Progressio and East Timor

Progressio (formerly as CIIR) has been involved in advocacy for human rights and self-determination in East Timor from the beginning of the 1975 Indonesian occupation.

We were one of only two British organisations (the other being Tapol, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign) which raised awareness of the illegality of the occupation and the severe impact on the East Timorese people. We called for international condemnation, the withdrawal of the Indonesian army and for the people to be consulted on their own future. 

Responding to the promptings of the Catholic Church inside East Timor, we published regular articles, organised conferences and seminars, and lobbied at UK government, EU and UN level. We also convened and facilitated an international ecumenical network of Christian organisations and churches (Christian Consultation on East Timor) which met annually to share information and plan joint advocacy.

We produced several influential publications on East Timor, including 'Timor Link', a newsletter for activists, researchers and decision-makers published quarterly from 1985 to 2003.

We spoke at the annual hearing of the UN Decolonisation Committee in New York, and facilitated Timorese partners to speak annually at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva from 1996 onwards. We worked closely on campaigning throughout the 1990s with UK groups active on East Timor through the British Coalition for East Timor, and were involved in many actions and demonstrations, memorial services and delegations to meet both MPs and Foreign Office ministers and officials.

In 1999 we sent two successive observer missions to monitor the 'Popular Consultation' and conducted intensive media and press work in the UK as the situation unravelled post referendum. Our work is documented in the 2000 report 'From Bullet to Ballot'. In 2001 we monitored the first independent elections in East Timor, sending in a women's observer delegation to monitor women's participation in the elections for the constituent assembly. We later published some of the testimonies we collected in the book 'Independent Women - the story of women's activism in East Timor' by Catherine Scott and Irena Cristalis.

In 2000, Progressio set up a  development programme in East Timor. From our office in Dili, we work in partnership with local organisations, placing Progressio development workers to support their organisational development and advocacy needs. Our East Timor: Who Cares? campaign draws on this long-standing commitment to bring truth and justice to East Timor's long-suffering people.