Cambodian poor against powerful interests. Vineath has traveled extensively overseas as a recipient of a scholarship from the Bar Association of Bourges (France) and for legal training and workshops to East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. CSD is very fortunate to have this dynamic, personable, intellectually sharp, socially-conscientious woman heading the Court Watch Project. __________________________________________________________________________


Mr. SORN Kinal is the Project Coordinator for Citizens Monitoring Their Rights within the Court System, an AusAID-funded project, which focuses on building knowledge, understanding, and empowerment of local communities in Kep and Kampot of their legal and judicial rights. He is based in Phnom Penh but works with CSD staff in Kep and Kampot. Kinal joined CSD in July 1998. Kinal worked as assistant to the National Issue Forum Unit in 2001. From 2002 to 2004, as former a member of research committee, Kinal authored many law-related articles for CSD bi-monthly Research Bulletin.
Before promoted to the Project Coordinator, Kinal already held as senior position as the most experienced Court Monitor of the highly-acclaimed Court Watch Project for the last four years, since the CWP’s inception. His deep interests in human rights accord well with past experience and his current role. Kinal has a Bachelor Degree in Law (2002) from the Royal University of Law and Economics. He received a certificate from Chamroeum University of Poly-Technology (CUP in 2003) and a certificate for professional journalism and computer training program from the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) in 1998. In 2004, he went on a study tour in East Timor. __________________________________________________________________________


		In January 2008, TONG Heng joins CSD as the deputy project manager and database analyst. Heng works closely with other data entry officers and court monitors covering the provincial courts of Kandal, Batambang Seam Reap, Kampong Cham, Kampot, Sihanoukville in addition to the 3 courts in Phnom Penh (municipal, appeals and Supreme), constantly updating, maintaining and analyzing the daily flow of information collected by the 17 Legal Unit staff. Tong Heng received a scholarship from Transnational Law and Business University (South Korea) where he successfully completed a Master Degree in International
Law specialized in Criminal Law. During his academic years, he traveled frequently overseas doing field studies in Paris, Geneva, The Hague, Brussels and Beijing. At the locations, he visited the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Trade Organization (WTO), United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), International Criminal Court (ICC), International Court of Justice (ICJ), European Commission, and The People's court of Beijing respectively. ____________________________________________________________________________


CHUON Sokunthy is the Deputy Head of the Public Forum Unit. She joined CSD in November 2005 as the Project Assistant to Dr. Sieng Huy and September 2006 as the acting head of the Public Forum Unit until December 2006. Before joining CSD, Sokunthy worked at United National Volunteers Programme and as Assistant Library at the Cambodia Agricultural Research and Development Institute. Sokunthy holds a Master Degree in Public Administration from the Royal Academy of Cambodia and a Theacher Training Diploma from the Faculty of Pedagogy.
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		Dr. IM Francois leads the Elections & Parliamentary Unit which will be very active preparing for the April 2007 commune elections and the 2008 national elections. Cambodian-born, Dr. Francois has obtained higher education in France: Ph.D in Politics (1995-03, University of Paris X-Nanterre), Bachelor in Modern East Asia Studies, Khmer and Oriental Civilizations (1991-2, Paris) and French baccalaureate in economics and social studies (1988-89, Paris). Forced to leave Cambodia in 1979 as an orphan for the Thai refugee camps and then France in 1983.

Dr. Francois has since returned (in 1995) to work and live in his country of birth as a journalist with Cambodge Soir and a lecturer at the Phnom Penh University in Law and Economics and the RUPP in History and International Relations. He has written and edited countless articles and papers on Cambodia, elections, decentralization etc.

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SOEURNG Chandara serves as the head of the Finance Unit since May 2005. He oversees all financial activities for CSD, including producing financial reports, maintaining an orderly system of accounting, advising on budget proposals, plans and expenditures, verifying all financial requests of staff, drafting and advising in the establishment of financial policies and manuals, updating financial/accounting forms for internal use, liaisoning with CSD auditors, among others. Before joining CSD, Chandara worked in three other organizations as financial and administrative manager: 2 years for UNTAC, almost 4 years with JSA-JICE, and almost four years with WGWR.

Chandara has a Bachelor Degree in Management with specialization in accounting, and a Masters Degree in Business Administration, majoring in Finance and Banking from Kensington American University (online study). He is studying when time permits with with CamEd to obtain ACCCA/CPA, a British qualified degree in accounting.

Chandara is ably assisted by accountant Lyna and finance assistant Pheaktra . ___________________________________________________________________________

LY Much is the head of Administration at CSD. Lauk Much is charged with ensuring the smooth operation of CSD's programs and offices, and with supervising CSD's administrative staff.

Prior to joining CSD in 2003, lauk Much worked for The Asia Foundation for nine years, four of those years as Information Management Officer, and the rest as interpreter/translator and administrative assistant. Lauk Much has education and training in the areas of administration, language, democracy and law. Lauk Much is ably assisted by Samphors, Sivnin and Charya, lauk Thou among others.

