During the Covid-19 pandemic, women and children in Timor-Leste have experienced sharply increased insecurity, especially related to socio-economic conditions, educational development, healthcare and various forms of violence. While Timor-Leste’s women and children are key to our national development, they have suffered from insecurity, violence and discrimination in various forms for a long time in our ‘democratic’ society. During the Covid-19 pandemic, their development has been weakened even further, while numerous fundamental rights have been severely curtailed. In this article, Fundasaun Mahein (FM) explores some of these impacts from the human security perspective, which considers women and children’s food security, educational conditions, access to sustainable markets and protection from all forms of violence. This article discusses three main issues: impacts to education; risks to health, economy and child services; and experiences of violence and psychological pressure.
FM notes that Timor-Leste’s development depends heavily on the generation which has grown up and been born during independence, especially with regards to women and children’s education and participation in social and economic life, as well as the development of the security sector and the state-building and peace-building process. In reality, the majority of Timor-Leste’s population consists of women and children, and FM therefore considers that it is essential for these groups to actively participate in all aspects of national development. This will contribute to inclusive development and respect for the human dignity of all our people, which is necessary to ensure human security for all.
Human security is directly connected with socio-economic development which is inclusive and sustainable, while meeting people’s needs and respecting human rights principles. In this way, development can continue to promote peace and harmony in society. Unfortunately, women and children’s health, educational and socio-economic security continue to be threatened in our democratic state.
In less developed countries, women and children continue to face disproportionate risks during both wars and global pandemics. From the perspective of human security, women and children in Timor-Leste have faced major hardships during the Covid-19 pandemic. The policies of the Timor-Leste Government which aimed to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 have inadvertently created many negative impacts for people’s human security, particularly for vulnerable groups.
Impacts to education
During Covid-19, the life of students became much more difficult, especially in the city of Dili. FM notes that the Government’s action plan to guarantee the fundamental right of children and youth to education suffers from many inadequacies and gaps, and in reality they face insecure access to education, with inadequate and discriminatory conditions.
FM observes that Covid-19 protocols and the application of the State of Emergency and ‘mandatory confinement’ effectively ended students’ educational activities, creating many negative effects for our young generation. In addition, the Government failed to provide secure learning conditions, as expressed by students who participated in this research:
“The State of Emergency created a difficult situation for us students. We feel that we did not learn anything as we were just at home all the time, so our heads feel more and more empty as there are no conditions for us to learn”.
The only way for young students to access information to increase their intellectual knowledge is through online media. However, Timor-Leste suffers from poor communications technology, and the poor quality of internet has been a major barrier for all Timorese people, especially for students who need to learn.
The Government via the Ministry of Education launched a TV program titled “School for Home”. However, many students who live in poor economic conditions either do not have a television at home or were simply staying at home passively, not directly accessing any information. The online learning system also continues to pose major challenge for students as many parents do not own smartphones or computers, and there is often no space for young people to study at home with many people living together in small houses. Teachers are thus faced with an extremely difficult situation to create innovative teaching and learning systems.
A further problem is the limited technological understanding of many poor families, the consequence of which is that children do not regularly access information about how to access materials and documents via online media such as Zoom, email or WhatsApp. Most public secondary school students in Dili do not know how register for email or even know about Zoom. Indeed, FM confirmed through this research that both students and teachers lack familiarity with using email for communication.
Then, when the Government declared an end to mandatory confinement and schools reopened, many families were afraid to send their children back to school because the Government implemented a mandatory vaccine program for students aged 12-17. Many perceived this program to be discriminatory and coercive, as parents and students were threatened that they would not be allowed to attend national or tertiary exams unless they agreed to be vaccinated. In this situation, the students would be required to produce their vaccine card. The consequence of this policy is that many young students have lost their right to education if they choose not to be vaccinated. We see therefore that the Government’s policies related to Covid-19 and vaccination have been characterised by uncertainty, fear and coercion, while violating human rights and informed consent principles, which are fundamental to law and rights in Timor-Leste, as well as international medical ethics.
Risks to health, economy and child services
When FM consulted with vulnerable women’s groups, they shared their experiences of deep suffering due to limitations to accessing nutritious food. Many mothers and daughters survive on $2 a day, living at the poverty line. Indeed, the reality of poverty in Timorese society is not something new, and the cycles of poverty continue to revolve in our communities. Although Timor-Leste has high agricultural potential, the reality of most people’s lives is that they lack healthy and nutritious food. This has created the situation of Timor-Leste suffering from the highest malnutrition rates in Southeast Asia, which has become even worse since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis in March 2020.
Furthermore, as mentioned above, the Government policies and Covid-19 prevention methods have frequently been unclear, fear-based, brutal and not informative. In particular, when the Government forced small vendors and public transport to stop their activities, this caused poverty and malnutrition to quickly increase due to the sudden loss of income suffered by many families. Children were then forced to work more as parents’ income was less and schools were all closed, so families sent their children to sell items in the street each day.
In addition, the protocols applied in hospitals – particularly forcing people to take swab tests their sending them to isolation centres – made many people afraid to consult with doctors. When children had fever or diarrhoea, their parents often felt afraid and traumatised when seeking assistance in hospitals or clinics. Furthermore, some health facilities have demanded people to present their vaccine card to receive treatment, thereby discriminating against people’s fundamental right to access healthcare. The health consequence is that more children are suffering from severe conditions such as malnutrition and dengue, which have received very limited attention from the Government.
Experiences of violence and psychological pressure
Another issue is that psychological stress and pressure have dramatically increased during Covid-19, which has contributed to many problems in the home. In shelters located in Dili, women who are victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence are suffering due to not being allowed to see their families our counsellors due to Covid-19 restrictions, without alternative safe spaces being made available to respond to urgent cases. Meanwhile, many abuse and violence cases are pending in court due to delays caused by Serka Sanitária and mandatory confinement restrictions. Some female staff in shelters also have not received salaries because of delays in budget transfers due to delays caused by Covid-19 restrictions and government bureaucracy.
Data from monitoring by legal organisation ALFeLa shows that during the State of Emergency, mandatory confinement and Serka Sanitária, many women and girls suffered from domestic violence, including spousal physical aggression spouse or minor abuse, documenting almost two hundred (200) cases. Domestic workloads have also increased during the pandemic, and many women have experienced intense psychological pressure and stress due to limitations on their freedom. Around 53% of women have faced increased difficulty in their lives, particularly domestic work which has increased due to being at home every day (Corbafo, 2020). The number of reported cases of violence against children, especially girls, has increased sharply from 80 during 2020 to 143 in 2021 (UNDP, 2021). Cases of sexual assault and harassment against women and girls have also increased but are mostly unreported as victims are afraid and do not feel safe.
Conclusion
It’s clear that in March 2020, the Timor-Leste Government adopted Covid-19 prevention measures based on limited information and advice from various international organisations and donors. However, based on the last two years’ experience, reality shows that the Covid-19 measures have created many negative impacts for human security in our country, which have particularly affected vulnerable women and children. Increased harms related to poverty, malnutrition, various diseases, education, domestic violence, psychological stress and domestic labour have resulted from these measures. Furthermore, discrimination against citizens based on vaccination status has already begun and may increase in the future. Therefore, the Government has a responsibility to carefully analyse the impacts from its Covid-19 policies, to minimise negative impacts in the future, end discrimination and ensure that people who have been harmed can access compensation and assistance according to their needs.
