Friday 15 June 2012

The East Timor Land Law Program: Four Years On - Still No Land Law

Citation: 2010 ETLJ 2 The East Timor Land Law Program: Four Years On - Still No Land Law

The USAID Land Law Program in East Timor produced draft legislation 4 years ago this month and there is still no land law in East Timor.
There has now been more than a decade for reforms to be made to the land law in East Timor but successive governments have failed to come to terms with the most complex of social problems in this country: land law and policy concerning the indigenous and colonial land rights systems that have operated in this jurisdiction over the last 4 centuries of its recorded history and the violent and unsettled land disputes that are largely the result of the colonial occupations.

This social problem - which ultimately stems from uncertainty surrounding land ownership and the lack of a just dispute resolution mechanism to deal with the multitude of land conflicts - is not just a matter of the technicalities of legislative drafting but revolves around more complicated social, political and economic exigencies. They have proven to be too difficult to confront.

This uncertainty erodes the integrity of the civil peace and economic development and the longer the government sticks its head in the sand about land problems, the more serious and destabilising these problems will become.

The following is a report from the East Timor Legal Information Site legal news archive from June 2006 about the East Timor Land Law Program which to date has failed to provide any properly informed framework for the articulation of the requisite policies and laws - notwithstanding considerable donor aid and the mobilisation of numerous international experts.
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02 JUNE 2006 USAID Land Law Program II East Timor: Final Report Published - The final report on the USAID-funded East Timor Land Law Program has been published. The Land Law Program, implemented was undertaken by the the Ministry of Justice through the National Directorate of Land and Property.

"On the legislative drafting front, LLP II worked with government and prepared the main land bill entitled Juridical Regime of Immovable Property - Part III: Property and Transfer Systems, Land Registration, Pre-Existing Rights and Title Restitution. This bill addresses the themes related to the new immovable property and land registration systems to be implemented in the future, the provisions for the resolution of land claims and title restitution of pre-existing freehold rights and the compliance with the Constitution by non-national claimants of land rights. Numerous work sessions with high-level government officials and a special committee designated for the review of the bill took place. Advocacy for the passage of the law was carried out to the fullest extent possible. The submission of the bill to the Council of Ministers is pending.

The law drafted previously by LLP II on Leasing between Private Parties was passed by Parliament. A draft decree-law for the regulation of illegal constructions and informal settlements was prepared and delivered to the Ministry of Justice. The first debate of the bill at the Council of Ministers took place in December 2005.

A bill on Land Taxation and Expropriation was also delivered to government in mid-March 2006 for the future debate of these matters and to be considered only after the main land bill is passed and the land registration system is fully functional. In addition, the DNTP Organic Law was drafted and accepted by the Ministry of Justice for consideration along with ministerial decrees on lease tender processes, contract preparation, and delegation of responsibilities by the Minister of Justice to DNTP." First published on the East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin on  23 June 2010

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Index

2011

1. The Rule of Law: Theoretical, Cultural and Legal Challenges for Timor-Leste

2010


2009


2008


1. Justice for Serious Crimes Committed during 1999 in Timor-Leste: Where to From Here?

2. Joint Command for PNTL & F-FDTL Undermines Rule of Law & Security Sector Reform in Timor-Leste

3. Criminal Justice in East Timor and the Constitution of East Timor

4. Commentary on the Draft Arms Law in Timor-Leste

5. Deleted

2007

1. The Law on Political Parties (No 3/2004) & the Decision of the Timor-Leste Court of Appeal in the case of Vitor da Costa & Ors v Fretilin

2. Ethnicity, Violence & Land & Property Disputes in Timor-Leste

3. East Timor: Reconciliation & Reconstruction

4. Legal opinion on the appointment of the Prime Minister and the formation of Government in Timor-Leste

5. A legal opinion on the Formation of an Unconstitutional Government in Timor-Leste

6. Commission for Truth Friendship East Timor Competing Concepts of Justice

7. 25th of May 2006 Massacre & War Crimes in Timor-Leste

2006

1. Some Land Tenure Issues in Post-Conflict East Timor

2. Extradition from Indonesia to East Timor & the Serious Crimes Process in East Timor 1999 - 2005

3. East Timor: Internal Security, States of Seige & Emergency: A Note on the Constitutional Provisions & the Internal Security Law 2003

4. East Timor: The Constitutional Process Governing the Dismissal of the Government

5. Guidelines for Preparation of Outgoing Requests by East Timor for International Judicial Assisstance - Extradition Requests & Letters Rogatory - A Practice Manual

6. Roles of the President and the Prime Minister in the Current Constitutional Crisis in East Timor

7. Institutions & the East Timorese Experience

8. An Early Warning System for Timor-Leste: A Framework Concept of the Need & Possibility of an Early Warning System for the Timorese People

2005

1. The Timor-Leste Maritime Boundaries Case

2. Deleted

3. On the occasion of the International Conference on Traditional Dispute Resolution & Traditional Justice in Timor-Leste

4. General Facts on the Timor Sea & Facts on the Negotiations on a Permanent Maritime Boundary between Timor-Leste & Australia

5. Deleted

6. Morality, Religion & the Law: Abortion & Prosititution in East Timor

2004

1. 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

2. UNTAET Land Policy


3. Some Observations on UNTAET Regulation No 27/2000 on the Temporary Prohibition on Transactions in Land by Indonesian Citizens

4. Sandalwood & Environmental Law in East Timor

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

6. An Overview of East Timor's Law No 1 of 2003 on the Juridical Regime on Immovable Properties

7. Report on Research into Adat Land Law in East Timor

8. Short Analysis of UNTAET Executive Order No 2 of 2002 on the Decriminalisation of Defamation

9. An Overview of the Constitutional Drafting Process in East Timor

10. Some Notes on East Timor Government Decree No 1/2004 on the Orthographical Standard of the Tetum Language

11. UNTAET Guidelines for the Administration of Public & Abandoned Property by District Administrations

12. Tara Bandu: The Adat Concept of the Environment in East Timor

13. Finding Ways of Resolving Land Problems in East Timor