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The East Timorese Women’s Communication Forum (FOKUPERS) is an independent non-governmental organization that promotes and strengthens women's basic rights in Timor-Leste. The Indonesian occupation and devastating conflict that left most of the population displaced and 70% of the infrastructure decimated gave purpose to FOKUPERS in acting against gender inequalities, which were occurring all over the country. In 2002, Timor-Leste became an independent nation and political participation and economic empowerment were crucial as the conflict left nearly half of Timorese women widowed and sole providers for their family. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and domestic violence are critical issues for women in post-conflict Timor-Leste. Shortly after the gained independence, the Government of Timor-Leste ratified the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and in 2004 FOKUPERS was assisting the Office for the Promotion of Equality (OPE) in order to prepare the first national report to that body. FOKUPERS' core concern is ending all forms of violence against women. FOKUPERS is the longest running, independent Timorese women's NGO which remains active in Timor-Leste today.

Early Days
Human Rights and Justice Foundation (Yayasan HAK), a human rights NGO established in 1996, along with Catholic church organizations, documented thousands of human rights violations during this time of conflict. It was a particularly difficult and dangerous time for civil society and the developing student protest movement. It was in this context that an East Timorese woman, Joanna Diaz, participated in a workshop held in Soe in 1996. She returned to East Timor with an idea that had been discussed at that workshop: that women’s health was closely linked to human rights. Diaz gained support from her friends at Human Rights and Justice Foundation and an Indonesian NGO, PIKUL. This support led her to gather a group of people interested in exploring the issue further. A year later, in June 1997, this group of advocates, supported by the organizers of the Soe workshop, ran another advocacy meeting in Dili about women’s health. The workshop also dealt with complex and interconnected issues, many of which related to military violence. With East Timor being under forced Indonesian control from 1975 until 1999, many women's rights were being violated, as a result, with little to no protection from a governing institution. On 15 July 1997, as a result of that workshop in Dili, 17 people decided to form FOKUPERS.

FOKUPERS was established as a forum under guidance of Human Rights and Justice Foundation. The initial challenge of the organization was to learn more about the issues of women's health and human rights in East Timor. The primary vision of FOKUPERS was to support women who were suffering. These included victims of sexual violence, war widows, female political prisoners and wives of political prisoners. Due to the violent tension from Indonesian occupation, the women volunteering for FOKUPERS had to keep it a secret and remain private. In the early days of the organization, before becoming an official non-governmental organization, the staff had little training. They would listen to the stories of the victims and write them up. By doing so, not only was support given to the vulnerable women, it was also a way of teaching them about their rights.

In June 1997, a group of individuals organized a workshops in Dili to discuss women's health and human rights, with the assistance of Oxfam's PIKUL, five women were able to participate. The participants of that workshop discovered that women had many problems with complex and interconnected causes, many of the individuals related to military violence. The resolution from that workshop was summarized as the protection and strengthening of women's basic rights. The early support from OXFAM and Human Rights and Justice Foundation led to the beginnings of FOKUPERS as they built up their staff. Initially only one woman was employed and later four women were employed, by 1999. All the others worked voluntarily, whilst also being civil servants, NGO workers and students. As time went by, rapid staff turnover was a constant problem; as fast as FOKUPERS could train women, they found higher paid or perhaps more prestigious jobs in other organizations. The lack of staff capacity and experience in the districts, coupled with the communication problems, contributed to some of the difficulties they experienced.

Another initial challenge was to learn more about the issues of women's health and human rights. They spent the first six months studying and learning. Early work focused especially in Viqueque, where the organization's members were assisted by priests and nuns made contact with citizens from the village of Craras, which was known as the "village of widows". Craras men, as well as children and women had been killed during a brutal massacre in 1983, when the Indonesian military were trying to wipe out supporters of FRETILIN. It was essential that members of the group be disguised as church workers and conduct their meetings as prayer gatherings in chapels in order to prevent any suspicion. The early work revolved around small groups and creating a sense of community with the invitation for women all around the country to share their stories and join other women who lived and experienced similar traumatic events that were more often than not linked to violence. By 1998, the group had gained momentum, they were ready to bring all the women together and held a three day workshop with different groups, still encouraging them to share their experiences. This workshop led women to develop a plan for what they wanted to do within FOKUPERS. Economic empowerment was particularly popular amongst the participants, and the organization began to facilitate help for them in the Agriculture sector while monitoring their progress.

