Raising awareness about the right to property
The Secretary of State for Land and Property developed an awareness campaign on the right to property, on April 2nd, in the suco of Tali-tu, Laulara sub district, district of Aileu.
The Secretary of State, Jaime Xavier Lopes, calls for the community to prevent the occupation of abandoned land, which belonged to the administration of Portugal and then Indonesia, since these lands now belong to the Timorese State.
"Amongst all the processes that we face, the most complicated is the question of land ownership. It is a very sensitive issue. It is on land that we build the nation. So, to reach development, there must be land to build", explained the Secretary of State for Land and Property.
On article 54th of the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (RDTL) it can be read:
First Section
“Every individual is entitled to private property, being able to convey it in life and death, according to the law”.
Second Section
"Private property shall not be used to the detriment of its social function."
Third Section
"The requisition and expropriation for public purposes shall only take place through fair compensation to citizens under the law."
Fourth Section
“Only national citizens have the right to private property of the land”.
The Secretary of State also said that the goods and lands considered abandoned, are provisionally administered by the Timorese State, under the Law n. 1/2003. Decree-Law n. 19/2004 regulates the procedure for renting Real Estate of the State and the abandoned estate.
The Civil Code regulates the lease of real estate between private, having revoked the Law 12/2005, which previously regulated this matter.
Jaime Xavier Lopes appealed also to the community to establish the boundaries of the land, so that, during the measurement, the limits are already set with fixing stakes. In case of complaints, it is desirable that the solution relies on the intervention of the elders of the Suco.
The Administrator for the subdistrict of Laulara, Martin Reis Araújo, thanked the visit and clarification from the Secretary of State.
