BarTalk April 2003
Volume 15, Number 2

Developing a justice system in East Timor

by Drew Jackson

An opportunity to contribute to the UN’s efforts to rebuild a “post-conflict” country began with an e-mail saying “Can you come to East Timor on Monday?” I had been to Bhutan three years before with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to help the court system in that country to develop a technology strategy. The task this time was even more daunting: to be part of an international UN team that would design a program to help the East Timorese government build a justice system.

The conflict in 1999 that saw the East Timorese break free from a quarter-century of Indonesian rule left East Timor in ruins. As part of the rebuilding process, the UNDP brought 10 international legal and technology experts to the new country for a two-week period in February 2003. The team’s ambitious objective was to design a three to five year program of assistance to build the capacity of the institutions in the East Timorese justice system.

The development challenge
East Timor, independent since May 2002, is one of the world’s least developed countries. More than 40 per cent of the population lives in income poverty, making it the poorest country in Asia. Standards of health and education are low: life expectancy is only 57 years, and more than half the population is illiterate.

There are profound challenges to development. The infrastructure supporting the justice system was gutted during the conflict in 1999. The courts were destroyed, the prisons rendered inoperable, and the legal archives largely lost. In August 1999, there was not a single judge in East Timor. By 2000, after crash- course training, 25 judges, 13 prosecutors, 10 public defenders, and 12 registrars were appointed by the transitional UN government on a probationary basis. The shortage of judicial officials is likely to continue for some time – there is no law faculty in East Timor.

A further challenge is the complex, evolving legal framework. The East Timorese government has committed to developing a Portuguese-based civil law system. New laws are now being written. But where a new law hasn’t been introduced, then the laws of the transitional UN government or the previous Indonesian common law system apply.

The net effect is a justice system that is, to put it mildly, straining at the seams. There is uncertainty over the roles and responsibilities of the various justice institutions (prosecutors frequently mediate even violent crimes, although no law authorizes this approach); there are growing delays in processing cases (the Court of Appeal, comprised of only one probationary judge, temporarily ceased functioning in 2002); and there are complaints of erratic orders and rulings not in compliance with the law (one-third of those currently in detention are being detained in violation of the law).

The development strategy
Both the government of East Timor and the UNDP recognize that a well functioning justice system is critical to successful nation building and, ultimately, human development. The assistance program designed by the UN team to develop the East Timorese justice system uses a “capacity building” strategy. This approach seeks to build up in the East Timorese a sense of ownership of the vision and skills required to manage and evolve the justice system over time without the aid of international agencies. Key areas of intervention will include facilitating the definition of roles and responsibilities of the various justice system institutions, enhancing day-to-day institutional processes, and supporting the use of technology as a strategic tool to help the justice system achieve its objectives.

The UN defines human development as allowing people to lead a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge, and to achieve a decent standard of living. The work toward that goal has just begun in East Timor.

Drew Jackson is the Manager, New Media at the CLE Society of B.C., responsible for the CLE Web site (www.cle.bc.ca) and other new media offerings. He was in East Timor working with the UN Development Programme in February 2003.

Background: East Timor
A former Portuguese colony and Indonesian territory, East Timor captured international headlines in 1999 when violence erupted after a UN-sponsored referendum saw 80 per cent of citizens vote for independence. The conflict eased after two months, when the UN established a transitional government that took over from the Indonesians. But East Timor was left in ruins. Much of Dili – the main city of 110,000 people – was destroyed, thousands of people lost their lives, and the economy was left in total collapse.

This article was published in the April 2003 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2005, all rights reserved.