Government of Timor-Leste

The Vice-Minister of Justice, Ivo Valente, was on a work visit to Brasília, from July 1 to July 8, to get better acquainted with the services provided in Brazil regarding the area of justice.

During this visit, the Vice-Minister of Justice requested support to the Brazilian Government, through the Brazilian Agency of Cooperation (BAC), not only for human resources training at the Public Defender’s Office of Timor-Leste, but also in delivering legal assistance to the citizens.

Besides this request, others were made for the support to other agencies such as CIHEP[1], for example, in order to support the Portuguese language trainers at Díli’s Legal Training Centre.

Ivo Valente spoke about the difficulties faced by judiciary agents and also said that the strategic plan for the justice sector will bring about several advantages regarding the reinforcement of the judiciary institution and comprise the service area across the country.

The Vice-Minister of Justice took the occasion to thank the support provided by Brazilian judges, who have contributed a lot to the establishment of the justice system in Timor-Leste, since the beginning of its independence to the present date.

While in Brazil, Ivo Valente also had the opportunity to meet the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Brazil, Roberto dos Santos, who congratulated him on the astonishing development around the justice sector, even though the capacity building of human resources is much needed.

Meetings with the Vice-President of the Superior Court of Justice, Gilson Dipp, General Public Defender of the Union, Haman Côrdova, with the Brazilian Cooperation Agency and a visit to CIHEP Agency, were also part of the agenda.

Gilson Dipp is a Judge with extensive court experience in Brazil and the justice system, which is the same as the one in Timor-Leste. Haman Côrdova carried out a bilateral comparison study between Timor-Leste and Brazil.

[1] Coordination for Improvement of Higher Education Personnel