Universal Periodic Review of Timor Leste at the Human Rights Council
UK statement delivered on 3 November 2016.
The UPR takes place at the Palais des Nations, Geneva.
The United Kingdom welcomes Timor Leste’s participation in the UPR process and we thank the delegation for responding to some of our advance questions.
The United Kingdom welcomes the commendable progress Timor Leste has made in building its democratic values. It is important that Timor Leste is able to reconcile properly with its past in order to look to the future and that perpetrators of serious international crimes should not be allowed to escape justice.
We therefore call on Timor Leste to ensure that those who were indicted for international crimes under the UN-backed Special Panels of the Dili District Court face justice.
The United Kingdom believes that gender-based violence needs to be addressed as a priority and notes that the prevalence of domestic violence remains a concern. We believe that the fair and equal society Timor Leste is striving to build should include gender equality as a focus, seeking better representation of women and an end to a culture of impunity for violence against women.
We encourage Timor Leste to fully align its national legislation with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in particular incorporating provisions to cooperate promptly and fully with the International Criminal Court, and accede to Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the court (APIC).
We have two recommendations:
To finalise the National Action Plan on Gender Based Violence and allocate sufficient resources to it to ensure its implementation,
To prioritise the approval of the draft law on reparations.