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Mediation in Timor-Leste: Opportunities and Challenges - WAMR 2007 Vol. 1, No. 2

Author(s): 
Santina Soares
Jennifer Laakso
Page Count: 
10 pages
Media Description: 
PDF from "World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)"
Published: 
December, 2011
Jurisdictions: 
International
Practice Areas: 
Dispute Resolution & Litigation,
Mediation,
Other
Author Detail: 

Santina Soares was previously conducting research and Customary Dispute
Resolution together with the Peace and Democracy Foundation (PDF) Mediation
Partners to develop and provide mediation training for mediation panels in the
districts of Timor-Leste. She is currently a researcher with La’o Hamutuk, the
Timor-Leste Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis.

Jennifer Laakso is a PhD researcher in the Australian Centre for Peace and
Conflict Studies and the School of Political Science and International Studies at the
University of Queensland. Over the past six years she has conducted fieldwork
throughout Timor-Leste, investigating the country’s formal and informal
transitional justice mechanisms.

 

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Description: 

Originally from World Arbitration And Mediation Review (WAMR)

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NADJA ALEXANDER’SWORLDWIDE

PERSPECTIVES ON MEDIATION
MEDIATION IN TIMOR-LESTE:
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
By Santina Soares and Jennifer Laakso

I. CUSTOMARY LAW AND TRADITIONAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Throughout Timor-Leste's history--as a colony of Portugal, an
occupied territory under Indonesian rule, and post-independence--
traditional or local1 methods of dispute resolution have been used to resolve
conflicts in communities across the island. Formal judicial systems have
more or less allowed communities to use these methods before proceeding
to the formal justice system; as a result, they have been relied upon in
communities throughout the country, becoming part of sacred tradition and
ceremony.
Customary law remains strong in communities across Timor-Leste.
Many people in rural areas rely on using traditional methods to resolve
conflicts because it is difficult for them to have access to the formal justice
system. They do not have the financial means to pay administration fees in
the court, nor transportation, food and accommodation costs during their