• Silvia Cartwright
• Big Ideas, ABC Radio National

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07 July 2011

Dame Silvia Cartwright is currently one of two international judges in the five member 'Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia' which is trying former senior members of the Khmer Rouge for war crimes committed between 1975 and 1989.

An estimated 1.7 million people died either by execution, overwork, disease or starvation during Pol Pot's reign and although 30 years have passed since then, even today the human cost remains palpable. Can a criminal trial provide a truthful account of what occurred during a regime such as Democratic Kampuchea?

Guests

Dame Silvia Cartwright
Was the first woman in New Zealand to become a Chief District Court Judge, and the first female appointed to the High Court of New Zealand.

In 1988 she presided over an inquiry into issues related to cervical cancer and its treatment at Auckland's National Women's Hospital, known as the Cartwright Inquiry. The Inquiry found that an experiment conducted at the hospital had deliberately withheld treatment to some women who had abnormal pap smear results to discover if they would indeed develop cervical cancer.

The Inquiry led to sweeping reforms in the law and practice around health consumers' rights.

Dame Silvia also served on the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women under the UN-ratified Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and played a major role in the drafting of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women which was adopted by the UN in 1999.

She is currently one of two international judges in the five member Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.