[TimorLesteStudies] Seminar: Community Justice and Policing in Timor-Leste

[Jenny]

>Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:37:59 +1000
>From: Scott Rutar <scott.rutar at anu.edu.au>
>
>Dear Colleague
>The Centre for International Governance and Justice and The Asia 
>Foundation will be presenting a seminar titled "Community Justice 
>and Policing in Timor-Leste".
>
>Speakers include: Silas Everett, Representative, The Asia 
>Foundation, Timor-Leste and Thomas Parks, Regional Conflict and 
>Governance Advisor, The Asia Foundation
>
>More details: Silas Everett and Thomas Parks will speak about The 
>Asia Foundation's access to justice program and community policing 
>program in Timor-Leste, in particular about empirical evidence TAF 
>has gathered through perception surveys on policing & law and 
>justice in Timor-Leste.
>
>Time: 2:30 - 4:00 Friday 26 June
>Location: Seminar Room 1.13 Ground floor Coombs Extension Building # 9
>Background:
>As a country in transition from conflict to stability, Timor-Leste 
>faces many challenges in ensuring access to justice for all. Many 
>individuals' attempts to exercise fundamental rights through 
>traditional dispute resolution mechanisms or through the nascent 
>formal justice sector often fail due to limited financial resources, 
>low awareness of options, and geographic isolation. The Asia 
>Foundation through the USAID funded Access to Justice Program aims 
>to bridge those gaps for vulnerable groups by funding pro bono legal 
>aid services, supporting enhanced mediation services, increasing 
>expertise to meet the particular justice needs of women, and 
>increasing awareness of laws and legal procedures vital to secure 
>livelihoods for vulnerable groups.
>
>Still less than ten years old, the Timor-Leste national police force 
>(PNTL) continues to face a range of challenges. At its inception, 
>only one in ten officers of the 3,000-strong PNTL had previous 
>policing experience. Since then, considerable assistance has been 
>provided for training police officers, developing policy, and 
>re-working the structure of state security institutions. Although 
>vital, these technical efforts have not incorporated community-level 
>and civil society actors, and much less attention has focused on 
>assisting 'community-police' relations. Experience has proven that 
>technical assistance to police alone is insufficient for improving 
>security, and that it is also essential to develop a set of 
>community-oriented norms and practices for the conduct of policing 
>functions. However, while the PNTL is committed to working in a 
>community-oriented manner, it lacks both the material and the means to do so.
>
>Scott Rutar
>Centre Coordinator
>Centre for International Governance & Justice
>Regulatory  Institutions Network (RegNet)
>College of Asia and The Pacific
>Building 8 Coombs Extension
>The Australian National University
>Acton ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA
>
>T:  +61 2 6125 3556
>F:  +61 2 6125 1507
>W: <http://cigj.anu.edu.au>http://cigj.anu.edu.au
>
>ANU CRICOS Provider No. 00120C
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