Provedoria dos Direitos Humanos e Justiça Brief overview of work priorities over the past year Presentation prepared for the 21st Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum Silverio Pinto Baptista Provedor Provedoria dos Direitos Humanos e Justiça Bangkok, October 2016.

I. Introduction

II. Mandate of the Provedoria dos Direitos Humanos e Justiça (Ombudsman for Human Rights and Justice) Legal basis: Constitution of RDTL, Art. 27: The Ombudsman shall be an independent organ in charge of examining and seeking to settle citizens’ complaints against public bodies, certifying the conformity of the acts with the law, preventing and initiating the whole process to remedy injustice. Dual mandate: PDHJ Statutes in Law 7/2004 establish that the duty of the PDHJ is to promote and protect human rights and to promote good governance

Overview Important issues throughout the past year include: Revision and implementation of organic law Publication of monitoring reports Continuation of decentralization of services from the national office to the regional offices Contribution to international bodies including UN treaty bodies and regional organizations such as APF, SEANF, IOI

Revision and implementation of organic law 2014 APF capacity assessment recommendation: Organic law should be functional rather than just be following the mandate Previously: activities separated by mandate (human rights and good governance) Currently: activities separated by technical area (monitoring, investigations, promotion) New organic law promulgated on 13 July 2016

Publication of monitoring reports Monitoring of detention facilities Monitoring of prisons Monitoring of the Timor-Leste government’s school feeding project Monitoring of distribution of medicines Monitoring of SISCa (Integrated Community Health Services) Monitoring of infrastructure projects in autonomous region of Oecusse Monitoring of the Joint Operation in Baucau region

Decentralization of services from the national office to the regional offices Monitoring of human rights and good governance issues Investigations into citizens’ complaints on human rights and good governance issues Awareness raising sessions to educate citizens and public officials about the PDHJ mandate, human rights and good governance

Same Oecusse Baucau Maliana

International cooperation APF training on several topics attended by four staff 13th Annual Meeting of SEANF in Myanmar in September 2016 Cooperation with KOMNAS HAM for the reunification of children that went missing during the Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste and succeeded in unifying 12 people with their families. Three training sessions conducted with KOMNAS HAM as part of a bilateral agreement in September 2016 UPR session on Timor-Leste in Geneva in October 2016

Obrigado wain