Land rights in peacebuilding discourse: domination and resistance in Timor-Leste’s Ita Nia Rai program

What is it about?

The development of land rights programs is deeply rooted in power relations. Using discourse analysis, this paper unpacks how Western logics (assumptions and conventions) regarding ‘best practices’ for property rights institutions and tenure security impact the design of peacebuilding programs. In 2017, the Government of Timor-Leste passed a controversial Land Law Package. These laws were initially developed for a USAID land reform program. But local dynamics, actions, and interests were ignored. Examining civil society exclusion from decision-making infers a reluctance to acknowledge local voices and practices that threaten liberal peacebuilding interests. This paper is organised into two parts. In the first, we argue that peacebuilding ‘best practices’ reflect how dominant Western discourses create conceptual boundaries (‘violent hierarchies’) to restrict the recognition of indigenous ideas as legitimate. In the second, we examine Timorese civil society efforts to improve the land reform program through acts of resistance to bodies of authority. Overall, we illuminate how in Timor-Leste Western assumptions and conventions contributed to boundaries to local participation, which contradicts liberal narratives of empowerment and capacity-building.

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