Women cut in half: Refugee women and the commission for reception, truth-seeking and reconciliation in Timor-Leste

Abstract

This article argues that the narrative of refugee and internally displaced women, as well as women generally, is often silent or marginalized in the new national narrative that emerges from transitional justice processes. This is so even with those mechanisms traditionally considered more inclusive of victims' voices, such as truth commissions. This proposition is tested by evaluating the participation of refugee and displaced women in the Commission for Reception, Truth-seeking, and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste (Comissão de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliação de Timor-Leste), and the representation of their testimony in the final Chega! Report. The Commission is unique among modern truth commissions, having a "reception" function to encourage returns from West Timor. This process can be examined in combination with the contemporaneous trials for serious crimes conducted by a United Nations hybrid tribunal in Dili. However, because refugee protection and transitional justice goals were not synchronized, and more often working at cross-purposes, the overall ability to meet the goals of either were compromised, to the detriment of the most vulnerable.