JUDICIAL SYSTEM MONITORING PROGRAMME
PROGRAMA MONITORIZASAUN SISTEMA JUDISIÁRIU
Press Release
Regional Seminar, Dili
20 June 2017
JSMP discloses findings of its annual
report on the justice sector and the legislature for 2016 during a regional
seminar for community leaders on the roles of the National Parliament and the
formal Justice System which was held in Correios, Dili
On 16 June 2017, JSMP held a regional seminar on 'the
Roles of the National Parliament and Judicial Actors in the Formal Justice
System of Timor-Leste' which was held at the Salaun Correios, in the Dili
Municipality.
The participants in the seminar included village
chiefs, women delegates, members of local councils and lia-na'in from 18
villages representing the Ermera Administrative Post, Ermera Municipality;
Remexio Administrative Post, Aileu Municipality; and Maubara Administrative
Post, Likisa Municipality.
A total of 20 people attendeed the seminar, of which 8
were women and 12 men and the seminar was covered by the national media based
in Dili. The invited speakers came from the National Parliament, the Courts,
the Public Prosecution Service and the Office of the Public Defender.
The
National Parliament was represented by the Vice-Chair of Committee A, Mr. Arão Noe. de J. da C. Amaral, MP. The Courts were
represented by Judge Edite Palmira, who discussed the roles of the courts in
administrering the formal justice system of Timor-Leste. The Public Prosecution
Service was represented by Ms. Angelina Saldanha who discussed the role of the
prosecution and challenges in the pursuit of justice.. The Office of the Public
Defender was represented by its Public Defender General and Coordinator, Mr. Sergio Hornai, who spoke
about the role of public defenders and the challenges, faced providing
representation to the accused.
“The event was organised to facilitate direct
contacts between local leaders who had already attended a JSMP training course
on the sovereign bodies of the State, including the relevant institutions in
the justice sector. The aim was to deepen their understanding of such
institutions as well as to convey directly to the representatives of relevant
State institutions their ideas, criticisms, doubts and concerns”, said Luis de
Oliveira Sampaio, JSMP's Executive Director.
Before inviting speakers to express their views on the topic
under discussion, JSMP presented the findings of its monitoring of the National
Parliament, the district courts and the Court of
Appeal. JSMP's report stressed again the recurrent lack of quorum in the
plenary and Committee A meetings. MPs fail to be punctual, utilize time
effectively, unjustified absences are prevalent, and MPs often move around and
hold separate conversations during the debates in the plenary, thus negatively
effecting the productivity of the National Parliament. The JSMP report further
referred the issue of how immunity was interpreted which is at odds with the
State's commitment to ensure good governance and fight corruption.
Notwithstanding this, JSMP welcomed the developments that had taken place in
the National Parliament in 2016 when changes were made to the Chair of the
Parliament.
The JSMP's report once again brought to light the justice
sector's limited budget, the issues of deficient human resources and
infrastructures, the fact that hearings in the Court of Appeal are often not
open to the public which has only access to the final rulings, and inadequate
implementation of the Law on the Protection of Witnesses. Moreover, JSMP's
report raised the specific issue of domestic violence. Sixty-six percent of
cases monitored in 2016 resulted in defendants receiving suspended sentences. There
are no effective mechanisms to standardize these sentences nor applicable rules
regarding the behaviour of those convicted. Furthermore, several courts do not
enforce additional orders and rules regarding the behaviour of those
convicted.Many courts also begin trials very late, negatively impacting the
quality of the judicial proceedings.
An issue that was raised by participants in the seminar
concerned criminal and civil proceedings before the courts and the legality of
the use of costumary law by villages councils to address issues at village
level.
Participants also demanded that an outreach programme be established to explain
to communities how the Land Law will be implemented. Specifically, they felt
the acknowledgment of prior rights in the special regime for determination of
ownership of immovable property was not clear enough. Furthermore, participants
expressed their concern with violations of the Parliament's Rules of Procedure,
namely with respect to lack of punctuality, unjustified absences and asked that
an adequate procedure be implemented to address those issues.
In his answer, the representative from the National
Parliament explained that outreach activities regarding legislation were a
Government responsibility and that the Parliament had a monitoring role, adding
that this monitoring role didn't concern only the physical implementation of
projects, but included also the implementation of laws and policies. He said
that existing issues concerning land and properties should be addressed by the
special regime for determination of ownership of immovable property (the Land
Law). He added that in the case of proceedings already under way, the
authorities should be asked to wait for the cadastral commissions to complete their
work to determine the rightful ownership of the land.
As regards MP’s procedural transgressions,
namely their lack of punctuality and unjustified absences, Member of Parliament
Arão Noe explained that, as politicians, MPs carry out their functions independently
and are therefore difficult to control. But he added that the issue would be
discussed with the leaders of the parliamentary benches with a view to
establishing a sanctioning procedure for those who did not abide by their
Statute in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the National Parliament.
On the other hand, Judge Edite Palmira and the Public
Defender General and Coordinator, Mr. Sergio Hornai, explained to participants
that in civil proceedings, the courts have to assess the evidence that is
submitted by both parties which play an active role in the presentation of the
their case.
As regards peoples' right to own land, Judge Palmira
explained that the Special Regime for Determination of Ownership of Immovable
Property takes into account the rights of those who have owned the land for a
long time and defines clearly their primary right to be title holders. Judge
Palmira also stated that, according to the Civil Code, extant leases (aforamentu)
from the past were not converted into freeholds (direitu perfeitu) but
that rights over such properties were limited to a 20-year period after which a
contract had to be signed with the State.
With
regard to the use of customary law to address criminal cases, she explained
that it was possible when the crimes were semi-public and the two parties were
in agreement. But that if the victim chose to file a complaint with a court,
the police did not have the authority to delegate responsibility to community
authorities to address the case. Furthermore, in cases that were dealt with by
the villages authorities themselves, formal rules had to be observed and the
authorities had to ensure that a balanced solution was found and accounted for
the damage caused. This point was also emphasized by the Chief Prosecutor for
the Dili District, Ms. Angelina Saldanha.
The
participants recommended that their training programme be replicated in other
areas, particularly in communities that did not have access to information.
The
seminar closed with the formal submission of JSMP's 2016 annual monitoring
reports for the Justice Sector and the National Parliament to the Vice-Chairman
of Committee A of the National Parliament, the Chief Prosecutor for the Dili
District and the Public Defender General and Coordinator.
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