First Book
In 1998, FOKUPERS' first book entitled Menilam Kamerau which means "make the dry season lighter" in the English language. This book lay out women's stories while still managing to keep the contributors' identities private. During the Indonesian occupation, many human rights violations were occurring and although they were not addressed, women's health were being addressed, which led to the realization that by helping these victims, they were furthering a contribution to the struggle for independence.

Independence Movement
Throughout the period from late 1998 until August 1999, discussions of independence were ongoing, and involved Portugal, Indonesia and the United Nations. There was the possibility that East Timorese people could vote on either to become an autonomous province within Indonesia or become independent. As a result, Indonesian-backed militia violence escalated and intense intimidation against civilians became common. The militia forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes into camps they controlled. FOKUPERS supported the independence movement and made sure the people of East Timor understood the ballot process and knew how to vote for independence. The organization was an independent NGO with no formal links to the political resistance but knew that the source of many of the problems facing women they assisted was the Indonesian military occupation, which they wanted to end. The outcome of this ballot that drew a 98.5 per cent voter turnout was 78 per cent against autonomy within Indonesia, and hence for independence. This results triggered a militia and military rampage.

A call for referendum occurred and in the turmoil that followed the vote, the FOKUPERS office was destroyed. The computers were damaged and all data was lost but the staff survived and they started over again.

The Impetus of FOKUPERS
Relationships were being built with a wide range of human rights organizations, Amnesty International, and the United Nations Human Rights Council, being among them in passing information about how and what classified as human rights violations against women. This came with the help of the Indonesian non-governmental workers in Kupang, supported by Community Aid Abroad (CAA). Further in 1998, an invitation was sent to the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women to visit East Timor. Radhika Coomaraswamy came to visit and hear from the 50 survivors of violence and trauma and met the victims of violence that FOKUPERS had brought together in the sharing of their testimonies share their testimonies. This was an event that was believed to help the international community in becoming more aware about the Human Rights violations going on in East Timor. The valuable initial support from Human Rights and Justice Foundation and the Indonesian NGO Pikul continued and was still recognized as FOKUPERS staff and volunteers continued to build up their skills.

In October 1998, one member of FOKUPERS and a representative of ETWAVE, went to Jakarta to participate in a meeting. This inspired them to hold another seminar in Dili and on November 25th 1998, with other NGOs, they launched a discussion on the theme 'Perspectives of Timorese women'. ETWAVE was also further involved in organizing a silent procession with banners calling for a stop to violence against women, where both FOKUPERS and ETWAVE members gave out flowers to people passing by, as a silent message for peace. On international Human Rights day in December 1998, FOKUPERS organized an exhibition of posters and photos about violence and human rights violations against Timorese women.

Strategic Plan 2000-2002
Four strategic aims were outlined in the strategic plan of 2000-2002.The group worked towards building the knowledge, skills, and capabilities of their staff to make sure the implementation of the plan was a success. Meanwhile, they remained focussed on ensuring that women had a voice in the structures and policies being developed by the emerging nation. These four actions led FOKUPERS to be restructured into four new divisions: assistance, which included the roles of investigation; counselling and the running of the safe house in Dili; advocacy, which engaged in support for women’s campaigning and lobbying, and provided them with legal aid; and lastly administration. FOKUPERS’ main focus during that time period was to ensure that women and women’s issues were considered in the structures and policies of the emerging nation.
 * 1) Ensure that women can live free from violence and those who become victims of violence have the opportunity to rebuild their lives.
 * 2) Ensure women’s issues are recognized and women’s interests are represented in decision-making processes within the transition period.
 * 3) Strengthen women’s social, economic and cultural rights at community and national levels.
 * 4) Ensure democratic and transparent governance structure and mechanisms for FOKUPERS, as well as best-practice management procedures.

Women's Caucus
Women’s Caucus, a local NGO, has been working with the parliamentarian women’s group/Caucus parliamentarians and has provided training to these parliamentarians on gender responsive budget analysis and the CEDAW. It is supported by UNIFEM and the UNMIT Gender Unit. In 2002, the principle behind this “Women’s Caucus” was to ensure women’s political representation, with the help of donor support and the political training of 150 women. Special efforts to include women in politics were also made by the Independent Electoral Commission to ensure that women could also work as electoral workers. Similar endeavours were provided by the National Steering Committee for Civic Education, as a vehicle to achieve 40% women’s participation in its education team and to use strategies to maximize women’s access to information. 12 of the 52 member education teams were from REDE and four of them from FOKUPERS. The result of these efforts led to having 27% of the Constituent Assembly members being female. Women held several positions in the newly formed Second Transitional Government, with three as Ministers or Vice Ministers, and two as Advisors to the Chief Minister. One of them was the former Coordinator of FOKUPERS and became the advisor on Equality.

