Khmer Rouge torture and execution sites in Cambodia added to UNESCO World Heritage List Khmer Rouge torture and execution sites in Cambodia added to UNESCO World Heritage List

UNESCO has added a number of Khmer Rouge torture and execution sites in Cambodia to the World Heritage List, 50 years after the genocidal regime came to power in the country.

The Cambodian genocide (1975-1979) saw the deaths of between 1.5 and 2 million people, approximately a quarter of the population. Following research on 20,000 grave sites, or killing fields, it is believed at least 1.3 million people were executed at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Hundreds of thousands more died from starvation, disease or exhaustion as a result of Pol Pot’s ‘Year Zero’ policy, whereby millions of people were forced out of the cities to become agricultural workers.

Made up of three locations, the ‘Cambodian Memorial Sites: From centres of repression to places of peace and reflection’ serial property includes the former M-13 prison, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (formerly the S-21 prison), and the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (the former execution site of S-21).

The locations were chosen as they ‘illustrate the essential stages of the Khmer Rouge security system’. The former M-13 prison operated between 1971 and 1975 during the civil war, and served as a ‘prototype for subsequent developments’.

It is believed around 20,000 people were kept in S-21 over the course of four years – there are only seven known adult survivors. The extensive Tuol Sleng archives, which include photographs, biographies and confessions of prisoners held there, were inscribed in the Memory of the World International Register in 2009.

The Choeung Ek Genocidal Center has 64 still-visible mass burial pits, as well as the remains of more than 6,000 victims exhumed in the early 1980s.

On its website, UNESCO notes, “By preserving and interpreting these sites, Cambodia not only commemorates the memory of those who suffered but also empowers younger generations with the tools to understand their history and shape a more just and peaceful future.

“Through educational programs, digital access to archives, and inclusive community engagement, the Cambodian Memorial Sites foster critical reflection, empathy, and civic responsibility. These efforts ensure that the lessons of the past are not forgotten, but instead serve as a foundation for building resilience, promoting human rights, and nurturing a culture of peace among Cambodia’s youth.”

The Cambodian Memorial Sites are not the first of this nature to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. Most recently, the Memorial Sites of the Genocide in Rwanda (Nyamata, Murambi, Gisozi, and Bisesero, were inscribed in 2023, while the Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp in Poland was inscribed in 1979 and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) in Japan in 1996.

More information: unesco.org