Dili, 15 January 2026 – The Ombudsman for Human Rights and Justice (PDHJ) has called upon all state institutions and social partners to act with urgency and wisdom in drafting, formulating, and passing a comprehensive Data Protection Law and a balanced Cybercrime Law. This call was made during the PDHJ’s keynote intervention at the public seminar “Building Bridges to Digital Rights and Addressing Legislative Gaps,” held at the Timor Plaza Hotel on 15 January 2026. The PDHJ emphasized that the recent binding decision of the Court of Appeal, which sided with the PDHJ’s 2025 Petition for Omission on the absence of the data protection law, has transformed this legislative task from a policy priority into an immediate constitutional obligation to end the state’s “official legal failure.”
In its presentation, the PDHJ provided a definitive framework for the required legislation, clarifying that a Data Protection Law must protect the individual’s “digital self” by establishing personal data as an extension of personhood, while a Cybercrime Law must protect citizens from “digital harm” by criminalizing specific malicious acts. The institution outlined three non-negotiable pillars derived from its constitutional mandate: Precision in legal drafting to ensure certainty; Checks and Balances, requiring judicial oversight for all state investigative powers; and the creation of a fiercely Independent Data Protection Commission with full authority to audit and sanction both public and private entities.
The PDHJ warned that passing legislation without a parallel national capacity-building plan would create a “bridge to nowhere,” merely replacing a legislative gap with a wider implementation gap. Therefore, the institution insists that the laws themselves must mandate and fund a National Digital Capacity Building Plan for judges and investigators, a Sustained Public Literacy Campaign, and clear Inter-Agency Coordination Protocols. This integrated approach is essential to ensure the laws function in practice, from the courts in Dili to the communities in the municipalities.
The PDHJ commends the constructive dialogue fostered by the seminar organizers, The Asia Foundation and Fundasaun Hadomi Timor. The Provedoria reaffirms its readiness to collaborate deeply with the Government, Parliament, civil society, and international partners to fulfill the Court’s mandate. “We must build good digital laws and strong institutions so that every Timorese citizen’s rights and dignity are protected in the digital era.”
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