FOKUPERS joined with Human Rights and Justice Foundation to form the Constitutional Education Working Team and present a report on community consultations to the Constituent Assembly. Article 17 of the constitution states that, ‘Women and men shall have the same rights and duties in all areas of family, political, economic, social and cultural life.’ However, as the second Congress of East Timorese women held in July 2004 recognized, a great deal needed to be done for that article 17 to actually be honoured by all citizens and the government. FOKUPERS provided the Chief of the Steering Committee to plan and organize this Congress, which reviewed progress against the 2000 Platform for Action and set new goals for the forthcoming four years. Several FOKUPERS women were workshop facilitators, and according to REDE, worked hard in many aspects of the Congress.

FOKUPERS and the Actions Against Domestic Violence
In early 2002, FOKUPERS began the task of having domestic violence legislation drafted. They were the coordinators of a team that would be leading this work by having widespread debates, seminars and discussions with the community and key players in the justice system and the church, as well as with survivors themselves in Dili, Liquica and Lospalos. In particular, FOKUPERS tried to understand the experiences of the women who attempted to take cases to the court. They worked very closely with the OPE, and in October 2003 OPE and the legislative team presented the draft bill to the Ministerial Board. They had support in their lobbying of MPs from the National Movement Against Violence (MNKV) which organized a special workshop about the Bill, and coordinated a lobbying session of Members of Parliament. The Draft Bill was delayed in mid-2005 pending the finalization of the nation’s overarching Penal Code, as the Minister for Justice wanted the bill to be consistent with that Code. This caused a considerable delay in the law being enacted. Throughout the assessment period, FOKUPERS took opportunities to pursue advocacy for justice to be achieved for the victims of violence during the Indonesian rule, especially the women and children they worked with in Suai, Liquica and Maliana. At an operational level, FOKUPERS tried to work with the police and justice system to develop a set of Standard Operating Procedures for cases of violence against women and children, including a Code of Ethics for working with victims.

Babadok and the Radio
FOKUPERS also used various forms of media to disseminate its message of supporting issues of gender violence. Their own newsletter, Babadok, presented the issues women were facing and they further used radio to get similar concerns to a wider audience. From 2000-2002 the women broadcast on Radio UNTAET and Radio FALINTIL; in 2001 until 2003, they also broadcast on Radio Timor Kmanek (the Catholic Radio station). Each year they produced between 26-30 broadcasts on each of these radio stations. They produced a number of brochures on violence and human rights, and frequently worked with other organizations promoting a gender perspective, and providing information on gender violence, women’s rights and women’s health. In addition, they linked with organizations and networks in Timor-Leste and overseas, working on issues of gender violence, sexual exploitation, and women’s human rights. They were seen by the OPE as playing a key role in this educational and awareness raising project.

2003 Renewal Project
During a four-day workshop facilitated by friends from an Indonesian NGO network, and attended by all staff, board members, and work partners, 27 people in all, a new strategic plan was in the works. During the meeting for this strategic plan, a new vision and mission came about. The vision was: ‘To achieve a world where there is gender justice and equality between men and women’, and the Mission: ‘To build power through policy advocacy and assistance models. The strategic challenges identified related to developing FOKUPERS as an organization, how to create a whole government system for dealing with domestic violence, and how to design an assistance model to strengthen women who had been victims of violence. The workshop also identified the values which guided FOKUPERS. Among them: democracy, participation, justice, equality, accountability, and the ideals of human rights. A month later, a follow up three-day Program Planning Workshop was held. They were working on three areas: assistance, advocacy and institutional development, sharing with each other and rearranging some responsibilities among the divisions. This meeting really reinforced the need to shift from an approach of ‘giving’ to one of ‘empowering’ through community based organizing activities. The Divisional structure then involved three major Divisions: Assistance (including the Safe House), Advocacy and Basic Organising (through the Uma Feto), plus an Administration Section and a new section to focus on Fundraising.

