Truth & Reconciliation

Challenges of reconciliation: lessons learned from Timor-Leste

International Workshop

Bishop’s University, 23 October 2019

 

Welcome!

The ‘Challenges of reconciliation: lessons learned from Timor-Leste’ International Workshop aims to create, share and disseminate knowledge about the challenges of reconciliation processes. The workshop is designed as a collaborative research sharing between academics, Canadian and Timorese advocates of reconciliation. Timor-Leste suffered gencoide under Indoneisan rule in 1975-99 and is grappling wit the legacy of mass violence and the aftermath of its truth and reconciliation commission.

The overall aim is to connect participants, reflect on current reconciliation efforts in Timor- Leste, international engagement with the recommendations of the Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation and lessons to be learnt from Timor-Leste, especially about the problem of implementing truth commission recommendations.

Related Events 

22nd October 2019 – Film Screening: (tbc)

23rd October 2019 – CNC/CAVR Photo Exhibition

 

Program of Events

9.30-10.00 AM:

Coffee and Welcome

10.00-11.20 AM:

Session 1 Moderator: Susanna Barnes Perspectives on reconciliation in Timor-Leste since the publication of Chega! The Report of the East Timor Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation.   How has the Chega! report been received by the State, civil society and the general population in Timor-Leste? To what extent have the recommendations contained in the report been acted on by relevant actors in Timor-Leste? What are the challenges to reconciliation on the ground? And what are the opportunities for implementing the recommendations in Timor-Leste?   Speakers: ●  Hugo Fernandes, Director of the Centro Nacional Chega, on the status of implementation of international recommendations.

	●  Padre Jovito de Araujo, Board Member, Centro Nacional Chega, on the challenges of reconciliation and the work of CNC. ●  Amy Rothschild, Ithaca College, on the construction of historical narratives and the challenges of memorialisation ●  Lia Kent, Australian National University, Justice as caring for the dead: beyond the transitional justice toolkit.
11.20-11.30:	Break
11.30-12.30:	Session 2 Round table on Reconciliation and the implementation of recommendations in Timor Leste.   Responses to the papers will be provided in the form of a round table with other participants sharing their perspectives. Cintia Gillam will provide a reflection and commentary based on her current research on ecological and human well-being in Timor-Leste. Kate Green, Seed Change (previously USC Canada) will discuss experiences of the community of Fadablocko: From Famine to Resilience.
12.30-13.30	Lunch
13.30-14.50:	Session 3 Moderator: David Webster   Gender dimensions of violence and reconciliation, accountability, reparations and the recommendations of Chega! The Report of the East Timor Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation. What are the implications of gendered violence for reconciliation? What, if any, efforts have been made to respond to the gendered dimension of violence and the needs of those most affected? What role can civil society play in raising awareness of these recommendations and putting pressure on national governments and/or international organisations to respond to specific recommendations? ●  Hannah Loney, The University of Melbourne, on the effects of Indonesian ‘New Order’ on issues of gender, femininity and sexuality. ●  Kathryn Robertson, on gendering reconciliation (remote presentation) ●  Joviana Guterres, Asia Justice and Rights, on the case for reparations, what has been done to assist victims and survivors (remote presentation)

 

14.50-15.00	Break
15.00-16.00	Session 4   Round table on reconciliation, accountability and the role of the international community in post-conflict Timor-Leste   This session will be moderated by Bonny Ibhawoh who will also provide reflection and commentary based on his experience on truth and reconciliation in six African Nations. Chris Walker will provide a reflection and commentary on international engagement in Timor-Leste. Laurentina Barreto Soares (tbc), on ‘soft diplomacy’ and the relationship between China and Timor-Leste post independence.
16.00-16.10	Break
16.10-17.00	Final Plenary During the final plenary session speakers and participants will identify key priorities/issues to be raised in a policy brief document to national governments and the international community to be co-authored by the event participants.
18.00-21.00	Dinner

 

List of Speakers

Amy Rothschild, a former legal counsel working with the Timorese truth commission CAVR, Amy Caroline Rothschild is an assistant professor at Ithaca College. She is author of, among other publications, an influential article in the International Journal of Transitional Justice (the leading journal of truth and reconciliation studies globally) about victims’ rights in Timor-Leste. Her work offers insight into how truth commissions can engage with the theme of past resistance to violence in ways that value rather than downplay the survivors of violence.

