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The Timorese government has been issued with the challenge to guarantee genuine equality between women and men. This sums the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the CEDAW Convention, the international bill of rights for women.
Ms. Pramila Patten, a member of the Committee that reviewed Timor-Leste’s first report on the rights of women in the country was in Dili in early November 2009 to present the Committee’s Concluding Observations. From all over Dili and the districts, NGO representatives, government officials and civil society members gathered to hear how Timorese women were faring in the quest to achieve their rights and equality both in the country’s laws and in day to day life. Read more...
Introducing CEDAW to Civil Servants
Like many Asian countries, Timor-Leste has a long history of patriarchy. Throughout most of the country women are still married with a bride price brokered between male relatives. From childhood, daughters and sons are taught that there are women's tasks and there are men's tasks - these distinctions laid down inside the home both create and perpetuate gender stereotypes between boys and girls, resulting in pervasive gender inequalities, and discrimination against women.. But Olga Olga is trying to change all that.
Olga has been a trainer at the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP) since 2004. INAP was developed as a training institution for civil servants and offers courses on various aspects of the government administration, leadership, problem solving and communication. However, despite progress in these areas, some government employees were still slow to progress in another area: gender equality. Read more... Laura Pina Hopes the CEDAW Shadow Report will Help Change Minds in Timor-Leste
Women work hard in Timor-Leste. Beginning when they are girls, most females spend some of their day gathering firewood, cleaning, cooking and taking care of members of the family too young or old to care for themselves. At parties the women in Timor don’t celebrate. During festivals the men and elderly tell stories, chew betel nut and eat—while the women stay backstage keeping the food in constant rotation. Before a festival a woman’s work begins at daybreak when she begins preparing vegetables and meat. Outside, under tarps, men joke and share tobacco while the women sit inside the kitchen on rocks, stoking fires for boiling cauldrons of rice, tea or coffee. By noon the tiny, windowless kitchen is a dark dungeon of smoke and flame.
In most areas of Timor this is simply women’s work. Read more...
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CEDAW in Action in Timor-Leste
