Community Rights to Customary Land in East Timor

ETLJ 24/09/2008 Land Rights in East Timor - Attention was recently focused on the issue of land rights in East Timor by Professor Tim Anderson, Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Sydney and the United States Agency for International Development in East Timor. See ETLJB Post of 22/09/2008 USAID On Clarifying Land Ownership in Timor-Leste

Reforms in relation to the land laws in East Timor need to take account of the continuing existence of traditional communal land tenures systems (hak ulayat) because the impacts of modern land title ownership registers can be deleterious to these traditional tenure systems and their communities.

The third in the Social Problems in East Timor (Legislative and Policy Considerations) series of research reports created under the University of San Francisco Legislative Drafting Initiative in East Timor (2003-2004) entitled "Community's Rights to Traditional Lands in East Timor" was published on the East Timor Law Journal today, 24 September 2008.

The report has been published in English, Indonesian and Portuguese and may be freely accessed by following the links below which will open a word file from East Timor Law Journal.

Community Rights to Customary Land in East Timor - English Version

Hak Masyarakat atas Tanah Adat di Timor-Leste - Indonesian Version

Direitos Comunitarios a Propriedade Consuetudinaria - Portuguese Version

For some further analysis of land issues in East Timor, see further:

Report on Research into Adat Land Law in East Timor

Some Observations on the Report on Research Findings & Policy Recommendations for a Legal Framework for Land Dispute Mediation in East Timor

A Note on Land Rights in East Timor (Indonesian Government Regulation No 18 of 1991 on the Conversion of Land Rights in East Timor) & the Purported Suspension of Article 5 by Government Regulation No 24 of 1992

Some Land Tenure Issues in Post-Conflict East Timor