"Land ownership as a development factor within CPLP": first meeting of the Working Committee
The Minister of Justice of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Ivo Valente, presided to the opening of the works of the 1st Meeting of the Working Committee on "Land ownership as a factor of development within CPLP", which took place in the Hotel Novo Turismo, in Dili, on December 14th and 15th.
During these two days, experts from different countries proceeded to the mapping of the current situation on land ownership in the participating countries of the Conference of the Ministers of Justice of Portuguese Speaking Countries. This meeting has the objective to elaborate a plan of action to be proposed at the next conference.
Following the methodology of various working committees on other themes, a questionnaire was developed. Until the beginning of February 2016, information from the Member States of CPLP on the measures in force, will be gathered, in order to respond to the current requirements, arising from commitments made at the international, regional or sub-regional level.
The information provided will then be analysed by the Working Committee and reported to the Secretary General of the Conference, in the form of a report.
At this meeting in Dili, the expert representative of Timor-Leste, the Director of the National Directorate for Land, Property and Land Register Services, Romão Guterres, was designated as rapporteur, being co-rapporteur the Brazilian João Paulo de Faria Santos, legal adviser to the Ministry of Agrarian Development of the Federative Republic of Brazil.
The requirements thus identified will give rise to a strategy proposal and a concerted action Plan between the eight States participant of the Conference, to be submitted for consideration of the Ministers of Justice at the next Conference of Ministers of Justice. Thus, the deliberated in the XIV Conference of the Ministers of Justice of Portuguese Speaking Countries, held in Dili last June, where the debate on the issue of land ownership as a factor of development was started, is being acted upon.
The 2nd Meeting of the Working Committee, should take place in Brazil, in an event parallel to the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, which will take place in the first half of 2016.
