The President of Public Defense Institute (PDI) Sergio Hornai urged the National Parliament (NP) to propose the draft of legislation on the Judicial Organization Timor-Leste (OJTL) so that courts can be established across all 13 municipalities.
He added the legislation would make it clear whether the intention is to build courts in all 13 municipalities or to focus just on the 3 municipalities already with a court to cover entire regions.
“The parliament needs look into laws that will regulate this issue,” he said also at the Judiciary Training Centre in Kaikoli, Dili.
Having courts in all municipalities would mean that people would spend less of travel costs going from one municipality to another where a court is.
“For instance someone from Lospalos has to go to Baucau where a court is.” He said also. “If we want to have a judicial system that is effective we need people to have easy access to the system. That includes having DPI representatives in all municipalities.”
Member of Parliament MP Josefa Alvares Pereira Soares said even though the idea sounds good that it is necessary to look at the existing human resources.
“Technically yes we need to set up courts across all municipalities but this is dependent on the human resources we have,” she said.
The MP added that the Court of Appeals and also the existing Municipal Courts in Baucau, Suai and Dili are already experiencing shortage of human resources.
