José Ramos-Horta

Honorary Degree

Spring 2008 Convocation

Dr. José Ramos-Horta is President of East Timor. In 1996, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with fellow countryman Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo for "sustained efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict of East Timor based on the people's right to self determination”.

Despite being exiled from his homeland for many years, in 1991 Ramos-Horta was elected as Vice President of the National Council Maubere Resistance (CNRM), the umbrella organization of pro-independence movements both in and outside East Timor. In 1998, he was again elected Vice President for CNRM's successor organization - CNRT.

Ramos-Horta has served as Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Information, Minister for External Relations and Information, and as representative of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) at the United Nations.

As Media Adviser to the government of Mozambique based in Washington, he helped prepare high level visits by Mozambican leaders to the U.S. and established Mozambique’s first lobby in Washington.

Over the years, Ramos-Horta has actively participated in numerous international conferences dealing with self-determination and de-colonization, human rights, law of the sea, world criminal court and small arms and disarmament.

Ramos-Horta is a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and a distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. He is acting president of the East Timor Cultural Centre in Dili; a member of the Council of Honour at the University of Peace in Costa Rica; and co-president of the State of the World Forum based in San Francisco.

Ramos-Horta has been honoured with several major international awards including the Gold Medal from the President of Italy, the First Hague Peace Appeal Award and the Gran Cross of the Order of Freedom from President of Portugal.

Ramos-Horta holds an Executive Program for Leaders in Development Diploma from Harvard; a Master of Arts in Peace Studies from Antioch University in the U.S. and is a Senior Fellow in International Relations at St. Antony's College in Oxford. He also holds a number of honorary degrees and has written numerous books and articles about East Timor and international law.

His Excellency, President José Ramos-Horta of The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is recognized around the world as a tireless champion for peace. His work in resolving the conflict in his homeland is a model for building peace and democracy in a world too often crippled by violence and repression.

José Ramos-Horta began his political life in the 1960s by advocating for an independent Timor while the country was still under Portuguese control. Exiled to Mozambique for his political activities in 1970, he returned in 1972 and became the foreign minister for the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor when that party gained control of the country in 1975. When Indonesia invaded East Timor later that year, José Ramos-Horta was forced back into exile.

José Ramos-Horta was the voice of independence in exile for East Timor for 24 years. He worked tirelessly to draw the world’s attention to Indonesia’s annexation of East Timor and its human rights violations, which included the deaths of an estimated 200,000 people – four of President Horta’s siblings among them.

While he conducted shuttle diplomacy in the corridors of the United Nations, José Ramos-Horta also worked with all Timorese Resistance Groups to ensure a cohesive, unified view of independence and action. Independence was finally achieved in 2002 after a period of bloody oppression that displaced two-thirds of the country’s population and destroyed much of its infrastructure. José Ramos-Horta was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation at that time. He became Prime Minister in 2006 and in May 2007 was elected president of what had become The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

President Horta’s international awards include the Gran Cross of the Order of Freedom from the President of Portugal in 1998, the First Hague Peace Appeal Award in 1999 and the Gold Medal from the President of Italy in 2000.

In 1996 José Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their combined efforts to achieve a peaceful solution to decades of conflict in East Timor. The Nobel Committee stated that the Peace Prize winners had “laboured tirelessly, and with great personal sacrifice, for their oppressed people. Under extremely difficult conditions, they have preserved their humanity and faith in the future.”

In recognition of his tireless defense of human rights, his perseverance to the service of peace, and his personal contribution to upholding the principles of freedom and democracy, Royal Roads University is pleased to name His Excellency, President José Ramos Horta for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.