UPR Sexual Rights Database

National Report:
Para 70) Legislation in Timor-Leste gives priority to women to participate in political life, therefore there is a special quota for women. The Law on Election to the National Parliament states that the effective and supplementary list of candidates must include at least one woman in every three persons.
Para 71) Law No. 9/2016 on Community Leaders states that the presentation of candidacies for Village Chief and Sub-Village Chief must contain at least one woman and the village council shall comprise one female delegate and one female youth representative, and this law also states that there must be one woman in the electoral team.
Para 72) The participation of women in political life in Timor-Leste continues to change, and in 2017 during the Parliamentary Elections there were 26 female members of the National Parliament, and women were elected as secretary of the chair, and first vice secretary and two deputies.
Para 73) After the General Parliamentary Elections in 2017, in 2018 Timor-Leste held early elections and 22 females were elected as members of the National Parliament and one woman was elected as First Vice-President of the National Parliament, First Secretary to the Chair of the National Parliament and two women as Committee Presidents.
Para 74) Also, in each successive government there has been an increase in women’s participation at the executive level, namely assuming positions as members of government, whereby in the eighth government from 2018-2023 there were seven female members of Government, three Ministers, one Vice Prime Minister, three Vice-Ministers, and one Secretary of State.
Para 75) Women’s participation is not just at the national level but also at the village level, with each successive period showing a significant change in women’s involvement, as 319 women nominated themselves as candidates for Village Chief in 2016 and 21 of them were elected as Village Chief.
Para 76) The State maintained the Dili Declaration to empower women’s economic autonomy, through entrepreneurship, or creation of work for themselves as an essential factor in achieving the sustainable development goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda, especially in reducing poverty through the allocation of a gender sensitive State budget each year. The State continues to develop all efforts to reform and uphold women’s economic rights and equal access to economic resources, so they can have access to property and to promote full employment and dignified work. Starting in 2019 the Secretary of State for Equality and Inclusion (SEI) implemented an economic development program for women to provide support to women’s groups though the public transfers of funds, and 106 women’s groups received publicly transferred funds between 2019-2020. The SEI has continued to promote women’s participation through training and capacity building in important areas such as leadership, management, accountability and finance, and also has created training centres in all municipalities.
Para 80) The Government works with non-government organizations and has established safe and protected places for victims and survivors, offering temporary accommodation, including attending to victims and survivors of sexual abuse, domestic violence, the sexual abuse of children, or trafficking. Now there are safe rooms at the national hospital, referral hospitals and health centres in four municipalities and safe room services are provided by PRADET.
Para 81) Also shelters have been established, as part of a collaboration between the Government and civil society organisations. In 2018, there were safe shelters in all of the 13 municipalities that also guarantee the safety of victims of gender-based violence and shelters also provide training on livelihood skills with the aim of reintegrating victims into the community who have the capacity to make a living.

UN Compilation:
Para 49) The United Nations country team also noted that gender-based violence was recognized as one of the most pervasive and widespread human rights concerns in TimorLeste, with three in five (59 per cent) ever-partnered women (aged 15–49 years) having experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. Of these, 86 per cent had not sought assistance from formal agencies, services or other authorities.
Para 51) The United Nations country team noted that in the 2017 elections, 49 per cent of voters had been women. In 2020, women had held 38 per cent of National Parliament seats, above the regional average (19 per cent) and the global average (26 per cent). However, women were still underrepresented in other key decision-making positions.
Para 52) It also noted that there had been an increase in women’s participation in the formal labour force but that gender disparities remained. Despite the fact that by 2019, 45.7 per cent of the total labour force had constituted women, there was a gender pay gap of 16 per cent in formal employment.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 39) … Many victims of past gender-based violence and their children remained without adequate support services from the state.

