ABSTRACT The equality of women and men is a prerequisite for peace. Social development interventions over recent decades have sought to achieve equality primarily by educating and liberating women from the shackles of customs and paradigms that serve to maintain gender inequality. It is increasingly recognized that due attention must be given to men’s essential role in the process, to men’s education and liberation. In East Timor the latter process has begun, albeit on a small scale. This study looks at ways to further advance this process. Three and a half years in East Timor provided the opportunity to engage in applied research using the methodology of ethnography. I gathered data using three main techniques: semi-structured interviews with more gender-equitable men, and with women and men occupied with the engagement of East Timorese men in gender equality; observation and direct participation within a wide range of settings from informal encounters on local beaches to high-level meetings with the president and government ministers; and analysis of pertinent primary and secondary documents. I identified that a number of interventions are being applied to the issue of engaging East Timorese men in gender equality, including use of: workshops and trainings; the performing arts; campaigns and the mass media; role-modeling; and the techniques of popular education, with varying levels of success. I found that the Association of Men Against Violence and its members are key players in the advancement of this process, and that they work closely with feminist organizations within East Timor. While I drew on much secular theory and practice in the course of this study, my personal beliefs and practices are guided by the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith. The Bahá’í teachings include much that is relevant to this study and thus I have drawn on and presented Bahá’í perspectives and approaches to such things as equality and men’s role in its establishment; social and economic development; and the culture of contest, and have 3 drawn on Bahá’í principles in the discussion of results; and subsequently in drawing my conclusions. By exploring the implications of interventions implemented in other parts of the world, and of theory pertaining to social development; masculinities; and a culture of contest, I identified that interventions in East Timor to engage men in gender equality would be strengthened by giving due consideration to the following: developing participants’ ability to communicate; providing opportunity for and developing the capacity of participants to critically reflect on their environment; addressing participants as whole human beings and members of one human race; and actively engaging participants in the development and ownership of knowledge. I concluded that three areas requiring immediate attention include the development of evaluation tools and processes, and the systematic documentation and sharing of learning, as well as research into masculinities in an East Timorese context.

Men's roles in building gender equality are currently on the public agenda. Across the globe, there are growing efforts to engage men and boys in building more equitable relations with women and girls. Programs that engage with men have proliferated in fields such as violence prevention, sexual and reproductive health, parenting, education, and work. The last decade has seen the emergence of national and global campaigns, initiatives by international agencies, and scholarly research. Engaging ...

Gender and Transitional Justice provides the first comprehensive feminist analysis of the role of international law in formal transitional justice mechanisms. Using East Timor as a case study, it offers reflections on transitional justice administered by a UN transitional administration. Often presented as a UN success story, the author demonstrates that, in spite of women and children’s rights programmes of the UN and other donors, justice for women has deteriorated in post-conflict Timor, and violence has remained a constant in their lives. This book provides a gendered analysis of transitional justice as a discipline. It is also one of the first studies to offer a comprehensive case study of how women engaged in the whole range of transitional mechanisms in a post-conflict state, i.e. domestic trials, internationalised trials and truth commissions. The book reveals the political dynamics in a post-conflict setting around gender and questions of justice, and reframes of the meanings of success and failure of international interventions in the light of them.

Despite Timor-Leste’s high expectations when it became independent from Indonesia in 2002, the country is ranked among the least developed countries in the world. This book draws together the perspectives of practitioners, policy-makers and academics on the international efforts to rebuild the world’s newest nation.

This book demonstrates the integral nature of gendered issues and feminist frameworks for a comprehensive understanding of contemporary IR bringing together the work of feminist scholars, teachers and activists into a coherent and accessible collection.

This book examines the gender dimensions of a wide array of national and international security challenges. The volume examines gender dynamics in ten issue areas in both the traditional and human security sub-fields: armed conflict, post-conflict, terrorism, military organizations, movement of people, development, environment, humanitarian emergencies, human rights, governance. The contributions show how gender affects security and how security problems affect gender issues. Each chapter also examines a common set of key factors across the issue areas: obstacles to progress, drivers of progress and long-term strategies for progress in the 21st century. The volume develops key scholarship on the gender dimensions of security challenges and thereby provides a foundation for improved strategies and policy directions going forward. The lesson to be drawn from this study is clear: if scholars, policymakers and citizens care about these issues, then they need to think about both security and gender. This will be of much interest to students of gender studies, security studies, human security and International Relations in general.

This book presents a wide-ranging overview of the position of women in Timor-Leste, 15 years after the country secured its independence. It considers the role of women in Timor-Leste’s history, explores their role in the present day economy and politics, and discusses their contribution to culture and society. The contested meaning of gender itself is investigated in the contemporary culture of this new society. It applies a wide range of different feminist theories and approaches, and concludes with a discussion of what new directions gender studies in Timor-Leste might take.

Comparative constitutional change has recently emerged as a distinct field in the study of constitutional law. It is the study of the way constitutions change through formal and informal mechanisms, including amendment, replacement, total and partial revision, adaptation, interpretation, disuse and revolution. The shift of focus from constitution-making to constitutional change makes sense, since amendment power is the means used to refurbish constitutions in established democracies, enhance their adaptation capacity and boost their efficacy. Adversely, constitutional change is also the basic apparatus used to orchestrate constitutional backslide as the erosion of liberal democracies and democratic regression is increasingly affected through legal channels of constitutional change. Routledge Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Change provides a comprehensive reference tool for all those working in the field and a thorough landscape of all theoretical and practical aspects of the topic. Coherence from this aspect does not suggest a common view, as the chapters address different topics, but reinforces the establishment of comparative constitutional change as a distinct field. The book brings together the most respected scholars working in the field, and presents a genuine contribution to comparative constitutional studies, comparative public law, political science and constitutional history.

Issues of defence politics and policy have long been at the forefront of political agendas and defining of international affairs. However, the dramatic changes to the global system that have taken place since the end of the Cold War and parrticularly since the terror attacks on the USA on 11 September 2001 have amplified the world's attention toward political and policy issues of national, regional and global security. The focus of this volume is on examining the fundamental causes of, and defence policy responses to this new 'post-9/11' security environment. Edited by Isaiah (Ike) Wilson III and James J. F. Forest of the US Military Academy, West Point, USA, this volume is international in scope, with pieces written by experts in the field, offering a collection of up-to-date and balanced insights on key contemporary issues of concern to defence policymakers. The book will be an invaluable reference tool for academics and students, researchers in international relations, policymakers, media professionals and government officials.