JUSTICE FOR TIMOR LESTE International Conference 23-24, September 2004 Community strategic planning for the future of Serious Crimes
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Conference Organised by: Judicial System Monitoring Programme Background to the Conference Aims of the Conference Conference Content Who will attend the conference Date of Conference Contact Details
Background to the Conference:	Almost five years have passed since the vote for independence in East Timor, an event that was accompanied by extreme violence. The institutions which were created to address issues of reconciliation and justice, arising not only from the violence in 1999 but also by the decades of massive human rights abuses at the hands of an occupation force, have ended or are in the process of concluding their activities. The ability of these institutions to provide justice and reconciliation for past abuses has been a concern to many national and international actors. Given the shortcoming of these processes to hold perpetrators accountable and facilitate reconciliation to the extend required by the community, important questions about the future needs of East Timor to adequately deal with the past abuses need to be answered. This requires a well-planned approach to future processes, ensuring a stable and forward looking society. This conference aims to redress this situation and ensure civil society is actively engaged in the debate and policy surrounding future justice initiatives. The conference also intends to evaluate what has occurred in East Timor by the East Timorese involving community members including civil society, justice sector actors and parliamentarians. Click here to return to the Top
Aims of the Conference:	· Determine if the need for justice in East Timor for crimes against humanity has been met. This involves an evaluation of the justice processes to date and the formulation of a strategic plan for justice for East Timor with broad based support. · Evaluation of the Special Panel for Serious Crimes, Ad hoc Human Rights Court in Jakarta, CAVR and their inter-relationship and combined results for East Timorese society. · Overall evaluation of all processes by civil society to determine whether what has been achieved is sufficient, and what is required for the future · Discuss the needs of victims and how these can be met through future processes. · Discuss and formulate an action plan for the future of the serious crimes process. · Evaluation of future options, including consideration of international tribunal, commission of experts, truth commission, national justice system, trials in third countries, etc · Provide an opportunity for civil society, government and major stakeholders to engage in debate over future options, including proposals such as the International Truth Commission Click here to return to the Top
Conference Content:	The content is intended to be as inclusive as possible, with particular focus on the views of civil society – a group that has been consistently marginalized throughout debate on these issues. Speakers will be invited from government, UN, civil society, victims groups and international experts to present their perception of the processes to date and ideas for future plans. Smaller workshops lead by local civil society leaders will work through issues raised by speakers in order to canvass broad based ideas and proposals. Click here to return to the Top
Who will attend the conference:	About 70 participants from the districts, 30 from around institutions in Dili and 10 leaders to act as workshop facilitators or speakers will attend this conference. JSMP has identified through its community consultation work that there is a severe lack of information about the serious crimes process and next to no knowledge of issues such as the Commission of Experts and other future options. As the majority of East Timor’s population and crimes against humanity victims live outside Dili, JSMP is currently facilitating workshops in separate districts to explain the conference issues and thereby ensure effective and well-informed participation of people from rural areas in the conference. Click here to return to the Top
Date of Conference:	23-24 September 2004 Click here to return to the Top
Contact Details:	Tiago Sarmento, Deputy Director, JSMP For further information: http//www.jsmp.minihub.org Rua Setubal, Kolmerah, Dili, Timor Leste P.O. Box 275 Dili, East Timor via Darwin, Australia Phone/fax: +(670) (390) 323 883 email: tiago@jsmp.minihub.org Click here to return to the Top