"National Report:
Para 12) To guarantee effective and adequate protection for the implementation of the law against domestic violence, the State, through the Ministry of Social Solidarity has managed to implement programs such as the establishment of a protection network for victims of domestic violence and gender based violence in 13 municipalities, has increased the capacity of the national network of support centers to provide direct assistance to shelters through training on operational procedures, has reintegrated victims in the community after they have left shelters, has provided psycho-social support to victims and public awareness raising and the implementation of operational procedures for the referral networks, management of cases on a database which is based on monitoring activities

Para 20) Timor-Leste also has the following action plans: national action plan on gender based violence and a national action plan for zero hunger and also other draft action plans such as an action plan on women, peace and security and a draft action plan on persons with disabilities.

Para 29) Judicial actors are an important pillar, and before they perform their duties they are given training by the Ministry of Justice through the Judicial Training Centre which provides training to judicial magistrates and public defenders as part of a plan to provide academic competence for the fifth round of Training for judicial magistrates and public defenders, between 2013 and 2015, to increase their knowledge about torture and mistreatment, especially in relation to vulnerable group such as children, women, the poor and persons with disabilities, with materials focusing on the C-RDTL and fundamental rights, the rights of families and minorities, children's rights and gender, with facilitation by UN agencies such as UNICEF and UN Women

Para 39) Timor-Leste has a patriarchal system which is a factor in preventing women from obtaining opportunities, causing them to face discrimination and be victims of domestic violence in their homes. Young women also continue to encounter a range of social problems which affect their social, economic, cultural and political life because women are considered to be of secondary importance in the household and society. To improve this situation, and to enable women to have the chance to obtain equality in all sectors and not face discrimination, many efforts have been initiated including those by the Government of Timor-Leste through the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality (SEPI) and the Dili Declaration (DD) entitled “Invest in women and children - invest in Equality” which was signed by the National Parliament, the Government, the Church and civil society and witnessed by the President, Prime Minister and President of the National Parliament.

Para 40) As a means of strengthening and disseminating the DD at all levels, the SEPI established a new mechanism to improve the coordination of a Gender Mainstreaming Policy at the national and municipal levels. Also, changes were made to the gender focal points in relation to the gender working group. There is a gender action plan for the 12 municipalities including the Special Administrative Region of Oecusse to implement a commitment known as the municipal commitment to gender equality. The SEPI has changed its name to the Secretary of State for the Support and Socio-Economical Promotion of Women (SEM) based on the organic law of the Sixth Constitutional Government

Para 41) The DD provides comprehensive guidelines to the State of Timor-Leste to achieve the goal of dynamic gender equality to ensure gender mainstreaming in national development plans, to develop gender sensitive budgets, to eradicate violence against women and children with an implementation plan with funds to treat domestic violence issues; to develop a mechanism to promote access to property and land rights, equal access to a higher level of education for women and children, including scholarships in the field of natural resource management; the promotion of health policies that are gender sensitive to prevent HIV/AIDS and to promote family planning and to promote integrated community health services; to invest in women through a policy of decentralization9, and actions to contribute to achieving the aims of CEDAW

Para 42) Amongst all of the efforts that Timor-Leste has pursued for gender equality, Timor-Leste was given the privilege from the UN to lead “the new deal and lead the G7+”, which is the first step and Timor-Leste needs greater efforts to be able to compete with other nations in the world. Now, the SEM and the Secretary of State for Security (SES) are leading a consultation on the NAP Resolution 1325. Two Timorese women received a peace network award at the regional level, the first was in 2011 and the second was in 2013. It is hoped that they can be good role models and provide inspiration to other women for peace in society and the nation to acknowledge their dedication and efforts to build peace. The SEPI revised the strategic plan for 2010-2015 to 2012-2017

Para 43) Timor-Leste guarantees effective and adequate protection through the implementation of the law against domestic violence, and the State, through the MSS, has managed to implement programs such as a protection network for victims of domestic violence and gender based violence in 12 municipalities as well as the Special Administrative Region of Oecusse, and has increased the capacity of the national network of support centers to provide direct assistance to shelters through training based on operational standards, has reintegrated victims in communities after they have left shelters, has supported the psycho-social needs of victim and raised public awareness and implemented operational standards to the referral networks, and has provided case management case through a database based on monitoring activities

