Timor Leste
Introduction
Timor Leste's most recent NAP ran from 2016-2020
Objectives
1. Participation
- increasing representation of women in decision-making positions in the security and justice sectors,
- developing laws and policies about peace and security with participation of civil society groups with a focus on equal representation,
- promoting and recruiting women in national institutions for security and defense,
- providing opportunities for women to participate in community conflict resolution mechanisms as mediators and focal points.
2. Prevention
- The goals of the prevention pillar are to integrate gender (including human rights and HIV/AIDS awareness) into training modules of the defense, security and justice sectors,
- include a gender perspective in conflict prevention mechanisms,
- promote a culture of peaceful conflict resolution,
- ensure laws regarding conflict resolution are gender sensitive,
- use the media to strengthen public awareness of gender-sensitive conflict prevention.
3. Protection
- increase the gender-sensitivity of the formal justice system,
- expand awareness and access to reproductive and mental health services in the municipalities.
4. Peace-building
- ensure that women have access to natural resources and economic opportunity,
- to promote their role in peace-building at a community level,
- to ensure justice and recognition for former women combatants and veterans.
Commentary
The Timor Leste NAP is incredibly thorough and attentive to contributions that women have already made to their peace-building process. Aware of Timor Leste’s own conflict history, the NAP is effective at empowering women within promoting non-violent conflict resolution mechanisms without gender-essentializing or assuming that women are naturally more peaceful. Importantly, this NAP recognizes female ex-combatants and veterans as a key population who deserve “justice and recognition for their contributions to peace”. It also includes many references to promoting women in decision-making roles in the security and justice sectors, two interrelated sectors necessary for effective post-conflict recovery. With specific goals for how to ensure gender-mainstreaming in government policies at a national and local level in all different aspects of peace-building, including reproductive health, this comprehensive NAP is a thorough and positive step in the direction of realizing the WPS agenda.
Civil Society
Civil society groups were consulted extensively in the drafting of this document, a process that is detailed in the beginning of the NAP. Through this consultation process, the civil society voices were able to push for a document that recognized the extensive peace-building role that women’s organizations were already playing in the country, and to help identify synergies where their work could be supported by the national government. This document effectively incorporates and respects the role of civil society in the realization of the WPS agenda.
Peacekeeping Statistics
As of 2021, Timor Leste contributes two peacekeeping troops, one man and one woman.
Sources
https://www.wpsnaps.org/app/uploads/2019/09/Timor-Leste-NAP-2016-2020.pdf
https://www.wpsnaps.org/nap/timor-leste-national-action-plan/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_UN_peacekeepers_contributed
