Strengthening the Justice System in Timor-Leste
Justice System Programme, UNDP Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste is doing what few newly-independent countries have
had to do in recent times: rebuilding the country’s justice sector
from the ground up. Firm government commitment backed byeleven years of sustained United Nations Development Programme (undp)
support has delivered visible results.
After centuries of colonial rule under Portugal and a 24-year occupation by Indonesia, Timor-Leste gained independence in 2002. Independencecame in the wake of widespread destruction of infrastructure, violence anddisplacement of the majority of the population, following a referendum votein 1999. In post-referendum violence, 60-80 per cent of the country’s infrastructure—including justice sector infrastructure—was destroyed. At thisstage there was not a single judge in the territory; and only around seventy
mostly young Timorese with some legal training.
It is against this background that undp, in 1999, provided initial first
support to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Timorese justicesystem.
The current undp Justice System Program (jsp), which will run until
2012, focuses on upholding the rule of law and improving access to justiceas preconditions to ensure sustainable peace and development.
Supporting Timor’s Legal Training Center
The Program supports Timor-Leste’s sole professional training institution
for the legal sector, the Legal Training Center (ltc). The ltc provides quality post-graduate courses for Timorese judges, prosecutors and public defenders and private lawyers; and professional development programs forlegal drafters, justice clerks, notaries and translators.
The ltc’s comprehensive training plan focuses on a capacity-building strategy that strengthens the technical legal skills of justice sector actors. Those who graduate from the two-and-a-half-year training program
are qualified to be appointed as district court judges, public defenders in107

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the Public Defender’s Office (pdo) and prosecutors in the Office of theProsecutor General (opg).
Since 2007, fifty-one Timorese magistrates, prosecutors and public defenders have graduated from the ltc, thereby qualifying them to work forthe state in their respective areas.
In order to ensure that ongoing professional education is available forjudges, public defenders and prosecutors, follow-up training is also offered
to ltc alumni.
Human rights and gender-related issues are part of all ltc training
programs; and specific training sessions on human rights treaty obligations
and conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Formsof Discrimination against Women (cedaw), the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights
and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have also been held.
However, an analysis of previous ltc capacity development training
programs revealed a higher drop-out rate of women trainees comparedto their male colleagues. The underlying cause was that women, especiallysingle parents, struggle to provide for the needs of their families; and whenfeeling pressure at home, opted to withdraw from study rather than try andjuggle both study and family responsibilities.
In order to combat this trend, the jsp, the undp gender advisor and theltc has developed a gender strategy for 2011.
The three aims of this gender strategy are to support current ltc female
students to continue with their studies; to present the law as an attractive
career option for female secondary school graduates and encourage young
Timorese women to consider a career in the law; and once women have
graduated from law to encourage them to continue post-graduate legal studies at the ltc.
Most female ltc students are juggling their studies with transport difficulties, family commitments and work responsibilities. For example, during
a focus group discussion with female law graduates who are doing the threemonth ltc preparatory program, one student said: “My family support me[to study]. However, there is no one at home to look after the children when
I am not there.”
Other students also said they juggled study, family responsibilities
and, in some cases, work from their offices, putting extra pressure on theirstudies.