LY Much

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SEN Samondara with equal expertise, humor and brilliance filled in the void. Currently, CSD is fortunate in having these two super-duo working side by side with each other again.		SAM Sarath recently returned to CSD to work in the Research & Publications Unit (November 2006) as a Senior Cartoonist after a hiatus of about one year, having been with CSD since its earlier years. Lauk Sarath's illustrations and cartoons, specifically addressing anti-corruption issues, are known world-wide and displayed widely across Cambodia. During lauk Sarath's absence, Governance Unit's project assistant

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HAY Chanthan keeps all of CSD on-line and connected to each other and the rest of the world in his capacity as the IT Manager. Chanthan has a Baceholor degree in Computer Science and is studying part-time toward a Masters Degree. In addition to full-time work at the Phnom Penh headquarter, Chanthan has been from the get-go involved with the new CSD iREACH pilot project in Kep Municipality where he works closely with international IT consultants from around the world. The creation, updating and maintenance of this CSD website is principally the work of Chanthan. CSD is very proud of our incomparably excellent webmaster!

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HAK Sokleap is the Pilot Coordinator of Informatics for Rural Empowerment and Community Health (iREACH) Pilot Project based in Kep Municipality. Sokleap is responsible for overall managing of the iREACH in providing new technology to local community and empowering them to manage the pilot project when it will be phased out. Sokleap joined CSD as Kep Multimedia Coordinator in January 2007. He was promoted as a Kep Pilot Coordinator and joined as a senior staff and member of the Management Committee in August 2007 bringing with his knowledge and experience for almost seven years from works with other

local non-governmental organization (NGOs). He has extensive background in environmental and social issues. Sokleap is the author of a book entitled Environmental, Social and Economic Impact Assessment of Fastwood Plantations in Cambodia, first published in December 2005.

Sokleap was born in Preah Prasop village, Preah Prasop commune, Ksachkandal district, Kandal province where he lived for 17 years where he experienced rural Cambodia. He moved to Phnom Penh in 1998 to study toward a bachelor degree in “Tourism Management”. He completed the associated degree of “The Base of Journalism” while he was running a project called Environmental Radio and Advocacy Program. Sokleap has attended trainings, workshops and meetings in several countries, including Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Sweden.

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SENG Dara is the research coordinator of Informatics for Rural Empowerment and Community Health (iREACH) Pilot Project in Kep of the Center for Social Development (CSD) a local organization based in Phnom Penh and works closely with project coordinator and media coordinator for monthly work plan, monthly reports and coordinates the research activities in community. Dara worked in two years with WGWR, the first year as research assistant and Second year as program assistant. Dara has a Bachelor Degree of Business Administration National, Major of Management Information System in University of Management and be studying when time with Information Technology and Electronic Center to obtain specially skill in internet programming.
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		Ms. CHAP Chandina (Dina) is the new CSD Voice of Justice Radio Program Manager. Dina’s responsibilities involve enhancing and hosting the CSD radio program – which is broadcasted 7 days a week, totalling 3 hours and a half per day, on 3 major stations, covering 19 provinces – as well as managing communications and coordinating production. Dina has joined CSD after working for 9 years at the Women’s Media Center as its ‘Program Coordinator’ on the Road of Law Program, making her a well-known voice and public personality. Her knowledge of media, coordination, networking and facilitation skills serve as an invaluable asset to CSD. Dina is in
the process of completing a Bachelor of Law Degree at CUP University after obtaining an Associate Degree in English Literature in 2004. ___________________________________________________________________________


YIM Sotheary is a Psychological Assistant/Translator to the Public Forum Unit (PFU) working to assist Psychotherapist/Senior Consultant Matthias WITZEL on providing counseling and helping people who are traumatized from the civil war, in particular, civil war within Khmer Rouge regime. Sotheary have started working with CSD since the August of 2006. In the early 2007, the Executive Director Theary C. SENG, Matthias WITZEL, and Sotheary have an idea of having a Psychological Support Team within CSD which is part of PFU. Born and raised in Cambodia, Sotheary obtained a certificate of Pedagogy in Teaching English in the Junior High School, then she hold
a Bachelor of Education in Teaching English as a Second Language. Sotheary is pursuing her Master of Psychology at RUPP. In November 2007, Psychological Support Team published a book on “Understanding Trauma in Cambodia” which Sotheary play the main role in translating to Khmer and co-designed. Sotheary went through a few trainings such as Social Worker/Counselor, Community-Based Peace Building .etc. Before joining CSD, Sotheary worked for two local NGOs – SSC and PADV where she also used her expertise as a Social Worker/Translator. Febraury 2008, Sotheary went for three weeks attending International Training on “Human Right, Peace and Security” in Sweden.
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