Human Rights Workshop

During the 24 year long military occupation of East Timor by Indonesia at least 4,000 children were taken from Timor to Indonesia by members of the Indonesian security forces. Little has been known of the fate of these children until a recent program led by AJAR has focused on uncovering the facts behind the program, identifying and finding some of the children and reuniting them with their families in Timor Leste. AJAR has produced a short film on the stolen children of Timor Leste and the program of reuniting them with their parents.

This session will provide an overview of the UN and RHRMs and how CSOs and HRDs can cooperate with them, a specific focus on how lawyers could assist victims accessing the human rights system in relation to prevailing human rights challenges in the region. Participants will share best practices, challenges, lessons learnt and identify new forms of cooperation.

Introductory statement OHCHR (5mins)

This session will explore the approaches that can be taken to address mass gender-based violations, including AJAR’s recent multiyear program in four Asian countries. This will include an introduction to a range tools developed to assist in working with victims of gender based violations and examples drawn from helping to build women victim’s networks in Indonesia, Timor Leste, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

In this session we will introduce the transitional justice framework and how it is applied, and explore some of the challenges in the region through a TJ lens and AJAR’s work. Mechanisms such as the International Criminal Court, hybrid courts, national courts, truth and reconciliation commissions, civil society led initiatives, reparations programs for victims and reform programs will be explored drawing on specific regional experiences and examples of the transitions in in Indonesia, Timor Leste, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Myanmar.