September 24, 2008

Gender Land Law Workshop Held in East Timor

East Timor’s Gender Land Law Working Group held a workshop this week to recommend ways to strengthen women’s rights to land and property through inheritance. The Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality (SEPI), with technical support from the USAID-funded Strengthening Property Rights in Timor-Leste (SPRTL) project, which is implemented by ACDI/VOCA and ARD, Inc., organized a Gender Land Law Working Group meeting to further the East Timorese government’s efforts to address gender equality in forthcoming legislation on land and property.

“The majority of women in East Timor have few opportunities to acquire assets during their lifetime,” said Idelta Maria Rodrigues, secretary of state for the promotion of equality. “For women and girls, inheritance can be an important means of obtaining property, such as land. Such property is essential to enable women and girls to provide for themselves and their families. Developing mechanisms to strengthen women’s rights to land and property are important to move forward and give women security, particularly in the event that they become separated, widowed or divorced.”

The workshop participants developed recommendations on appropriate inheritance procedures for women in East Timor, including to whom and how property should be distributed. Participants also examined what would happen when someone dies with or without a will.

East Timor is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and has committed to developing mechanisms to promote equality in access and control of land and property, including access to credit and capital. The country’s constitution guarantees equal rights to women and men and states that all Timorese citizens have the right to own private property.

In December 2008, the working group intends to submit its recommendations to the Ministry of Justice, the Council of Ministers and the National Parliament for consideration in legal frameworks regulating property rights. Working group members include government representatives from SEPI, the Ministry of Justice, the National Directorate for Land, Property and Cadastral Services, the Ministry of Agriculture, representatives from civil society and international organizations, including Fokupers, Rede Feto, the Justice Sector Monitoring Program, Women in Politics Caucus the Hak Association, Belun, Advocats Sans Frontieres; Asia Foundation and the United National Mission in East Timor.

The five-year SPRTL program—known locally as the “Ita Nia Rai” or “Our Land”—works with the National Directorate for Land, Property and Cadastral Services and the Ministry of Justice, the program provides technical and policy support to develop a sustainable and transparent property rights system in East Timor.

To learn more about ACDI/VOCA's work in the East Timor, click here.