Dili, July 18, 2025 (Média Democracia) – FOKUPERS has called on the State of Timor-Leste to address injustice and promote truth, emphasizing this as a challenge in implementing laws that ensure everyone, especially women so they can live in freedom and harmony. This statement was made during an event held at the FOKUPERS Hall, Farol, on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Rio Araújo stated that from January to July 2025, FOKUPERS had attended to and registered 126 cases, including physical violence (PV), sexual violence (SV), sexual abuse (SA), sexual harassment (SH), incest, and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) against women and girls, occurring both in domestic relationships and public spaces.
“In the first week of July, a case of femicide occurred in Jakarta 2 of Ainaro Municipality. This area has a dark history of past violence and has once again become a site of violence against women. A 23-year-old young woman lost her life due to violence committed by an aggressor. A forensic report from the Guido Valadares National Hospital (HNGV) on July 8, 2025, confirmed the victim died while pregnant with twins,” said Rio Araújo.
He continued, citing concerns about child prostitution and human trafficking cases in Timor-Leste, particularly in Dili Municipality and Brunei. Information accessed via online media on June 4, 2025, indicated that some agencies in Timor-Leste illegally recruited 14-year-old girls to work in Slovakia, with one such case dated July 7, 2025.
“FOKUPERS obtained information from the official Facebook page of the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL), revealing suspicions that a company in Dili Municipality was recruiting young girls to work in Brunei Darussalam. This recruitment is deemed illegal as it lacks coordination with the relevant authorities in Timor-Leste,” the spokesperson added.
He further reported that on July 1, 2025, FOKUPERS accessed information through the official Facebook page of the Ministry of Interior’s Public Relations Service, which suggested that certain hotels in Dili were recruiting six underage girls for child prostitution.
“FOKUPERS considers these cases to be acts of violence against women and girls that will continue to escalate as long as the State of Timor-Leste does not properly implement laws or ensure strong oversight and monitoring of companies and agencies seeking profit by exploiting vulnerable women in Timor-Leste,” said Rio.
He emphasized that sexual harassment cases occurring within government institutions, public places, schools, and universities remain a major issue, as individuals continue to abuse their power to exploit and harass women and girls.
“Infanticide cases continue to occur in Dili and other municipalities, with negative impacts on women, families, and society. Over the past three months, we have monitored three infanticide cases reported in the media. These are tragic and heartbreaking incidents. In the past two years (2024–2025), FOKUPERS has provided support to young mothers involved in infanticide-related cases. Some have been sentenced to 4 and 2 years in prison, while others are still undergoing judicial proceedings,” the spokesperson reported.
He argued that, based on these experiences, the judicial system often reinforces gender stereotypes by placing sole criminal responsibility on women. There is a lack of thorough investigation to identify the roles of male perpetrators who impregnate and then abandon the women, sometimes even coercing them into criminal acts like infanticide.
“Everyone knows that pregnancy involves two people, a woman and a man. However, in infanticide cases, the Penal Code only considers the mother as the perpetrator even when the decision was not hers alone, but driven by varying circumstances and conditions,” argued the spokesperson.
For this reason, FOKUPERS is calling on the Parliamentary Committee F and the Government, through relevant ministries, to intervene thoroughly and strictly against organizations and groups exploiting women’s vulnerabilities for personal or financial gain.
“We urge the Judiciary to strictly implement the Law Against Domestic Violence (LADV) and other laws related to criminal acts, ensuring they are applied in accordance with existing judicial standards. Courts must regularly evaluate trends in criminal cases and the sentences applied to perpetrators,” said Rio Araújo.
He stressed the essential role of a functioning legal/judicial system in ensuring proper protection for victims and in preventing future crimes. The Ministry of Justice and the courts must guarantee fair application of the law without discrimination against women, including those involved in alcohol-related or infanticide cases.
Furthermore, FOKUPERS urged the Ombudsman for Human Rights and Justice (PDHJ) to ensure law implementation through legal monitoring, and called on the Secretary of State for Equality (SEI) to strengthen and broaden the dissemination of laws related to Gender-Based Violence (GBV), aiming to raise community awareness about the importance of respect and non-discrimination toward women across the nation.
Report by: Nelfiano
Photo by: Nelfiano