Four years ago, the people of East
Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia
in a UN-supervised referendum. Chaos and displacements
of a vast number of people followed the August 1999
vote.
Many East Timorese people were killed. Countless properties
were burned and destroyed. Public and private records
were lost, including land administration documents.
Moreover, land registry records as well as supporting
cadastral and map information were often destroyed
or removed from the country. In addition, the majority
of senior civil servants who worked for the land administration
system had fled the country. In a country where claims
to ownership over the same plot of land could arise
from different parties looking to traditional customary
law, the Portuguese colonial legal regime as well
as the Indonesian law, there was great uncertainty
over what kind of legal and policy regime would eventually
clarify who had title to land and property.
In the post-referendum context, these factors contributed
to a climate of social instability. Uncertainty about
land ownership and the lack of a working land registry
also represented fundamental obstacles to commercial
activities, investment and economic development. Establishing
greater certainty and order on land and property matters,
therefore, was immediately recognized as critical
to establishing the rule of law and as a pre-requisite
to economic development. Establishing greater certainty
and fairness in regard to land and property matters
was also seen as necessary to ensure respect of basic
human rights.
This created the context in which the idea for a
land and property administration project was borne.
At the request of the Transitional Administration,
UN-HABITAT undertook an initial mission to East Timor
in mid-December 1999. During a follow-up mission in
early February, a team of UN-HABITAT experts formulated
a project proposal on land and property administration
in collaboration with the Land & Property Unit.
The Land and Property Administration Project in East
Timor provided technical services and policy advice.
Technical services were required to rapidly restore
the essential components of the land administration
system for the processing and recording of land and
property rights. This included the rehabilitation
of the Land & Property Office and re-establishing
the cadastral survey and mapping capacity. Legislative
and regulatory changes needed to facilitate the re-activation
of the land registration service were identified.
Options for change of land laws were formulated in
order to create an equitable land administration system.
| The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
gained full independence on 20 May 2002 and became
the first new country of the third millennium.
Within a few months, the first law on land matters
was passed in the national parliament. |
The urgent policy need was the development of a mechanism
for the resolution of land and property disputes and
claim verification.
"Few issues confronting the people of East Timor
are more pervasive and potentially contentious than
those relating to the successful resolution of land
disputes and relevant verification of ownership and
tenure claims," said Mr. Scott Leckie of Centre
on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE).
Resolving such claims constituted one of the greatest
challenges facing both the Transitional Administration
and the current political leadership. Accordingly,
the project proposed a mechanism aimed at achieving
satisfactory resolutions considered essential to ensuring
stability, promoting human rights and ensuring a smooth
transition to full independence for the people of
Timor-Leste (the name adopted by the country since
independence).
A peculiar challenge to the Land & Property Unit
was the large-scale invasion of abandoned houses and
buildings. The scale of destruction of the housing
stock and the departure of the Indonesian civil servants
and business community made these properties an easy
target. An early task of the Land & Property Unit
was to develop an application and allocation procedure
to systematically meet the pressing demands for land
to accommodate urgent administrative, humanitarian
and business needs.
UN-HABITAT also assisted the Constituent Assembly
of East Timor with advice on land and property clauses
for the formulation of a new post-independence constitution.
However, in its final version, the constitution adopted
contains only the following reference to land and
property: "The property, use and useful tenure
of land shall be defined by law".
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste gained full
independence on 20 May 2002 and became the first new
country of the third millennium. Within a few months,
the first law on land matters was passed in the national
parliament.
The Bill on Legal Regime of Immobile Properties was
adopted on 23 September 2002. The law contains a clause
determining that only East Timorese people can own
land and property in Timor-Leste. The effect of this
law on foreign investment is debatable, but it certainly
reduced the number and nature of land ownership claims.
The land administration system still needs to be
modernised and land legislation requires major codification
in order to create an equitable land administration
system. Consequently, the country is receiving technical
and financial assistance on land legislation, mapping
and capacity building.
Jan Meeuwissen is a Senior Human Settlements Officer
in UN-HABITAT's Fukuoka Office.
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