Para 44) The State of Timor-Leste is undertaking many efforts in order to combat domestic violence through the Law Against Domestic Violence and a National Action Plan for GBV and the Government will continue to strive to ensure the effectiveness of implementing this law at the national level and international level through multi-sectoral coordination. There has also been public awareness raising through the SEM and a partnership with civil society at the national level as well as in rural areas through a range of measures, such as: Training/Seminars, interaction through Radio Television TL, Community Radio, publishing public opinions in the newspapers, brochures, magazines, pamphlets and billboards

Para 45) After the LADV was approved, many cases of DV have been dealt with in accordance with the applicable law in Timor-Leste and sanctions have been imposed for crimes committed, and therefore there has been a significant change since the law was approved, namely a reduction in the number of DV cases which shows that the citizens in our country, namely women, children and men are starting to know their fundamental rights and that domestic violence is a crime and not a private matter. We have confidence that the judicial actors will continue to pay attention to the seriousness of these cases because all families in Timor-Leste need to foster non-violence or zero tolerance and therefore all families need positive action to participle in national development even though many women are economically dependent on men, so we need to create the conditions and guarantee opportunities to empower them in the domestic and public spheres.

Para 71) In 2015 the Ministry of Education also started to introduce lesson plans for grade 1 to 4 with Social Science lessons also integrated with materials such as gender, disability, respect for diversity and protection for children against violence and abuse.

UN Compilation:
Para 9) CEDAW was also concerned about the decision not to adopt a specific gender equality law

Para 13) The CEDAW welcomed the adoption of the Law against Domestic Violence (No. 7/2010), which criminalized domestic violence, including sexual violence, “even within a marriage”. The Committee was, however, concerned about the absence of legal provisions specifically criminalizing marital rape and qualifying rape as a serious crime

Para 14) The country team noted that a government evaluation of the 2012-2014 National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence had revealed that the budget allocation was limited and that there was insufficient interministerial coordination on implementing and monitoring the Law against Domestic Violence.

Para 30) The CEDAW noted that the Governments of Indonesia and Timor-Leste were working together to establish a survivor healing programme, particularly for survivors of rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence committed during the Indonesian occupation in 1999. The Committee was, however, concerned that survivors of that sexual violence continued to experience social stigma and ostracism, and had limited access to medical, psychological, reproductive and mental health services and treatment

Para 34) The CEDAW welcomed the adoption of the Civil Code (Law No. 10/2011) of 14 September 2011 providing for equal rights of women and men in marriage.

Para 44) The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women welcomed the
adoption of Law No. 7/2011 establishing electoral lists of standing and alternate candidates,
which must include at least one woman in each group of three candidates. It was,
however, concerned that women in Timor-Leste continued to face persistent barriers to gain
access to decision-making positions, and that women’s representation in government decision-making positions remained low at 20 per cent and the proportion of female village chiefs was extremely low at 2 per cent.

Para 47) The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women welcomed the adoption of the Labour Code (Law No. 4/2012) guaranteeing equality of opportunity and treatment in employment and prohibiting verbal, non-verbal and physical sexual harassment

Para 70) The Committee welcomed the zero-tolerance policy initiated by the Ministry of Education in 2011 against malpractice in the education sector, covering sexual violence, corporal punishment and other forms of violence in schools, but it regretted that the policy had not been effectively implemented. It was concerned that the sanctions for sexual harassment and abuse in schools were lenient and that teachers who were perpetrators of sexual violence were merely transferred to other schools

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 2) The PDHJ highlighted that despite that the Constitution adopts the general and customary principles of international law and treaties ratified by Timor-Leste, and that all national legislation must not be in contradiction with international law, Timor-Leste failed to adopt in full the general recommendations of the treaty bodies, in particular those of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Para 24) Joint Submission 1 (JS1) stated that a comprehensive definition of discrimination against women remained absent from the domestic legal framework and the Civil Code contained some discriminatory provisions, for instance, no recognition of religious marriages other than Catholic and de facto relationships. In this connection, JS1 noted that the vast majority of women in Timor-Leste were in de facto unions or had not yet registered their traditional marriage in the absence of a civil registration code, which has consequences for women’s rights to marital property and spousal alimony.