Cintia Gillam is a graduate student studying international development in Timor-Leste. She is one of two graduate students in Canada with Timor-Leste topics, and her presence will assist in linking this workshop to current Timor-Leste student research in Canada.

Chris Walker is a graduate student studying international development in Timor-Leste. He is one of two graduate students in Canada with Timor-Leste topics, and his presence will assist in linking this workshop to current Timor-Leste student research in Canada.

Gaudêncio Soares Souza is the co-ordinator for External Relations at Centro Nacional Chega! He obtained his University degree in the area of Political Sciences majoring in International Relations from the University of Dili (UNDIL).

Hannah Loney is a Gilbert Postdoctoral Early Career Fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests include women’s history, twentieth- century Southeast Asian and Pacific history, transnational activism, histories of violence, oral history, and international human rights. Hannah’s book, In Women’s Words: Violence and Everyday Life during the Indonesian Occupation of East Timor, 1975–1999, was published in 2018 by Sussex Academic Press.

Hugo Maria Fernandes, Executive Director of Centro Nacional Chega! Hugo worked at the CAVR from 2002 to 2005 as a head of Truth-Seeking Division and Co-Managing Editor for Chega! Report. From 2005–2008, he worked as a Coordinator for Research Team and Co-Editor for the CTF Final Report, Per Memoriam Ad Spem. From 2008–2017, Hugo Fernandes worked at The Asia Foundation, Timor-Leste as Director of Public Policy and Institutional Strengthening Program and Team Leader for Support for Good Public Policy.

Bonny Ibhawoh is principal investigator on the project Confronting Atrocity: Truth Commissions, National Reconciliation and the Politics of Memory, a study of national truth commissions established in six African countries in the context of post-conflict reconstruction (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda) and democratic transition (Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya). His expertise on truth and reconciliation in Africa provides a valuable comparative perspective, allowing him to act as a commentator on Timor-Leste informed about truth and reconciliation processes globally

Fr. Jovito do Rêgo de Jesus Araújo, was a Commissioner in the Timor-Leste’s Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation (CAVR) from 2001–2005 and is now a board member of the follow-up institution Centro Nacional Chega! Fr. Jovito obtained his master degree from Gregorian University in Rome, Italy and is now working at the Diocese of Dili as an Episcopal Vicar for Pastoral Care of the Diocese of Dili.

Joviana Guterres, is program manager at Asia Justice and Rights Timor-Leste (AJAR). In Timor-Leste, AJAR works to empower its local partner organisations, most notably its sister organisation Asosiasaun Chega! ba ita (ACbit) to support victims’ groups, women in particular, to raise public awareness about the importance of learning from the past and to advocate for the protection of human rights.

Kathryn Robertson is currently Learning Manager at Ministry of Children and Family Development of British Columbia and a consultant to the women, peace and security programme of KAIROS Canada. She was previously a coordinator with the Asia Foundation in Timor-Leste, and worked on campaigns against impunity for human rights violators in Timor-Leste.

Dr. Lia Kent is a Fellow in the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University. With a geographic focus on Timor-Leste (and more recently, Aceh and Sri Lanka), her research is concerned with the dynamics of peace-building, transitional justice, gender justice and memorialisation in the aftermath of mass violence. Lia is the author of The Dynamics of Transitional Justice: International Models and Local Realities in East Timor (Routledge 2012) and a co-editor (with Sue Ingram and Andrew McWilliam) of A New Era? Timor-Leste after the UN (ANU Press 2015). She has also published her work in journals including The International Journal of Transitional Justice, Human Rights Quarterly, the International Feminist Journal of Politics, and Third World Thematics.