Human Rights in Timor-Leste’s Struggle for Independence

Abstract

This article investigates the role of human rights in Timor-Leste’s struggle for independence from Indonesia. It examines the context within which Timor’s Resistance movement began to employ human rights in the 1980s. It considers how human rights were used by Timor’s Resistance and the effects of this employment on the movement, using the Timor case to make larger arguments about the nature of human rights and human rights activism and about the relationships between human rights, anti-colonialism, and the right to self-determination.