Challenging the therapeutic ethic: A victim-centred evaluation of transitional justice process in timor-leste

International Journal of Transitional Justice

Volumn 6, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 83-105

  Robins, Simon ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF YORK   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84871683605     PISSN: 17527716     EISSN: 17527724     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/ijtj/ijr034     Document Type: Article

References (74)

1. Naomi Roht-Arriaza, 'Foreword,' in Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice: Challenges for Empirical Research, ed. Hugo van der Merwe, Victoria Baxter and Audrey R. Chapman (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 2009).
2. The term 'victim' is used throughout this article, despite it being not unproblematic, since that is the preferred nomenclature of those most impacted by violations, who see it as an enabling identity that can serve to underwrite their claims on the state
3. Christopher J. Colvin, '"Brothers and Sisters, Do Not Be Afraid of Me": Trauma, History and the Therapeutic Imagination in the New South Africa,' in Memory, History, Nation: Contested Pasts, ed. Katharine Hodgkin and Susannah Radstone (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2006).
4. Vanessa Pupavac, 'International Therapeutic Peace and Justice in Bosnia,' Social Legal Studies 13(3) (2004): 377
5. David Backer, 'Exit, Voice and Loyalty in Transitional Justice Processes: Evidence on Victims' Responses to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission' (paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, 4 September 2004)
6. Brandon Hamber, Dineo Nageng and Gabriel O'Malley, '"Telling It Like It Is.. .": Understanding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from the Perspective of Survivors,' Psychology in Society 26 (2000): 18-42.
7. James L. Gibson, 'Does Truth Lead to Reconciliation? Testing the Causal Assumptions of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Process,' American Journal of Political Science 48(2) (2004): 201-217.
8. Brandon Hamber and Grainne Kelly, 'Too Deep, Too Threatening: Understandings of Reconciliation in Northern Ireland,' in Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice: Challenges for Empirical Research, ed. Hugo van der Merwe, Victoria Baxter and Audrey R. Chapman (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 2009).
9. Phuong Pham and Patrick Vinck, 'Empirical Research and the Development and Assessment of Transitional Justice Mechanisms,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 1(2) (2007): 231
10. See the numerous surveys conducted by the Human Rights Center and the International Center for Transitional Justice
11. See also, Miklos Biro, Dean Ajdukovic, Dinka Corkalo, Dina Djipa, Petar Milin and Harvey M. Weinstein, 'Attitudes Toward Justice and Social Reconstruction in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia,' in My Neighbour, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Ethnic Cleansing, ed. Eric Stover and Harvey M. Weinstein (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
12. Patrick Vinck and Phuong Pham, 'Outreach Evaluation: The International Criminal Court in the Central African Republic,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 4(3) (2010): 421-442
13. A special issue of the International Journal of Transitional Justice focused on the issue of evaluating transitional justice processes and included efforts to use qualitative methodologies to understand victims' views: David Backer, 'Watching a Bargain Unravel? A Panel Study of Victims' Attitudes about Transitional Justice in Cape Town, South Africa,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 4(3) (2010): 443-456
14. Gearoid Millar, 'Assessing Local Experiences of Truth-Telling in Sierra Leone: Getting to "Why" through a Qualitative Case Study Analysis,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 4(3) (2010): 477-496
15. Simon Robins, 'Towards Victim-Centred Transitional Justice: Understanding the Needs of Families of the Disappeared in Postconflict Nepal,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 5(1) (2011): 75-98
16. UN Development Programme-UN Environment Programme Poverty and Environment Initiative (PEI), PEI Country Fact Sheet: Timor-Leste (June 2009)
17. Sarah Staveteig, 'How Many Persons in East Timor Went "Missing" during the Indonesian Occupation? Results from Indirect Estimates,' in Timor-Leste: Challenges for Justice and Human Rights in the Shadow of the Past, ed. William Binchy (Dublin: Clarus, 2009).
18. UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Report of the United Nations Independent Special Commission of Inquiry for Timor-Leste (2006)
19. Xanana Gusmão, while president, 16 December 2005, quoted in Jeff Kingston, 'Regaining Dignity: Justice and Reconciliation in East Timor,' Brown Journal of World Affairs 13 (2006-2007): 22
20. International Federation for East Timor, letter to the UN Security Council (18 February 2009), tapol.gn.apc.org/letters/IFETjusticeletter.pdf (accessed 16 November 2011).
21. Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR), Chega! Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (2005), part 1.2, p. 41.
22. Suzanne Katzenstein, 'Hybrid Tribunals: Searching for Justice in East Timor,' Harvard Human Rights Journal 16 (2003): 245-278
23. Dionisio Babo-Soares, 'Nahe Biti: The Philosophy and Process of Grassroots Reconciliation (and Justice) in East Timor,' Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 5(1) (2004): 15-33
24. Indonesia-Timor-Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship, Final Report (2008), i
25. Megan Hirst, Too Much Friendship, Too Little Truth: Monitoring Report on the Commission of Truth and Friendship in Indonesia and Timor-Leste (New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, 2008)
26. World Bank, Defining Heroes: Key Lessons from the Creation of Veterans Policy in Timor-Leste (2008)
27. The three most cited articles on Timor-Leste and CAVR (from Google Scholar) are: Patrick Burgess, 'Justice and Reconciliation in East Timor: The Relationship between the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation and the Courts,' Criminal Law Forum 15 (2004): 135-158
28. Jeffrey Kingston, 'Balancing Justice and Reconciliation in East Timor,' Critical Asian Studies 38(3) (2006): 271-302
29. Galuh Wandita, Karen Campbell-Nelson and Manuela Leong Pereira, 'Learning to Engender Reparations in Timor-Leste: Reaching Out to Female Victims,' in Engendering Reparations: Recognizing and Compensating Women Victims of Human Rights Violations, ed. Ruth Rubio-Marín (New York: Social Sciences Research Council, 2006).
30. M. Anne Brown, 'Security, Development and the Nation-Building Agenda - East Timor,' Conflict, Security and Development 9(2) (2009): 141-164.
31. Reyko Huang and Geoffrey C. Gunn, 'Reconciliation as State-Building in Timor-Leste,' Lusotopie (2004): 19-38.
32. Derrick Silove, Anthony Zwi and Dominique Le Touze, 'Do Truth Commissions Heal? The East Timor Experience,' Lancet 367(9518) (2006): 1222-1224
33. Dominique Le Touze, Derrick Silove and Anthony Zwi, 'Can There Be Healing without Justice? Lessons from the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor,' Intervention 3(3) (2005): 192-202
34. David Cohen, Indifference and Accountability: The United Nations and the Politics of International Justice in East Timor (Honolulu: East-West Center, 2006)
35. Caitlin Reiger and Marieke Wierda, The Serious Crimes Process in Timor-Leste: In Retrospect (New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, 2006)
36. Piers Pigou, The Community Reconciliation Process of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (Dili: UN Development Programme Timor-Leste, 2004)
37. Lia Kent, Unfulfilled Expectations: Community Views on CAVR's Community Reconciliation Process (Dili: Judicial System Monitoring Programme, 2004)
38. Lia Kent, 'Truth Seeking and Memory Politics in Post-Conflict East-Timor' (paper presented to the 17th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, Melbourne, Australia, 1-3 July 2008)
39. Lia Kent, 'Local Memory Practices in East Timor: Disrupting Transitional Justice Narratives,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 5(3) (2011): 434-455
40. Simon Robins, 'Whose Voices? Understanding Victims' Needs in Transition,' Journal of Human Rights Practice 1(2) (2009): 320-331
41. The ICRC definition of 'missing' is derived from international humanitarian law: 'Missing persons or persons unaccounted for are those whose families are without news of them and/or are reported missing, on the basis of reliable information, owing to armed conflict (international or non-international) or internal violence (internal disturbances).'
42. International Committee of the Red Cross, The Missing and Their Families (2003)
43. This list was not shared with CAVR, as the Commission had a link to prosecutorial process that would have compromised ICRC's long-standing testimonial immunity (International Criminal Court Rules of Procedure and Evidence, Rule 73:4)