Ten Years Anniversary
The year 2007 marked the 10 year anniversary of FOKUPERS, to commemorate the event, they published the “Hatutan Feto Nia Lian Ne’be’ Hanook”. This article described the broader statistics and cases of individual women's situation with violence and discrimination during the crisis of 2005-2006. In the same year they worked hard to support women’s participation in politics in the parliamentary elections. In 2008, FOKUPERS strengthened the role of the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality (SEPI) in order to draft a law against domestic violence. This led to the creation of an advocacy network that would fight for its drafting and for its inclusion as a priority on the agenda of the 4th Constitutional Government. After further strengthening the advocacy network, they requested that domestic violence be seen as a public crime. FOKUPERS also sought for the state to make an exception for victims of rape and mothers with regards to abortion and their health. The goal of the group was to have abortion laws re-evaluated and seen as a health right making these victims survivors and not criminals, as a result of the existing legislation.

Domestic Violence Law 2010
FOKUPERS was a critical advocate in the drafting and eventual passing of the domestic violence law. FOKUPERS worked very closely with the OPE and coordinated the team that developed the draft of a domestic violence law. They held widespread debates, seminars and discussions with the community and also key players in the justice system and the church. Discussions were held with the survivors in Dili, Liquica and Lospalos. It was in 2003, that OPE and the team presented the draft bill to the government’s council of ministers. They obtained support in their lobbying by AMKV (Association Mane Kontra Violensia), a men’s NGO dedicated to stopping violence. The draft bill was delayed in mid-2005 awaiting the finalization of the nation’s overarching penal code. It was eventually enacted in May 2010, after an eight-year process. The Government of Timor-Leste made public the Law Against Domestic Violence (LADV) and by doing so, this law defined domestic violence as a public crime. This criminal offence includes physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence. Consequently, the government of Timor-Leste has taken a strong position against justifying domestic violence as a ‘normal’ and ‘private’ matter, they no longer accept it. Also meaning that the public status of the crime requires the state to respond to domestic violence whether a victim files a criminal complaint or not.

Implementation of the CEDAW in Timor-Leste
This NGO report was prepared by the CEDAW Alternative Report Working Group (CARWG) and it comprised of 15 organizations, among them was FOKUPERS. The main objectives of the CEDAW NGO report were as follows:
 * 1) To present data about the impact of CEDAW implementation in Timor-Leste;
 * 2) To provide recommendations in order to improve the situation of Timorese women;
 * 3) To ensure that women in Timor-Leste are free from all forms of discrimination during the national development phase.

FOKUPERS Post 2010
An external evaluation informed the creation of FOKUPERS’ vision for 2013-15;

Timorese women will be free from gender based violence which is the root of the patriarchal system and to achieve gender equality and justice.

The Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality (SOPE) publicly declared their support in continuing the work with FOKUPERS in overcoming the struggle to achieve the full liberation of women in Timor Leste. This was coupled with support from the Public Prosecutor General for the nation to fully realize the intention of the new Law Against Domestic Violence, hence asking for a shift in the minds of the decision makers in the justice system. They called for the cessation of victim shaming for the violence that was still being perpetrated. All while continuing to meet the ever present expectations in providing support to the victims, as well as continued advocacy for positive systemic change.

In 2014, FOKUPERS was registered as a legal entity with the Ministry of Justice. They further strengthened internal organizational capacity by conducting a review of administration and finance operational standards, the organization's policies, and the support given to the staff with regards to skills development. Further discussions about programs at the community level in giving women opportunities to share their knowledge with each other as the basis for advocacy strategies.

2015 was the year that marked the recognized need for the involvement of men in the fight for gender inequalities. FOKUPERS worked hard to involve more men in the processes of healing in families. The organization got them involved in dialogues and learning about the values of gender equity and equality in the family, the community and the nation.

Changes to the Suco Election Law No. 09/2016, which ensured a determined quota for women in politics, showed significant changes for female participation in Suco leaders, going from 2% to 5%. FOKUPERS was involved actively in the I’m 100% Ready committee, contributing to a leadership training and advocacy for survivors in five municipalities. The ones included were Viqueque, Manatutu, Manufahi, Aileu and Ainaro. Further assistance to victims in submitting complaints and referring cases of GBV to police and local authorities, and the monitoring of the implementation of the Law Against Domestic Violence is being taken seriously by FOKUPERS.

List of Abbreviations
CEDAW: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

ETWAVE: East Timor Women Against Violence

FRETILIN: Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor.

PIKUL: Foundation for Strengthening Local Institutions and Capacity.