DILI, 07 october 2021 (TATOLI) – Centro Nacional Chega! I.P (CNC) and development partners are committed to supporting the most vulnerable survivors of Timor-Leste’s conflict and war.
“Today, CNC invites its development partners, who had been working with CNC to implement recommendations of the National Reparation Seminar,” Hugo Fernandes, the Executive Director of Timor-Leste’s Centro Nasional Chega! (CNC) told reporters after the meeting at the CCN’s office, in Dili, today.
Recommendations of the National Reparation Seminar included: 1) Requesting relevant entities to facilitate the reintegration of children born of wartime rape and providing appropriate birth certificates; 2) Demanding National Parliament to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; 3) Demanding national and international entities to reunited stolen children with their parents; 4) Requesting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MNEK) to establish cooperation with countries that were involved either directly or indirectly in Timor-Leste’s war to take responsibility for those victims who are still suffering; 5) Calling on relevant authorities to provide economic, medical, and humanitarian assistance to the victims of war; 6) Calling on the government to provide financial support to facilitate the children of the survivors to have access to an adequate education; 7) Urging relevant authorities to promote social justice, in order to heal the wounds of the victims; 8) Calling on relevant authorities to protect and promote Timor-Leste’s historical places; 9) Taking appropriate measures to protect survivors who experienced natural disasters; 10) Calling on relevant authorities to consider the most vulnerable survivors in the list of the construction houses program for the vulnerable people; 11) Establishing Think Thank team to design protocols for the National Reparation Program.
To realize all the recommendations above, Fernandes said CNC and its strategic development partners had planned to establish a national action plan to put all efforts together through an integrated program.
“These development partners need to integrate these recommendations into their policy in order to support the survivors. For instance, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Culture (MESSK) needs to consider the children of the survivors in its Government Enabled-Scholarship known as ‘Bolsa Hakbiit’,” said Fernandes.
At the same place, the Director of Standing in Solidarity with Victims and Survivors of War and Conflicts, Nelson Seixas Miranda provided that more than 1.500 survivors had been registered at the CNC’s Survivors’ database.
“Each ministry has its responsibility to implement the Chega’s recommendations. Therefore, it is important to consider and include these recommendations in their policy. Such as, the Ministry of State Administration (MAE) should consider survivors in its policy of building houses for the vulnerable people,” said Miranda.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges Rosario
