Mediating Women’s Land Rights in Timor-Leste

More than twenty years after independence, Timor-Leste continues to grapple with the legacies of colonialism, occupation, and displacement – shaping land ownership, identity, and governance. Land is more than a resource, but is tied to livelihoods, memory, kinship, and traditional authority. In this context, land disputes are common, and the coexistence of formal law and customary systems creates both potential and tension. The 2017 Land Law Package aimed to bring clarity and recognise customary tenure, but implementation has been uneven and especially so regarding gender justice. Women’s land rights, though legally affirmed, often remain insecure due to patriarchal norms and male-centered conflict resolution mechanisms. Mediators, who operate between state and customary systems, play a key role in land dispute resolution. Yet many lack the gender sensitivity and institutional support needed to ensure fairness. Without targeted efforts, mediation risks reinforcing the very inequalities the law intends to address.

To support more inclusive implementation of the Land Law Package, trans:verse conducted a comprehensive gender and legal analysis of land governance in Timor-Leste. This included examining the intersection of state and customary law through a decolonising framework, and how gender and social norms shape mediation processes and outcomes. Building on this analysis, trans:verse developed a capacity-building strategy combining training, mentoring, peer exchange, and accessible learning materials to support ongoing learning and reinforce key training content. Mediators were supported not only to apply gender-responsive tools, but to critically examine how their own assumptions shape outcomes. The process also created space for dialogue between government and civil society mediators, building trust and eliciting their shared commitment to advancing women’s land rights as part of their broader vision for mediation as promoting peace and stability in Timor-Leste.

collaboration, and critical self-reflection. Mediators gained a clearer understanding of how social norms, legal ambiguity, and procedural bias can unintentionally undermine women’s land claims and tenure security especially when mediation processes are assumed to be neutral or purely technical. By unpacking how their own positionalities and assumptions influence outcomes, mediators were able to reframe their roles towards facilitators of dispute resolution processes that empower conflict parties finding their own solutions. Institutional actors and civil society representatives alike recognised their mutual investment in advancing tenure security for women, reinforcing collective responsibility for inclusive land governance as part of Timor-Leste’s broader peace and development journey. As our client reflected: “trans:verse brought deep expertise and clarity to our mediation work, combining professionalism and passion with a gender-sensitive approach that made complex concepts accessible and impactful. Their training and mentoring significantly strengthened the skills and confidence of government and civil society mediators.”