Orphans' or Veterans? Justice for Children Born of War in East Timor

All over East Timor, one can find “orphans” whose parents still live, and “wives” who have never been married. These labels mask an open secret in Timorese society—hundreds of babies were born of rape during the Indonesian occupation from 1974 to 1999. In juxtaposition, as a result of the 2004 UNFPA-conducted census, there is finally data available on the current population of East Timor and it has unexpectedly revealed a baby boom, perhaps in response to the emotional losses of the occupation. The fertility rate was found to be the highest in the world, at 8.3 babies per woman.1 The baby as the symbol of both wound and healing is clearly at play in Timor at the present time. Nonetheless, there is official silence on the number and treatment of the children born of conflict, a lack of attention in the transitional justice mechanisms in place in Timor in regard to the human rights violations that produced their situation, and no official policies to deal with the needs of these children or their mothers, or the discrimination they may face. The challenge posed by these children and women to the social fabric of Timor reveals important gaps and silences within the international human rights law framework which might nonetheless be addressed by some fairly straightforward policy innovations. In this paper, I argue that status of the mothers socially and legally, as it impacts on the well-being and ability of the children to claim their rights, needs to be more fully addressed in transitional justice debates. Within Timor, there is a definite ambivalence about the idea of these women as contributors to independence during the occupation, and discomfiture regarding their status as so-called “wives” of Indonesian military. This cultural construction is both exacerbated and challenged by the ambivalent influence of Catholic teachings on East Timorese society. Nonetheless, social currents also exist that, if strategically used to reconstruct the image of these children and women, could more effectively reframe their trauma in transitional justice discourse, and contribute both to their well-being and the long-term process of reconciliation in East Timor. The paper proceeds in two sections. First, I first provide an overview of the situation of sexual violence survivors and their children in East Timor. In the second section I discuss current approaches to the children and their mothers within the transitional justice mechanisms available in East Timor at this time. I aim to shift the current approach to children born of war in Timor from covert welfare assistance by the Catholic Church and NGOs, to a rights-based framework, where the affected children are publicly accepted with valid claims on the Government, rather than seen as by-products of a crime or sin. From this analysis it becomes clear that creative policy and legal options are required that would assist these families with integration, status and financial security. I conclude with one such proposal to improve the situation of these families: re-characterise the affected women and their children as “veterans” of the conflict, with the same status as the former Falintil guerrillas.La

Resolving the Uncertainty of Preterm Symptoms: Women’s Experiences With the Onset of Preterm Labor

Objective: To describe expectant women\u27s experiences with the onset of preterm labor. Design: Qualitative, using grounded theory methods. Setting: Southwestern tertiary women\u27s hospital. Participants: Thirty pregnant women who were less than 35 weeks gestation, had experienced preterm labor within the past 7 days, and had no previous experience with preterm labor. Data Source: Taped and transcribed interviews. Results: Themes that emerged from the interview data included the following: recognition and naming of sensations, a consistent pattern of attribution of symptoms, the threat or risk inferred by the attributed cause of the symptom pattern, the associated certainty or uncertainty about these attributions, the process of interpreting and verifying symptom meaning, and the decision to self-manage the symptoms or engage health care assistance. The core process of women experiencing the onset of preterm labor symptoms was identified as resolving the uncertainty of preterm labor symptoms: recognizing and responding to the possibilities. Conclusions: Preterm labor often is not within expectant women\u27s consciousness. They may attribute the symptoms to nonthreatening causes, which results in delays in seeking care for preterm labor. Education about symptom patterns at the onset of preterm labor will increase the probability that women and their health care providers will recognize and interpret the early, subtle symptoms that herald the onset of preterm labor. Uncertainty in illness theory and attribution theory offer frameworks for understanding women\u27s experiences with the onset of preterm labor

Open Hearings: A Questionable Solution

This publication contains may contain links to external sites. These external sites may no longer be active.Made available by the Northern Territory Library via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).This publication contains many links to external sites. These external sites may no longer be active

Pigs Will Fly : Protecting the Los Angeles River by Declaring Navigability

In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared the Los Angeles River “navigable” for purposes of enforcing Clean Water Act (CWA) protections, which could limit destruction of the river’s tributaries and wetlands and expand recreational opportunities for the city. The EPA’s declaration was criticized by some as regulatory overreach— “like declaring that pigs will fly” —because the Los Angeles River does not fit within traditional notions of navigability. Others have attempted to remove navigability language from the CWA, suggesting that it is not the appropriate test for environmental protection. After examining the history of the Los Angeles River and providing a background on CWA jurisprudence, this Note argues that the EPA’s case by case approach to declaring navigability is an effective way to uphold the goals of the CWA while expanding CWA protection for the Los Angeles River and other urban and western rivers

A Portable, Low-Cost Wheelchair Ergometer Design Based on a Mathematical Model of Pediatric Wheelchair Dynamics

Evaluation and training of wheelchair propulsion improves efficiency and prevents orthopaedic injury in pediatric manual wheelchair users. Ergometers allow static propulsion and emulate typical conditions. Currently available ergometers have deficiencies that limit their use in motion analysis. A new ergometer is developed and evaluated based on a model of wheelchair inertial dynamics that eliminates these deficiencies. This makes integrated motion analysis of wheelchair propulsion in current community, home, and international outreach efforts possible