Para 29) Cultural Survival (CS) noted that despite the Law against Domestic Violence and the National Action Plan on Domestic Violence, the Government had failed to implement necessary service and protection for indigenous women and girls. AI expressed similar concern that the Law against Domestic Violence did not adequately meet the standards of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women"

Timor-Leste has promoted the rights and welfare of women through policies and a national action plan on gender equality, has increased women’s participation in the political decision-making process, has strengthened the framework of legal measures on gender-based violence, has combatted violence against women, and girls and has strengthened measures to combat domestic violence against women and girls. … Timor-Leste supports these recommendations to engage in efforts to further improve the percentage of women within formal work arrangements, to strengthen their capacity to actively participate in supply chains and markets, to further reduce sexual violence and gender-based violence, to further combat gender-based violence and promote gender equality and pay more attention to violence against women and children including violence based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

National Report:
Para 35) The Government of Timor-Leste has adopted many measures to combat violence against women and children. The Government of Timor-Leste through the Secretary of State for Equality and Inclusion has produced a national action plan for gender-based violence 2017-2020, with four important pillars, namely: the prevention of gender-based violence, providing services to victims, access to justice for victims, and coordination, monitoring and assessment of initiatives that have been developed. In 2020 the Government launched a Spotlight Initiative program with the aim of combatting gender-based violence such as violence against women and girls.
Para 77) The Government acknowledges that gender-based violence continues to occur, especially against women, however the Government continues to endeavour to reduce gender-based violence in Timor-Leste.
Para 78) The Government has launched a National Action Plan on Gender Based Violence 2017-2021 as a State commitment to resolve problems to reduce and eradicate gender-based violence that affects women, men and children in the community through coordination and the inclusive participation of all entities.
Para 79) The State has a policy of continuing to promote and protect women and girls so they can enjoy their rights and continues to reduce discrimination in public and private institutions including human trafficking, sexual exploitation, early marriage and forced marriage practices and provides equal opportunities to women to be leaders at the political level.
Para 80) The Government works with non-government organizations and has established safe and protected places for victims and survivors, offering temporary accommodation, including attending to victims and survivors of sexual abuse, domestic violence, the sexual abuse of children, or trafficking. Now there are safe rooms at the national hospital, referral hospitals and health centres in four municipalities and safe room services are provided by PRADET.
Para 81) Also shelters have been established, as part of a collaboration between the Government and civil society organisations. In 2018, there were safe shelters in all of the 13 municipalities that also guarantee the safety of victims of gender-based violence and shelters also provide training on livelihood skills with the aim of reintegrating victims into the community who have the capacity to make a living.
Para 82) To prevent sexual harassment from occurring in the workplace, the Public Service Commission has created a mechanism for reporting sexual harassment, and the Rosa CHATBOT facilitates reporting of gender-based violence in specific cases relating to sexual harassment that is committed by Public Servants in the workplace or in a public place. The Rosa CHATBOT protects the identity of those who make a complaint.