44. Figure 1 here can be compared with Figures 2 and 3 in Romesh Silva and Patrick Ball, The Profile of Human Rights Violations in Timor-Leste, 1974-1999 (Palo Alto, CA: Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group, 2006)
45. All levels of society are affected by the phenomenon. President José Ramos-Horta exhumed the body of one of four sisters who died during the occupation in 2002, but two of his brothers remain missing. He has said, 'We still don't know where they are. We don't know where they were killed, how they were killed. We know they were killed in 1977.' 'Ramos-Horta Family No Stranger to Tragedy,' Press, 12 February 2008.
46. On the scale and impact of the phenomenon of the missing on ordinary Timorese, see, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Unfulfilled Expectations: Victims' Perceptions of Justice and Reparations in Timor-Leste (2010)
47. Details of the study and the research instrument can be found in Simon Robins, An Assessment of the Needs of Families of the Missing in Timor-Leste (York: Post-War Reconstruction and Development Unit, 2010)
48. Only data from interviews with families was used in the statistical analysis presented. The focus group data was used to better understand the views of victims and to provide additional quotations.
49. Focus group discussion, Bobonaro, Timor-Leste, 29 July 2009
50. Personal interview, wife of missing man, Dili, Timor-Leste, 16 July 2009
51. Personal interview, father of missing man, Dili, Timor-Leste, 15 July 2009
52. Personal interview, brother of missing man, Bobonaro, Timor-Leste, 28 July 2009
53. Personal interview, father of missing man, Dili, Timor-Leste, 13 July 2009
54. Personal interview, mother of missing man, Dili, Timor-Leste, 10 August 2009
55. Personal interview, brother of missing man, Lautem, Timor-Leste, 11 August 2009
56. Personal interview, father of missing man, Lautem, Timor-Leste, 13 August 2009
57. A subvillage or hamlet and the smallest administrative unit in Timor-Leste
58. Damian Grenfell, Mayra Walsh, Carmenesa Moniz Noronha, Kym Holthouse and Anna Trembath, Community Sustainability and Security in Timor-Leste: Sarelari and Nanu (Melbourne: Globalism Research Centre, RMIT University, 2008)
59. Personal interview, son of man killed by FRETILIN with two other family members, Manatuto, Timor-Leste, 22 July 2009
60. Personal interview, children of missing man, Dili, Timor-Leste, 20 August 2009
61. Personal interview, daughter of missing man, Lautem, Timor-Leste, 12 August 2009
62. Focus group discussion, Bobonaro, Timor-Leste, 29 July 2009
63. Almost two-thirds of those interviewed had confidence that their loved one is dead, and an additional 15% believed it likely he or she is dead
64. Mark Aarons, 'Beloved Companheiros: What Happened in East Timor,' Monthly, August 2006
65. Wendy Lambourne, 'Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding after Mass Violence,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 3(1) (2009): 28-48
66. Roger Duthie, 'Toward a Development-Sensitive Approach to Transitional Justice,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 2(3) (2008): 292-309
67. Rama Mani, 'Looking Back and Moving Forward: The Nexus between Development and Transitional Justice' (paper presented at Building a Future on Peace and Justice conference, Nuremberg, Germany, 25-27 June 2007)
68. Michael Humphrey, 'From Victim to Victimhood: Truth Commissions and Trials as Rituals of Political Transition and Individual Healing,' Australian Journal of Anthropology 14(2) (2003): 171-187
69. Brandon Hamber, 'The Need for a Survivor-Centered Approach to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,' Community Mediation Update 9 (1996): 5
70. A first national victims' congress was held in Dili in September 2009, organized by national nongovernmental organizations with the support of the International Center for Transitional Justice and the UN Mission in Timor-Leste
71. La'o Hamutuk, Reviewing the East Timor Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (2003), 1
72. Derek Summerfield, 'Cross Cultural Perspectives on the Medicalisation of Human Suffering,' in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Issues and Controversies, ed. Gerald M. Rosen (London: Wiley, 2004).
73. Gillian Mezey and Ian Robbins, 'Usefulness and Validity of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a Psychiatric Category,' British Medical Journal 323 (2001): 561-563
74. Sebastian von Peter, 'The Experience of "Mental Trauma" and Its Transcultural Application,' Transcultural Psychiatry 45(4) (2008): 639-651