Politics and International Relations alumna publishes book on women’s access to transitional ...

14 July 2022

Noemí Pérez Vásquez, who recently completed her PhD in Politics and International Relations at SOAS has published the book, “ Women’s Access to Transitional Justice in Timor-Leste ”.

The book delivers a panoramic assessment of access to transitional justice from a gender perspective. Dealing with conflict, justice and women, it shows how the different barriers and discriminatory layers in the laws, policies, community and family practices that affect women in their access to trials, truth commissions and reparations, hamper women’s ability to participate in these gendered justice processes.

Going beyond the focus on sexual violence and by including veterans’ pensions as part of the mechanisms of transitional justice, the book also argues that transitional justice leads to new socio-economic structures that downplay women’s recognition of their rights and produce long-term consequences in times of peace.

Inspired by the work of Hannah Arendt, with a post-colonial theoretical component and based on extensive field research in Timor-Leste, this book has larger implications for the overarching debate on the social consequences of transitional justice.

Noemi completed her PhD in Politics and International Relations in 2021 and now works as a Legal Officer at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia.

Find out more about the book.