JSMP’s Women’s Justice Unit (WJU) was formed as the logical next step after the launch of JSMP’s report, “Women in the Formal Justice Sector” in early 2004 English, Bahasa, Portugues. The central goals of the WJU are to use JSMP’s expertise in the justice sector in Timor to assess and report on the status of women in the formal justice sector here, to provide policy advice regarding legal issues affecting women in the formal justice sector and to develop and provide resource support for issues impacting women’s access to formal justice.JSMP’s monitoring in Dili District Court over the past years was limited by the fact that JSMP monitors were unable to gain access to closed sexual assault proceedings.

In late 2003, JSMP’s women researchers acquired access to these proceedings and conducted widespread interviews of police, prosecutors, victims, judges and NGOs about issues affecting women in the formal justice sector. The results of the monitoring were memorialized in the report. The report found that more attention should be given to the plight of female victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, in Timor. In addition, the report made a number of recommendations. The Women’s Unit attempts to implement some of these recommendations and to provide advice to other agencies or bodies that are seeking to implement recommendations.