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East Timor's lessons for our abuse Royal Commission

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CAVR

The support group for victims of sexual abuse, Broken Rites, has proposed that victims be given the opportunity to tell their stories as part of the proceedings to be undertaken by the upcoming Royal Commission. 

According to the Fairfax press on Monday, the group's spokesman, Dr Wayne Chamely, is advocating that a 'truth commissioner' be appointed specifically for the purpose of listening to victims. The commissioner 'would move around and meet people in their own communities' and carry out this function concurrently with the Commission's other terms of reference. 

At the heart of this proposal is a conviction that the Royal Commission must be as victim-friendly as possible if it is to get at the whole truth, contribute to the healing of victims, educate the public about this entrenched issue and its origins, and generate effective recommendations.

Broken Rites is clearly concerned that the Royal Commission may not be able to adequately accommodate victims because some may not feel comfortable testifying in such a setting or will not be heard because the Commission, due to its anticipated huge work load, will have to be selective.

Faced with similar challenges, East Timor's groundbreaking truth commission opted to take a system-wide victim-friendly approach to its work.

The Comissao de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliacao (CAVR) (or Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation) functioned 2001–2005 and was set up to address the huge number of human rights violations committed 1974–1999, particularly during the Indonesian occupation, including widespread sexual violence.

Its core mandate focused on establishing the truth about these violations, facilitating community reconciliation, and reporting on its work, inquiry, findings and recommendations. 

Sensitivity to victims informed every aspect of the CAVR's design, structure, operation and reporting. Its enabling legislation required the commission 'to assist in restoring the dignity of victims' and it employed a number of strategies to achieve this.

Some were procedural, such as consulting victims about the commission's terms of reference and the selection of commissioners, bringing victims together to share their experiences with other victims, recording and preserving victim testimony, and administering an urgent reparations scheme for the most vulnerable victims.

Others were organisational, such as allocating a victim portfolio to one of CAVR's seven commissioners and establishing a victims unit charged with ensuring that the needs and rights of victims were addressed across the commission's activities. 

The centrepiece of this victim-friendly approach was listening to victims. For this to work, significant planning, resources and time were invested in preparing communities and victims, particularly women who'd suffered sexual violence, to participate and share terrifying experiences that would have led to recrimination under the previous regime. CAVR teams spent three months in each sub-district for this purpose.

Victims were invited to give statements about their experiences and to testify at local hearings. and some were invited on a representative basis to speak at national hearings. In response and in addition to their input at community reconciliations, victims provided some 8000 statements and testified freely and openly at 350 local hearings and eight national public hearings.

These hearings, particularly the national hearings held in the capital, broadcast live and attended by high-level Timorese, were expressions of solemn respect and solidarity for victims. In addition to providing evidence, the hearings assisted the healing of victims by honouring their contribution both to East Timor's liberation and, through their stories, to the building of a culture of human rights, non-violence and rule of law in the new nation.

The material gathered has been archived and disseminated in multiple languages in video, print and other formats to help East Timor's booming youth population appreciate the sacrifices made on their behalf and to benefit from the lessons learned from this deeply traumatic period.

Indonesia, home of the principal perpetrators, did not interfere with the process.

The CAVR methodology was not perfect and, in retrospect, could have been even more victim-friendly. Some of its core recommendations, including a call for a reparations program, have not yet been implemented seven years after being tabled in the East Timor parliament, a source of considerable disappointment to aging victims. 

Two principal conclusions can be drawn from the East Timor experience for Australia's Royal Commission. First, a victim-friendly process is desirable, achievable and productive. If East Timor after decades of war and devastation could do it, Australia certainly can.

However victims should not take for granted that the high level of public and political support the Royal Commission proposal currently enjoys will translate into implementing its recommendations down the track. CAVR enjoyed similar levels of support at its inception. Sadly, East Timor's experience is that victims need to organise and mobilise if they are to see their recommendations implemented. 


Pat WalshPat Walsh worked in East Timor for ten years, mostly as part of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconcilation. The UN recruited him to help establish the Commission and he served variously as its executive director and special adviser.


Topic tags: Pat Walsh, East Timor, CAVR, Royal Commission, clergy sexual abuse, Catholic Church, human rights

 

 

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Existing comments

The CAVR report is an enormously detailed and dispassionate account of people's harrowing experiences, and was subjected to strict scientific controls regarding evidence. It shows the power and integrity of the process, as described by you, Pat, who did so much towards it. I recall seeing a letter in 2005 from the Howard Government dismissing the whole report (that's the whole report), saying that it contained "errors". The letter was no doubt referring to the digraceful Australian Governments' bi-partisan disgraceful position of doing nothing to assist the Timorese during the Indonesian occupation, turning the blind eye, arguing in the UN against even having East Timor on the agenda, and generally just hoping that the Timorese would shut up and go away. Our nation has certainly not said sorry for that yet. Let's hope that we Catholics will act with more integrity in the current situation, and will demand our leaders do the same.


Sister Susan Connelly | 28 November 2012  

Maybe we could do the same in West Papua and with the Balibo 5 excellent idea and worth considering by all parties


Anthony Craig | 28 November 2012  

Susan Connelly has detailed a major problem with the CVR report, individuals expressed their most vulnerable aspect of personhood, their innermost soul was revealed to appointed authoritarians. Was there a power transference in this process? Why would the Royal Commission be any different? How can any victim trust a process that by nature is a dispassionate investigation?


Trish Martin | 28 November 2012  

Thank you Pat,for reminding all Catholics that the fight for justice is almost as painful as the initial violence and abuse.Victims are vulnerable and not armed with Vatican or common law degrees We will need to be very strong as we stand with them and not give in to 'spin' and 'smoothing over' the truth with wonderful sounding words from Bishops Conferences on Justice and Dignity of the Family.


Catherine | 29 November 2012  

I have just joined a victims group , as a secondary victim after my parish has had 2 recently convicted priests(2001 and 2009).I feel powerless to do anything on my own.Both these priests had the support of the church legally and financially. Victims were told "take it to the police"take it to court", and the victim is alone, already very vulnerable, while the church mounts an expensive defence.The church appointed QC warned one priest he would be getting a knock on the door, and he then destroyed his internet history (porn).The church moved one priest after being told by his family of 2 nephews speaking up about his abuse.These things are recent and archbishops at the conference know the truth, but still hide it. The church protects its own; clerics are church but parishioners are not a part of 'its own' church body. Clerical sexual abuse and hierarchical power abuse is to me likened to domestic violence.We are one body, one family.


Catherine | 29 November 2012  

Dear Sister Susan, thank you. Hopefully your voice and maybe many more women throughout our church will be heard..If women were given acknowledgement and RESPECT for ALL their gifts,(not just a procreative role), I believe the church would be truly JUST, and there would not be a dangerous imbalance of power and wealth at the highest levels. It is a deep human need to aspire to ideals (perfection) But we must have transparency and due process if we are to have justice. There are too many poor and abused people not only historically but in our time,for us to remain comfortable with the government and religious authorities. We feel powerless but all need to be more active and vocal in our desire for justice.


Catherine | 29 November 2012  

Victims' claims at Royal Commissions or state enquiries are far removed from hard core judicial criminal convictions; the dictum "Innocent until proven guilty" is germane, even if the whole commission exercise is victim centred cathartic. Dr Sigmund Freud was never a supreme court judge let the alone roving jury. Some red flags re Royal Commissions becoming a trial by fury, or media lynch mob[let alone burning crosses on presbytery front lawns] http://www.ourcivilisation.com/cooray/rights/chap12.htm#12.1


father john george | 17 December 2012  

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