The National Commission for the Rights of Children is concerned with the number of sexual abuse cases involving minors that are resolved through traditional justice or within the family, as they believe this does not benefit victims. 
Senior Project Officer from the National Commission for the Rights of Children (KNDL), Cipriano das Neves said this often happened in remote areas, as the community did not understand the law.
“In some districts teachers sexually abuse students and adults, and sometimes when we meet the families they say the case was resolved and the perpetrator paid a fine to the parents,” said Neves in Kaikoli, Dili.
He added that based on information from consultations they found a lot of sexual abuse cases happened in Oe-Cusse, Viqueque, Aileu and Ermera districts.
Apart from sexual abuse against minors, there were other problems for children like child labour and other issues.
The KNDL has a plan to cooperate with civil society and police from the Vulnerable Persons Unit to raise awareness with parents in remote areas about the Penal Code, Domestic Violence Law, the Juvenile Justice Law and Child Code to show sexual abuse is a crime.
Meanwhile Director of the organization Legal Assistance for Women and Children (ALFeLa), Merlita Coreia, said they had no statistics on how many sexual abuse cases were resolved through traditional justice.
She said it was true that a small percentage of sexual abuse and incest cases were resolved through a traditional costume, because people lack information.
She added that in some districts sexual abuse and incest cases happened a lot, but only one or two cases were discovered.
That’s why she said ALFeLa made a drama about incest and domestic violence and distributed it through community radio, so the community could understand it’s a big problem, not a family problem.
“In remote areas people don’t have access to information so they resolve it traditionally, but when people find the information they always go to local leaders who take it to the police,” said Director Correia in Vilaverde, Dili.
Meanwhile Filomena Reis, an advocate for women’s issues, said in the capital people didn’t use traditional justice but in remote areas traditional justice was growing, as the community put more importance on family relations.
She added traditional justice was good because it was quick but said it did not benefit women and children who are victims, as there is no justice.
“My analysis is that I see that the traditional process is good and quick but it does not benefit female victims because when they pay a fine, it does not go to the woman but to her uncles,” said Reis.