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The campaign will include financial support for existing female ltc students through a grant program and employing a student liaison officer. For
secondary school students, there will be an essay competition. A short filmand a brochure presenting the law as an attractive career option for young
Timorese women will be developed and distributed nationally.
Training for Private Lawyers
In 2011, ltc offers its second professional accreditation course for private
lawyers, with more than sixty-five new vacancies for law graduates.
This second intake of private lawyers is expected to join the fifteenmonth program, after finishing a three-month preparatory program andpassing written and oral entrance exams. The training course consists ofclasses in constitutional principles, civil law, penal law, ethics and deontology, Portuguese and Tetum, administrative law and human rights; and includes a nine-month probation period.
The new accreditation course for lawyers is important, as it will enablelawyers to be accredited before a deadline of 2012. In 2008, a private lawyers’
bill was passed. This law allowed for a transition period of four years, during
which time those lawyers who were already working as lawyers were allowed
to continue working as lawyers. However, that transition period expires in2012. In order to have as many lawyers accredited as possible by the deadline, ltc is making training for private lawyers a priority in 2011 and 2012.
In 2011, ltc continues current courses for translators, notaries andlawyers. It also plans to start various new training programs, including thefourth professional accreditation course for Timorese judges, prosecutors
and public defenders, training for bailiffs and a course on the penal process
for prison guards.
In order to implement its comprehensive legal training program plan,with jsp support, the ltc has six international lecturers—a training coordinator, a prosecutor lecturer, a judge lecturer, a lawyer lecturer, a translator
lecturer, a notary lecturer. Portuguese language lecturers are also employed.
Access to Justice and Decentralization
Providing all Timorese citizens, particularly those in remote areas, with access to the formal justice sector continues to be a challenge across the sector.

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By supporting courts, prosecutors and public defenders in district centers of Baucau, Suai and Oecusse, the jsp is assisting these district justice offices to deliver justice to people outside the capital Dili. With jsp assistance,
national and international professionals have been deployed to the districts;
houses have been leased for national and international justice actors; andmaterial, transport, and information technology and communications provisions have been provided to district offices. In Baucau, for example, thejsp funds the salaries of three national interpreters who translate local languages into Tetum and Portuguese for the court.
One initiative, which was been warmly welcomed by local communities, is the mobile court project. Suai District Court, which is based in thesouth of the country, covers four of Timor’s thirteen districts and takes insome of the poorest regions in Timor-Leste. The ability of the justice sector
institutions to bring suspects, witnesses and victims from different regionsin this jurisdiction to the court is also hampered by the very poor conditionof major arterial roads in the area.
In order to respond to some of these issues, Suai District Court traveledto the two district centers of Same and Maliana in October and November
2010, holding court sessions in a local police station and a governmentbuilding. The jsp supported both the Same and Maliana hearings.
The court heard seven criminal cases in the town of Maliana in
November 2010 and five criminal cases in Same town in October 2010. SuaiCourt judge, Dr. Jose Maria de Araujo presided over the hearings.
Justice sector actors who took part in the mobile court hearings commented on how mobile court is a way of showing the community that thecourt is functioning, addressing transport and infrastructure problems; andeducating the community about judicial procedures. The mobile court initiative also has the strong support of Vice-Minister for Justice, Ivo Valente.
Speaking after the Same hearings, local community member, JoaoFernandes said the mobile court gave the community immediate answers
about cases. “We don’t need to spend a lot of time going to Suai... Now we
can see directly how the judge, public defender and prosecutor process ourcases,” he said.
In addition to the mobile court initiative, international access to justiceofficers have been deployed in the district jurisdictions of Suai, Oecusse andBaucau to work with local justice institutions, producing and distributing
legal awareness materials. Each international access to justice officer works

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with a national counterpart. These national officers are funded by the jsp
for an initial two-year period and will then be fully transferred across to theMinistry of Justice (MoJ).
An equitable and accessible justice system requires a robust public defense service and the jsp continues to support Timor-Leste’s Public
Defender’s Office (pdo). In 2010, the jsp assisted the pdo in access to justiceworkshops organized in two regional centers of Baucau and Ainaro. Thesemeetings, which were facilitated by a national public defender, a judge and aprosecutor, helped raise awareness and understanding among citizens outside the capital Dili about the role and mandate of all justice institutions.
The jsp has also supported the pdo by providing it with infrastructureand equipment, security and transport support. Jsp has recruited interpreters and translators for the pdo in Dili and in the districts. A jsp-supported
public defender advisor has helped draft a legal aid law that allows the stateto pay for legal representation provided to citizens who cannot afford or access a private lawyer.
In 2010, the jsp public defender advisor helped organize a three-monthstudy mission to Brazil for three national public defenders. The public defenders were trained by Brazil’s Superior School of the Federal pdo from
August to October 2010. During the study tour, the Timorese public defenders learned about the Brazilian pdo, pdo institutional principles, humanrights principles and other related judicial subjects and also strengthened
their Portuguese language skills.
Developing Legal AwarenessIn addition to supporting the work of the ltc, the jsp has run legal literacy
and awareness activities, in cooperation with the MoJ, the opg, the pdo andthe Courts. The following communication materials have been produced
and distributed:• brochures explaining the role of the Public Defender’s Office• posters illustrating how to bring civil and criminal cases to thecourts• human rights booklets for Timor-Leste’s police force (Policia
Nacional de Timor-Leste - pntl)• Jsp and MoJ newsletters• bilingual (Tetum and Portuguese) Penal Procedure Code books112

H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i c•bilingual (Tetum and Portuguese) Civil Procedure Code books(3,000 copies)
bilingual (Tetum and Portuguese) copies of the Constitution
information on citizens’ rights to justice and customary law
MoJ application forms for border passes and to register commercial and non-commercial entities
MoJ information on applying for passports.

••••

In the area of customary law—which is relied upon by so many Timorese
to resolve a variety of disputes, both criminal and civil—the jsp has beenworking with the MoJ for over a year on a draft customary law.
The draft was developed following community consultations conductedaround the country. During these consultations, participants made suggestions about incorporating local justice and customary law into the formal
justice system; and received information about constitutional provisions
related to the judicial system, customary law and the competencies of thejudicial system, the police and alternative conflict resolution mechanisms.
The draft law will be revised in 2011 before it is presented to the Council ofMinisters.
Overall, Timor-Leste’s justice system has expanded since 2001 when thefirst national justice institutions were established: one Court of Appeals inDili, four district courts covering the whole country and three prisons. An
independent Prosecution Service and Public Defender’s Office were created
and, during the following years, their district offices were also established.
Registry and notary services were also established in 2001 and today there
are offices for civil registration in all the thirteen districts. Though somejustice institutions mentioned in the Constitution have not yet been established, most notably the Supreme Court, progress has been registered forthe establishment of the High Administrative Tax and Audit Court throughthe jsp technical assistance. The oversight bodies for the Prosecution
and Courts—i.e., the Superior Councils—are functioning; and the pdo’s
Superior Council is currently being constituted.
This has been a remarkable journey towards a functional justice system
run by the Timorese. Government commitment to developing this sector,
with international assistance from undp and other international partners,
has remained steadfast despite three changes in government and several
turnovers of undp leadership.

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Annex A
Courses offered by Timor-Leste’s Legal Training Center –2008-2011
Year
Type of training
Courses
Fourth training for judges and public defenders
commencing
Second and third training for lawyers
2011First integrated training for bailiffs
171 trainees
2011 Ongoingcourses
119 trainees

2010 courses
138 trainees

Penal procedure training for prison guards
Complementary training for judges, prosecutors and public defenders (withPortuguese training for 14 of this group)First training for notaries
First course for private lawyers
First training for translatorsICT training
Preparatory Portuguese language and training program for notaries
Preparatory training for judicial clerks
First preparatory training for the LTC admission examinations
Preparatory Portuguese language training for legal drafters and advisorsfrom the National Parliament and the Provedor for Human Rights andJusticeTwo three-day seminar for lawyers
Third training for magistrates and public defenders

2009 courses
62trainees

2008 courses
123 trainees

Complementary training for judicial actors and probationers (including
Portuguese language training for 25)
Training of lawyers for the Ministry of JusticeThird training for magistrates and public defenders
Three-day seminar for staff from the ombudsman’s office (Provedor for
Human Rights and Justice)Complementary education training for judicial actors (judges, prosecutorsand public defenders) and Portuguese classes
Civil procedure training for bailiffs

Enquiries: media.justice@undp.org

Beneficiaries
2165
2560
50
1114
1430
1156
38
1320
1437 (25 haveattended
Portuegeseclasses)
1114253747