Minister of Justice Lucia Lobato, Court of Appeal President Claudio Ximenes and UNDP Acting
Country Director Nick Beresford share a light moment during the ceremony. Photo: Shaila Noronha

Dili 22, February 2010

Continuing its support to the justice sector in Timor-Leste, the UNDP Justice System Programme facilitated a ceremony at the Court of Appeal in Dili on  19 Febuary 2010 to release the printed bi-lingual edition of the penal code of Timor-Leste. 1000 copies of the book were printed with the financial support of the UNDP Justice System Programme. The book contains the Timor-Leste penal code in both Portuguese and Tetum. The UNDP JSP also continues to provide technical and human resource assistance to the Court of Appeal.

 In his speech, Court of Appeal President Dr. Claudio Ximenes said: “The Timorese Criminal Code needs to be read and understood, not only by those working in the courts, but also by citizens, who need to know when a conduct is a crime or to distinguish situations in which a particular conduct does or does not give rise to a penalty from those situations.” Dr. Ximenes added that it was essential that the penal code was translated into Tetum for those without a significant knowledge of Portuguese to be able to access and understand it. “While I understood the difficulty in the translation of any legal text, made by a non-expert in translation, into a language still in development, I ventured to translate these laws into Tetum and in doing so encourage the development of Tetum legal terminology to make it more easily understood and used as a working language of the courts of Timor-Leste.”    

  “This is the true meaning of access to justice, whereby citizens have an understanding of the laws by which they are governed. The Penal Code’s translation into both Tetum and Portuguese should serve as a model for future practice. This will require greater focus on the development of Tetum legal terminology, an essential task that UNDP is committed to support,” remarked Acting UNDP Country Director, Nick Beresford.

 The UNDP JSP has closely assisted the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Council of Judiciary, the Public Defenders Office (PDO) and the Office of the Prosecutor-General, to develop the national capacity of the Courts, the Prosecution and the Public Defender's Office, increasing the effectiveness of the justice system and improving access to justice for all citizens.

 The UNDP Justice System Programme is supported by Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNDP Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery.