Noemi Pérez Vásquez (United Nations) discusses her new book, Women's Access to Transitional Justice in Timor-Leste: The Blind Letters (Hart Publishing, 2022). The book is a poignant and powerful account of how women experience law, policy, and community during post-conflict situations. It invites readers to reconsider our perceptions of justice, the welfare structures embedded into the efforts to transform societies, and the ways in which institutional mechanisms that are purportedly about inclusion end up deepening the invisibility of certain segments of the population. Inspire by the work of Hannah Arendt, this book dares us to speak of the social consequences of our quests for justice.
Moderated by Australian Human Rights Institute Associate and UNSW Law & Justice Professor Lucas Lixinski.
Noemi Pérez Vásquez is a Venezuelan national, whose work falls within the intersections between law and politics. She has worked mainly with the United Nations on issues of the justice sector, human rights, women and children, including for the OHCHR, UNDP, UNMISS, UNICEF as well as for The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI). She was a Visiting Researcher at the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e, in Dili, Timor-Leste from 2016 to 2017, where she carried out her fieldwork research. She has lived in several countries and is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.