UN Compilation:
Para 9) The Committee against Torture commended Timor-Leste for its initiatives to amend its policies and procedures in order to afford greater protection of human rights and to apply the Convention against Torture, in particular the adoption of the second National Action Plan on Gender-based Violence (2017–2021);
Para 27) The Special Rapporteur noted that, in terms of access to justice and compliance with human rights standards, there were shortcomings in both the formal justice system and the customary justice system. In the customary justice system, hearings were commonly conducted in public, which was clearly unsuitable for crimes relating to emotionally vulnerable victims of domestic violence and child abuse. Some customary justice practices might entail physical punishments, in contravention of international human rights law.
Para 49) The United Nations country team also noted that gender-based violence was recognized as one of the most pervasive and widespread human rights concerns in TimorLeste, with three in five (59 per cent) ever-partnered women (aged 15–49 years) having experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. Of these, 86 per cent had not sought assistance from formal agencies, services or other authorities. Women and girls with disabilities, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex persons, were at an even higher risk of violence, often perpetrated by family members.
Para 50) The Committee against Torture expressed concern about the reluctance of Timor-Leste to criminalize marital rape and incest as distinct crimes, and expressed regret at the lack of information provided on the number of complaints, investigations, prosecutions, convictions and sentences imposed in cases of gender-based violence against women.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 11) PDHJ highlighted that the formal judicial process did not provide for an accessible, fast and coherent result that ensured victims of domestic violence safety and livelihood. This caused those victims to turn to traditional justice mechanisms and remedies that might not integrate a human rights perspective.

National Report:
Para 70) Legislation in Timor-Leste gives priority to women to participate in political life, therefore there is a special quota for women. The Law on Election to the National Parliament states that the effective and supplementary list of candidates must include at least one woman in every three persons.
Para 71) Law No. 9/2016 on Community Leaders states that the presentation of candidacies for Village Chief and Sub-Village Chief must contain at least one woman and the village council shall comprise one female delegate and one female youth representative, and this law also states that there must be one woman in the electoral team.
Para 72) The participation of women in political life in Timor-Leste continues to change, and in 2017 during the Parliamentary Elections there were 26 female members of the National Parliament, and women were elected as secretary of the chair, and first vice secretary and two deputies.
Para 73) After the General Parliamentary Elections in 2017, in 2018 Timor-Leste held early elections and 22 females were elected as members of the National Parliament and one woman was elected as First Vice-President of the National Parliament, First Secretary to the Chair of the National Parliament and two women as Committee Presidents.
Para 74) Also, in each successive government there has been an increase in women’s participation at the executive level, namely assuming positions as members of government, whereby in the eighth government from 2018-2023 there were seven female members of Government, three Ministers, one Vice Prime Minister, three Vice-Ministers, and one Secretary of State.
Para 75) Women’s participation is not just at the national level but also at the village level, with each successive period showing a significant change in women’s involvement, as 319 women nominated themselves as candidates for Village Chief in 2016 and 21 of them were elected as Village Chief.
Para 76) The State maintained the Dili Declaration to empower women’s economic autonomy, through entrepreneurship, or creation of work for themselves as an essential factor in achieving the sustainable development goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda, especially in reducing poverty through the allocation of a gender sensitive State budget each year. The State continues to develop all efforts to reform and uphold women’s economic rights and equal access to economic resources, so they can have access to property and to promote full employment and dignified work. Starting in 2019 the Secretary of State for Equality and Inclusion (SEI) implemented an economic development program for women to provide support to women’s groups though the public transfers of funds, and 106 women’s groups received publicly transferred funds between 2019-2020. The SEI has continued to promote women’s participation through training and capacity building in important areas such as leadership, management, accountability and finance, and also has created training centres in all municipalities.

UN Compilation:
Para 51) The United Nations country team noted that in the 2017 elections, 49 per cent of voters had been women. In 2020, women had held 38 per cent of National Parliament seats, above the regional average (19 per cent) and the global average (26 per cent). However, women were still underrepresented in other key decision-making positions.
Para 52) It also noted that there had been an increase in women’s participation in the formal labour force but that gender disparities remained. Despite the fact that by 2019, 45.7 per cent of the total labour force had constituted women, there was a gender pay gap of 16 per cent in formal employment.