Women S Access To Transitional Justice In Timor Leste

Seeing the role of transitional justice as an area of contestation, this book focuses on the principle of equality guaranteed in the access to transitional justice mechanisms. By raising women's experiences in dealing with the law and policies as well as the implications of community and family practices during post-conflict situations, the book shows how these mechanisms may have been implemented mechanically, without considering the different intersections of discrimination, the public and private divides that exist in the local context or the stereotypes and values of international and national actors. The book argues that without unpacking the barriers in the administration of transitional justice, the different mechanisms that are implemented in a post-conflict situation may set a higher threshold for the participation of women. Moreover, by taking into account women's perceptions of justice, it further argues that scholars have paid insufficient attention to the welfare structures that are produced after a conflict, particularly the pensions of veterans. Going beyond the focus on sexual violence, a relationship between the violations and post-conflict economic justice may have longer-term consequences for women since it perpetuates their inequality and lack of recognition in times of peace. The use of transitional justice may thus exacerbate the invisibility of and discrimination against certain sections of the population. Inspired by the work of Hannah Arendt and based on extensive field research in Timor-Leste, the book has larger implications for the overarching debate on the social consequences of transitional justice.

This book offers a panoramic assessment of access to transitional justice from a gender perspective. Dealing with conflict, justice and women, it also contains a post-colonial theoretical component. It offers a deep analysis of the situation in Timor-Leste. Empirical evidence drawn from interviews with female participants in its post-conflict reconciliations and reparations mechanisms, as well as from judges and prosecutors, gives a fascinating insight into precisely how justice was served. In so doing it contributes to debates concerning women's participation in transitional justice and addresses how gender equality should be conceived in post-conflict states seeking to rebuild. Human rights scholars, practitioner as well as NGO workers will find this unique and thought-provoking study invaluable.

Gender and Transitional Justice provides the first comprehensive feminist analysis of the role of international law in formal transitional justice mechanisms. Using East Timor as a case study, it offers reflections on transitional justice administered by a UN transitional administration. Often presented as a UN success story, the author demonstrates that, in spite of women and children’s rights programmes of the UN and other donors, justice for women has deteriorated in post-conflict Timor, and violence has remained a constant in their lives. This book provides a gendered analysis of transitional justice as a discipline. It is also one of the first studies to offer a comprehensive case study of how women engaged in the whole range of transitional mechanisms in a post-conflict state, i.e. domestic trials, internationalised trials and truth commissions. The book reveals the political dynamics in a post-conflict setting around gender and questions of justice, and reframes of the meanings of success and failure of international interventions in the light of them.

Based on original empirical research, this book explores retributive and gender justice, the potentials and limits of agency, and the correlation of transitional justice and social change through case studies of current dynamics in post-violence countries such Rwanda, South Africa, Cambodia, East Timor, Columbia, Chile and Germany.

This paper explores the gendered dimension of conflict in transitional societies. Particularly, it argues that truth commissions must be inclusive of women to address their marginalization, which precedes, flourishes in, and often survives mass atrocity. Truth commissions have historically been gender neutral; in other words, they have made no distinction between men and women and, thus, not taken into account the differences in men’s and women’s experiences. To understand, redress, and transform the inequality experienced by women, the context surrounding women’s lives must be considered throughout the transitional justice process. This paper explains that women experience sexual, reproductive, and other abuse, but also recognizes that many indirect causes and effects of this abuse are entrenched in historical, cultural, and social constructs. Three case studies are included to illustrate attempts to account for gender in truth commissions. Scholars have conducted extensive research on truth commissions in Peru, South Africa, and Timor-Leste and provide a blueprint of expertise on the multifaceted components truth commissions must take into account when considering gender. The case studies provide examples of successes and failures in the commissions’ approaches and demonstrate the importance of contextualizing women’s positions when confronting post-conflict scenarios. As gender issues become more commonly acknowledged throughout the world, it is important to recognize the far-reaching grasp of gender inequality and to draw from past examples of truth commissions to better the future for post-conflict women through respect, acknowledgment, and sensitivity.

Seeing the role of transitional justice as an area of contestation, this book focuses on the principle of equality guaranteed in the access to transitional justice mechanisms. By raising women's experiences in dealing with the law and policies as well as the implications of community and family practices during post-conflict situations, the book shows how these mechanisms may have been implemented mechanically, without considering the different intersections of discrimination, the public and private divides that exist in the local context or the stereotypes and values of international and national actors. The book argues that without unpacking the barriers in the administration of transitional justice, the different mechanisms that are implemented in a post-conflict situation may set a higher threshold for the participation of women. Moreover, by taking into account women's perceptions of justice, it further argues that scholars have paid insufficient attention to the welfare structures that are produced after a conflict, particularly the pensions of veterans. Going beyond the focus on sexual violence, a relationship between the violations and post-conflict economic justice may have longer-term consequences for women since it perpetuates their inequality and lack of recognition in times of peace. The use of transitional justice may thus exacerbate the invisibility of and discrimination against certain sections of the population. Inspired by the work of Hannah Arendt and based on extensive field research in Timor-Leste, the book has larger implications for the overarching debate on the social consequences of transitional justice.

This volume counters one-sided dominant discursive representations of gender in human rights and transitional justice, and women’s place in the transformations of neoliberal human rights, and contributes a more balanced examination of how transitional justice and human rights institutions, and political institutions impact the lives and experiences of women. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the contributors to this volume theorize and historicize the place of women’s rights (and gender), situating it within contemporary country-specific political, legal, socio-cultural and global contexts. Chapters examine the progress and challenges facing women (and women’s groups) in transitioning countries: from Peru to Argentina, from Kenya to Sierra Leone, and from Bosnia to Sri Lanka, in a variety of contexts, attending especially to the relationships between local and global forces

This book offers a new approach to the extraordinary story of Timor-Leste. The Indonesian invasion of the former Portuguese colony in 1975 was widely considered to have permanently crushed the Timorese independence movement. Initial international condemnation of the invasion was quickly replaced by widespread acceptance of Indonesian sovereignty. But inside Timor-Leste various resistance networks maintained their struggle, against all odds. Twenty-four years later, the Timorese were allowed to choose their political future and the new country of Timor-Leste came into being in 2002. This book presents freedom in Timor-Leste as an accomplishment of networked governance, arguing that weak networks are capable of controlling strong tyrannies. Yet, as events in Timor-Leste since independence show, the nodes of networks of freedom can themselves become nodes of tyranny. The authors argue that constant renewal of liberation networks is critical for peace with justice - feminist networks for the liberation of women, preventive diplomacy networks for liberation of victims of war, village development networks, civil society networks. Constant renewal of the separation of powers is also necessary. A case is made for a different way of seeing the separation of powers as constitutive of the republican ideal of freedom as non-domination. The book is also a critique of realism as a theory of international affairs and of the limits of reforming tyranny through the centralised agency of a state sovereign. Reversal of Indonesia's 1975 invasion of Timor-Leste was an implausible accomplishment. Among the things that achieved it was principled engagement with Indonesia and its democracy movement by the Timor resistance. Unprincipled engagement by Australia and the United States in particular allowed the 1975 invasion to occur. The book argues that when the international community regulates tyranny responsively, with principled engagement, there is hope for a domestic politics of nonviolent transformation for freedom and justice.