Beyond democratic tolerance : Witch killings in Timor-Leste

Newly democratising states experience challenges in reconciling 'traditional' or 'customary' dispute resolution practices with newly established state-based legal systems based on the rule of law. For Timor- Leste, these tensions are pronounced in continuing debates concerning the killing or injuring of women accused of witchcraft. Defences of extrajudicial punishments tend to conflate democracy with local support and fail to deal with the key institutions of democratic systems, including the rule of law, political equality, and civil rights. In Timor- Leste's case, where equality and social rights were incorporated into the Constitution as fundamental governmental obligations, localised extrajudicial punishments threaten internal and external state legitimacy and highlight the difficulties of ensuring the primacy of state-based institutions. Extrajudicial punishments challenge Timor-Leste's capacity to consolidate new liberal democratic political institutions. © 2015, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies. All rights reserved

Australia\u27s deal with Timor-Leste in peril again over oil and gas

In April, Australia and Timor-Leste reached agreement on their maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea. This resolved a longstanding source of contention between them. The potential benefits of this historic breakthrough are now in peril, because the critical issue of how the shared oil and gas of the Timor Sea are to be developed remains in dispute

Japan and South Korea : two "like-minded" states have mixed views on conflicts in the South China Sea

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/Many argue that China's increasingly aggressive posture in the South China Sea is an attempt to unilaterally alter the US-led regional order, which includes a strong emphasis on freedom of navigation. In response, the US has stressed the importance of "like-minded" states--including Japan and South Korea--in defending freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and elsewhere. The "like-minded" characterization, however, disguises important differences in attitudes and behavior that could hinder joint efforts to push back against China

Australia's approach to the South China Sea disputes

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/Rebecca Strating, Asia Studies Visiting Fellow, explains that "China has significant economic levers it could deploy against Australia, particularly in commodity trade, tourism, and the higher education sector.

The Indonesia-Timor-Leste Commission of truth and friendship: Enhancing bilateral relations at the expense of justice

International justice is characterized by the global articulation of basic human rights and peremptory norms outlawing crimes against humanity. In the twenty-first century, an international obligation of states to pursue individuals who bear responsibility for gross violations of human rights has formalized. Since the 1999 independence referendum, Timor-Leste has struggled to achieve substantive justice for the human rights violations committed during Indonesia’s 25-year de facto administration. Timor-Leste provides a unique case study on the international dimensions of pursuing justice in a post-conflict transitional context, particularly as many alleged perpetrators of rights violations have been shielded by Indonesia. This presents a challenge for Timor-Leste in balancing its various international and domestic priorities: While domestic political order and rule of law necessitates the pursuit of substantive justice, Timor-Leste's external security interests require a positive relationship with Indonesia. This article examines the world's first bilateral Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Indonesia-Timor-Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship. It then analyses the implementation of the Commission's recommendations by Indonesia and Timor-Leste. The paper argues that the Commission was primarily a political mechanism designed to support international priorities rather than substantive justice

East Timor's pursuit of democratic independence

This thesis demonstrates how East Timor achieved statehood by linking independence with democracy. It argues that building a democracy was a consistent goal for some elements of East Timor’s independence movement throughout the transition to statehood. The independence movement committed a future East Timor state to establishing a liberal, multi-party, plural democracy with a particular emphasis on social justice and wealth re-distribution. This pursuit of the twin goals of independence and democracy enabled East Timor to become a sovereign state and this vision of statehood was important for how it instituted new political structures. The interplay between norms of self-determination and democracy is useful for understanding East Timor’s pursuit of sovereign independence. In contemporary International Relations, it has become increasingly recognised that there exists a democratic entitlement in which all people hold rights to internal self-determination and political participation. In essence, East Timor sought to attain the right of self-determination in order to achieve sovereign rights and establish a democracy. There were two key elements to their appeals for self-determination: first, that a unique and identifiable East Timorese ‘nation’ existed and held rights to self-determination under international law; and second, that an East Timorese state would establish a democracy and guarantee human rights. This commitment was important as individual rights to political participation have become international standards that all states are expected to uphold. International and domestic civil society organisations supported the East Timorese independence movement by pressuring governments,lobbying diplomats, holding protests, raising international awareness and providing information of the human rights situation and self-determination in East Timor. These international appeals for democracy, human rights and freedoms in East Timor ultimately led to the referendum on independence in 1999. The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) was mandated to assist East Timor in establishing democracy following the referendum, and there has been considerable literature analysing and evaluating the roles of the UNTAET. However, there has been less attention on the roles of the East Timorese in constructing their political institutions and the relationship between the social and political realms during these processes. East Timorese leaders drafted the constitution, which established key political institutions such as electoral systems and the structure of government, and articulated the nature of citizenship rights and the relationship between the state and society. As such, East Timorese leaders played a considerable role in institutionally structuring the identity of their new state. East Timor’s Constitution outlined a vision of East Timor as a liberal, multi-party, social democracy that guarantees the civil, political and socio-economic rights of its people. The commitment to democracy and human rights demonstrated by political leaders prior and during East Timor’s transition is important for its capacities to consolidate its new political institutions and engender them with political legitimacy. A legitimate political order is one that is sanctioned by the population, thus a widespread, grassroots belief in the validity of democracy as a system of government has assisted East Timor in establishing and maintaining its democratic institutions

Beyond Democratic Tolerance: Witch Killings in Timor-Leste

Newly democratising states experience challenges in reconciling 'traditional' or 'customary' dispute resolution practices with newly established state-based legal systems based on the rule of law. For Timor-Leste, these tensions are pronounced in continuing debates concerning the killing or injuring of women accused of witchcraft. Defences of extrajudicial punishments tend to conflate democracy with local support and fail to deal with the key institutions of democratic systems, including the rule of law, political equality, and civil rights. In Timor-Leste's case, where equality and social rights were incorporated into the Constitution as fundamental governmental obligations, localised extrajudicial punishments threaten internal and external state legitimacy and highlight the difficulties of ensuring the primacy of state-based institutions. Extrajudicial punishments challenge Timor-Leste's capacity to consolidate new liberal democratic political institutions. (author's abstract

Defending the maritime rules-based order : regional responses to the South China Sea disputes

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/The seas are an increasingly important domain for understanding the balance-of-power dynamics between a rising People's Republic of China and the United States. Specifically, disputes in the South China Sea have intensified over the past decade. Multifaceted disputes concern overlapping claims to territory and maritime jurisdiction, strategic control over maritime domain, and differences in legal interpretations of freedom of navigation. These disputes have become a highly visible microcosm of a broader contest between a maritime order underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and challenger conceptions of order that see a bigger role for rising powers in generating new rules and alternative interpretations of existing international law. This issue examines the responses of non-claimant regional states--India, Australia, South Korea, and Japan--to the South China Sea disputes.Introduction -- Setting the Context: The South China Sea Disputes -- Defending Maritime Rules - Freedom of navigation under international law - Navigational regimes and state practice - Defending maritime rules: like-minded states and the “FONOP dilemma” -- Defending the Maritime Order- Responses to the 2016 UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunal - Like-minded states and maritime dispute resolution - Operational presence and maritime security cooperation -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1. US FONOPs in the South China Sea, 2017–2018 -- Appendix 2. US FONOPs directed at “like-minded states,” 1995–2018