· The Court has been operating since July 2000, however, due to a lack of available judges the Court did not sit between October 2001 and June 2003. The Court is situated on the second floor of the courthouse located on Rua Caicoli in the Dili suburb of Caicoli.

· The Court was established under section 14.1 of UNTAET Regulation 2000/11. Section 14.2 confers jurisdiction to hear appeals from the District Courts.

· Section 40.1 of UNTAET Regulation 2001/25 stipulates that a party may appeal to the Court from a decision of a District Court on the ground that there has been either:

Ø a violation of the rules of criminal procedure;
Ø a violation of the procedural or substantive rights of accused;
Ø an inconsistency within grounds of the decision; or
Ø a material error of law or fact.

· 133 appeals have been filed with the Court since its establishment in 2001. Decisions have been handed down in 71 of these appeals with the remaining 62 appeals still pending.

· It is envisaged that a Supreme Court of Justice will in the future be established as the court of highest instance in East Timor, however, due to the lack of human resources to constitute the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal has been given the competence to exercise the tasks of the Supreme Court of Justice pursuant to section 164.2 of the East Timorese Constitution. The Court is therefore, for the time being at least, the court of highest instance and the final court of appeal in East Timor. This is an obvious source of potential problems – judges will, or at least ought to, withdraw as Supreme Court judges from hearing appeals over which they presided in their capacity as Court of Appeal judges. Court conducts proceedings in Portuguese and Tetum

· JSMP conducts regular monitoring of cases being heard before the Court of Appeal and aims to observe at least 90% of its hearings. The object of our monitoring is to gauge the extent of compliance with domestic laws and, in general terms, to ensure that the hearings are conducted fairly in accordance with the standards prescribed by international law. The monitoring enables JSMP to evaluate the work of the Court, identify obstacles and recognize developments. On the basis of our monitoring, we occasionally publish press releases (if the urgency or public importance of a particular case requires it) and reports which focus on the functioning of the Court and analysis of important decisions.