As a student, he actively participated in the resistance movement against the occupation of his home country and was a member of various groups, such as the Liga dos Estudantes Patriotas (LEP).

[2] In 1995, Babo Soares completed a master's degree in philosophy with a focus on development studies at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

[2] From 2005 to 2008, Babo Soares, together with Benjamin Mangkoedilaga [id] of Indonesia, co-chaired the Indonesia–Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF), which was tasked with working on behalf of the Presidents of both countries in dealing with human rights violations during the 1999 East Timorese crisis.

[7] Pro-Indonesia militia and Indonesian security personnel had inflicted a wave of violence upon the occupied East Timor after the population had voted for independence in a referendum.

The CTF's final report found that Indonesia's government, military and police were “to blame for the serious violations of human rights” in the 1999 crisis.

[13] From the parliamentary elections of 2007 until 2017, the CNRT was part of the government, initially with Gusmão as Prime Minister, and from 2015 under Rui Maria de Araújo of Fretilin.

[25] At the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in 2018, Babo Soares was scheduled to give a speech, but fell ill.

[26] Following the breakdown of the AMP coalition in the first few months of 2020, the CNRT decided on 30 April 2020 that its members serving in the VIII Constitutional Government would resign their positions.