Publication: Attitudes Towards the Legal Context of Unsafe Abortion in Timor-Leste
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2009
ISSN
0968-8080
Published
2009
Editor(s)
Abstract
The new Penal Code in 2009 was an opportunity for Timor-Leste to allow some legal grounds for abortion, which was highly restricted under Indonesian rule. Public debate was contentious before ratification of the new code, which allowed abortion to Save G women's life and health. A month later, 13 amendments to the code were passed, highly restricting abortion again. This paper describes the socio-legal context of unsafe abortion in Timor-Leste, based on research in 2006-08 on national lows and policies Grid interviews with legal professionals, police, doctors and midwives, and community-based focus group discussions. Data on unsafe abortions in Timor-Leste ore rarely recorded. A small number Of Cases of abortion and infanticide ore reported but are rarely prosecuted, due to deficiencies in evidence and procedure. While there are voices supporting low reform, the Roman Catholic church heavily influences public policy and opinion. Professional views on when abortion should be legal varied, but in the community people believed that saving women's lives was paramount and come before the law. The revised Penal Code is insufficient to reduce unsafe abortion and maternal mortality. Change will be slow, but access to safe abortion and modern contraception ore crucial to women's ability to participate fully as citizens in Timor-Leste. (C) 2009 Reproductive Health Matters. All rights reserved.
Link to Data Set
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Citations
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Starting from Scratch in Timor-Leste : Establishing a Pharmaceutical and Medical Supplies System in a Post-Conflict Context(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-06)This case study analyses the challenges of establishing a pharmaceutical and medical supplies system in a Timor-Leste post-conflict context. In the aftermath of its separation from Indonesia, the Timor-Leste health infrastructure was in total disarray, with more than a third of health facilities destroyed, and those remaining severely damaged. The crisis in human resources was severe, as more than 80 percent of qualified public-sector staff had returned to Indonesia. The resultant heavy dependence on expatriates was complicated by language incompatibility, and nationals were not well integrated into planning and implementation processes, as an entire public sector infrastructure was being established de nouveau. Despite the fledgling status of the public sector, a sophisticated organizational framework was envisioned for the establishment of the health sector supply system: an autonomous agency that would be a non-profit wholesaler or revolving drug fund and a public sector monopoly. The case study reviews the development of the policy and legal framework for the pharmaceutical sector, and the key phases of the commodity supply system, including: product selection through an essential drugs list; procurement hampered by use of procedures that were not appropriate for purchasing drugs for an entire country; the establishment of a centralized warehousing and distribution system; projected financing of the supply system through development of a business plan for the autonomous agency. In its exploration of the transition from post-conflict situation to health system development, the case study identifies lessons that are broadly applicable to foreign aid and external assistance in other contexts, including the tendency to 'poly-prescribe' overly ambitious and overly sophisticated solutions not pragmatically grounded in the current realities of public sector institutional and human resource constraints and capabilities.Publication Timor-Leste Adaptive Social Protection Assessment(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-12-05)This report seeks to support the GoTL in its efforts to build an Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) system. It aims at enhancing knowledge and understanding of ASP and assessing the country’s current capacity to provide agile responses to shocks and building resilience. The ASP assessment follows the framework by Bowen et al. (2020) which outlined four building blocks essential for effective ASP: i) Institutional arrangements and partnerships; ii) Program design and delivery systems; iii) Data and information systems; and iv) Finance. A ‘traffic light’ scorecard is used to summarize the status of each building block and identify specific recommendations to strengthen that specific area. The assessment categorizes the overall Social Protection system, each building block, and each dimension, as ‘nascent,’ ‘emerging,’ or ‘established.’ This is intended to help practitioners identify the aspects of the country’s system that are performing well, and more importantly, identify areas to be prioritized.Publication Timor-Leste Workforce Development : SABER Country Report 2013(Washington, DC, 2013)Timor-Leste, a young country with a young population, has enjoyed rapid growth driven by a booming oil sector. However, the country still faces significant challenges such as a high poverty rate, a lack of infrastructure, high levels of unemployment among the youth and critical human resource constraints. The skills shortage has been felt throughout the economy, starting with the oil and gas sector where a large proportion of workers are foreign. Developing a skilled workforce is a necessary step to stimulate the incipient private sector and attract foreign investment.Publication Timor-Leste Water Sector Assessment and Roadmap(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-01)Despite significant progress since gaining independence in 2002, Timor-Leste’s economy is still struggling with declining oil revenues and slowing economic growth, while access to improved basic services is still low and vulnerability to natural disasters remain high. In that context, strategic investments in the water sector and addressing water management is crucial to meet national and international development commitments and to stimulate economic growth. Potential for the development of the water resources exists in Timor-Leste, although it is constrained by limited data as well as by the institutional capacity to implement integrated water resources management (IWRM) solutions. Irrigation scheme rehabilitation has been driven by a target of self-sufficiency in food production but recent studies point to alternatives and more economically viable models for achieving this policy target. For water supply and sanitation, Timor-Leste met its millennium development goal (MDG) water and sanitation targets for urban areas, but missed its MDG target for rural areas. Progress has been made, although the sustainability of services remains a challenge. Investing in the water sector will have broad and significant benefits to the economy, community, and the environment in Timor-Leste.Publication Timor-Leste Economic Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-30)Preliminary estimates from INETL, the Timor-Leste National Statistics Office, suggest that the economy grew by 2.3 percent in 2023, following growth of 2.9 percent in 2021 and 4.0 percent in 2022. The subdued economic growth in 2023 reflects the fiscal drag and low budget execution rates resulting from the Parliamentary Election and subsequent change in government. Private consumption increased by 3.2 percent, potentially fueled by substantial remittance inflows. The reliance on public sector-driven economic activity over the past decades has exerted a substantial influence on Timor-Leste's labor market dynamics. In particular, the decline in non-oil per capita GDP since the political impasse in 2017 has been reflected in a decrease in labor productivity. Accordingly, wage levels have significantly decreased, with those possessing higher levels of education experiencing a steeper decline. Persistent slow budget execution continues to hinder economic performance. By May 2024, approximately 25 percent of the total Central Government budget and 6 percent of the Capital and Development budget had been expended. These figures align with historical average execution rates of 25 percent and below 11 percent for the respective categories between 2015 and 2024. Substantially higher execution rates are necessary, though not necessarily sufficient, to achieve the desired higher levels of economic growth. The strengthening of the US dollar has contributed to an easing of price pressures, yet food inflation remains persistently elevated. In the first quarter of 2024, the Nominal Effective Exchange Rates appreciated by 1.0 percentage points due to the global strength of the US dollar. This partly helped ease inflation in tradable goods, which decreased to 4.7 percent in the first four months of this year from an average of 11.9 percent year-on-year during the same period last year. Nevertheless, despite stable or slightly increasing prices in most consumption categories, rice prices have risen substantially, driven by reduced international supply and slower domestic harvests due to unpredictable rainfall. The balance of the Petroleum Fund (PF) remained relatively stable. As of the end of March 2024, the PF's capital was valued at USD 18.45 billion, representing 11 times of the 2023 GDP, and reflecting a modest increase of 3.4 percent from USD 17.83 billion at the same time last year. This growth was driven by higher than-expected oil and gas prices in 2023, the payment of petroleum revenues from FY 2022 transferred to the Fund in FY 2023, and reduced withdrawals due to low budget execution amid the political transition.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.