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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports. Scroll to: ------------------------------------------------------ Joint mission of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women (4-10/11/1999). A/54/660 Issues raised: Violence: The Special Rapporteur was deeply distressed to hear the testimony of an 11-year-old boy who had witnessed his father being hacked to death by militiamen with machetes. An unknown number of children were among the victims of the atrocities committed in East Timor and many more have been left deeply traumatized from having witnessed acts of unspeakable cruelty. These children now urgently need care and counselling to come to terms with their sorrow and distress. (Paragraph 32). On 25 November, the Indonesian Commission of Inquiry announced that it had found three graves containing the bodies of 26 persons believed to have been killed in the massacre in Suai. The graves were discovered on Oeluli beach, in the district of Kobalima in West Timor, some 3 kilometres from the border with East Timor and about 20 kilometres from the town of Suai. Three of the bodies were identified as the three priests killed in Suai. Among the bodies were reportedly the remains of at least three children. A. is a 15-year-old girl from the Liquica district. On 18 September, a local militia leader, Alphonso Lauhata, came to take her and a friend to a rally of the Golkar political party. When they refused to go, the man threatened to kill her parents and burn their house down. The two girls therefore went to the rally. After that they were forced to go to a Golkar party. They stayed at the party until 3 a.m. and then were taken away. Three men followed them on motorcycles, all members of the local militia. Their names were Miguel, Pedro and Momo. A. A/54/660 and her friend were taken by Alphonso to the house of an aunt and left there. The three men broke into the house and asked for the girls. The members of the family fled. A. ran out of the house and hid near the regional parliament building, but the militiamen found her. She was first raped by Momo. As she was screaming, he took her sarong and stuffed it into her mouth. After Momo, Miguel took his turn and held a knife to her head. When they finished they threatened to kill her and her parents if she told anyone. After that they left. Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of IDPs, Mr. Walter Kalin Visit undertaken from 7 – 12 December 2008 No report issued, just a press release. No mentions of children's rights. United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances Visit undertaken from 7 - 14 February 2011 No report publsihed, just a press release - see below. Issues raised: Disappearances: Timor-Leste suffered from grave and large scale human rights violations between 1974 and 1999. The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) estimated that at least 102,800 civilians died during this period. Others however have assessed that possibly as many as 200,000 died. It is estimated that about 18,600 persons were killed or disappeared, the rest having died as a result of conflict-related illness or hunger. The number of missing is estimated by some to be in the tens of thousands. The CAVR process of collecting statements accepted that about 850 counts of enforced disappearances had been reported to them. Some have however estimated that possibly as many as 4,000 children were taken to Indonesia. The ICRC has a register of about 400 cases of children who disappeared. These cases could also qualify as enforced disappearances.
Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity.
Report submitted on 10 December 1999
It is a very positive development that the Provedor’s Office (Ombudsman) has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to cooperate on the CTF’s recommendation on establishing a disappearance commission. While the MOU focuses only on the 1999 period hopefully over time this will be extended to include the full period of Indonesian presence on the territory of Timor-Leste. The process will initially focus on children who disappeared during this period and now possibly reside in Indonesia. However all the missing and disappeared ought to be incorporated into the process. The capacity, independence and resources of the Provedor’s Office should be enhanced in accordance with the Paris Principles so that it continues to improve and is able to contribute effectively to the bilateral cooperation to resolve cases of the disappeared.
Read the full press release: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=10729&LangID=E
pdf: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=29802&flag=report