Commission For Reception Research Articles

Alternative Truths as Reconciliatory Mechanisms in Post-Conflict Societies

Truth and reconciliation commissions (TCRs) make use of truth-seeking and truth-telling as reconciliatory mechanisms in the aftermaths of intrastate and intra-ethnic conflicts. TCRs are the subject of scrutiny by many scholars who argue that these mechanisms are incompatible with some local needs, norms and contexts, and therefore suggest that other reconciliatory methods may be more successful. This essay argues that truth-seeking and truth-telling mechanisms can be successfully used for reconciliation efforts if they are reimagined. This is because any incompatibility between these mechanisms and the realities of some local contexts are rooted in the narrow understandings of what truth(s) are relevant for reconciliation, stemming from the fact that they were founded within ‘regimes of truth’ that reflect Western liberal normative ideals. Two TCRs will be examined through engagement with survivor and victim testimony: the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, deemed largely successful, and the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor, deemed largely unsuccessful. It will be illustrated that the understandings of truth that informed both TCRs reflected the local norms and needs of survivors and victims in South Africa than it did those in Timor-Leste. Ultimately, the essay finds that truth-seeking and truth-telling mechanisms need to better align with: one, local practices for reconciliation and addressing conflicts; and two, the needs of the victims in regard to what truths, or what information, they need for healing and reconciliation.

Challenges in the pursuit of justice for East Timor’s Great Famine (1977–1979)

Despite its devastating impact on the population, the 1977–1979 famine in East Timor scarcely features in global studies of hunger. This article traces how the famine was dealt with in international politics during the Indonesian occupation (1975–1999), and in Timor-Leste during the United Nations administration and as an independent nation-state. The East Timor case extends our knowledge of the workings of conflict-induced famines, provides insights into the attempts by transnational activists and diasporic actors to mobilise international action on crises such as famine, and examines the options for dealing with famine and its community-wide legacies in post-conflict societies including under a transitional justice model. By analysing the activities of the country’s transitional justice institution, the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (Comissão de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliação, CAVR) and its successor, the Centro Nacional Chega! (CNC), as well as grassroots initiatives, the article outlines some of the challenges of delivering justice for famine victims and survivors in post-conflict societies.

The evolving narrative of denial: the Fraser government and the Timorese genocide, 1975–1980

ABSTRACTAs research by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor documents, the years 1975–1980 constituted the worst period of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, during which grave human rights took place involving a high loss of life. In Australia, the government headed by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (1975–1983) sought to present itself as a supporter of human rights and the international rule of law. It also prioritized relations with the Suharto regime, which it saw as key to its policy position in Southeast Asia. These two positions came into conflict due to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The Fraser government therefore worked to propagate a narrative concerning East Timor which denied the seriousness of the situation, distorted the historical narrative, deflected blame from Indonesia, and depicted the Australian position as principled and realistic. This paper examines the development of this narrative as events progressed and information concerning the crisis in East Timor came to the attention of the outside world. It also examines how the Fraser government employed this narrative internationally in order to protect the Suharto regime from scrutiny.

After the Truth Commission: Gender and Citizenship in Timor-Leste

This article explores the relationship between truth commissions and gendered citizenship through a case study of Timor-Leste. It examines how, 10 years after the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) has completed its work, women’s citizenship remains constrained by, and negotiated within, deeply gendered narratives of nation-building that are informed by historical experiences of the resistance struggle. The power of these narratives—which foreground heroism rather than victimisation—underscores the need to situate truth commissions as part of an ongoing politics of memory. Despite the power of political elites to shape this politics, the continued marginalisation of sections of society within official narratives is also providing an impetus for alternative truth-telling efforts that seek to broaden public perspectives on the past. By promoting new narratives of women’s experiences of the conflict, these projects might be understood as attempts to negotiate and transform gendered conceptions of citizenship in the present and for the future.

Women Cut in Half: Refugee Women and the Commission for Reception, Truth-Seeking and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste

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.

Memory, records, history: the Records of the Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste

This paper examines the implications of the context of creation on the current and potential future uses of the records produced by the Comissao de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliacao de Timor-Leste (Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, or CAVR). Given that the CAVR relied heavily on the testimony of the East Timorese people in its investigations that addressed a 25-year period, this paper considers the nature of memory and the role it played in creating and shaping the CAVR records. It also addresses the potential influences of the CAVR records, particularly the final report, Chega!, in shaping what will be known about this period by the Timorese people. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential role of the CAVR records in contributing to the history of Timor-Leste. Although truth commissions are a problematic form of truth telling, with significant implications for the writing of history, the records of the CAVR are an invaluable source of information for Timorese history. If future users can recognize the CAVR records as the products of the context of their creation, these records will have a critical role to play in the development of history within Timor-Leste.

Accountability for genocide and other gross human rights violations: the need for an integrated and victim-based transitional justice

The Nuremberg tribunal was the expression and the beginning of states' recognition of their duty to prosecute genocide and other gross human rights violations. It was a first step towards fulfillin...

Justice and Reconciliation in East Timor. The Relationship Between the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation and the Courts

Justice and Reconciliation in East Timor. The Relationship Between the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation and the Courts

The East Timorese commission for reception, truth and reconciliation: Chronicle of a foretold failure?

The article examines the major steps taken in the process toward human rights accountability in East Timor between October 1999 and April 2001, when a draft regulating the future Truth and Reconciliation Commission was submitted to and approved by the East Timorese National Council. Since the turmoil of September 1999, the fulfilment of the East Timorese demands of justice before reconciliation became a sine qua non for peace. This article begins with a short description of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and analyses its main features. It highlights the characteristics which were at the time of the Commission in South Africa were considered innovative or highly relevant to the overall success of the project. South Africa's TRC is as this article explains an important one because East Timor has in some respects attempted to follow it as an example for its own commission. The article ends with an evaluation of how significant and successful such a Commission will be in the very particular circumstances of East Timor.