Timor-Leste Banned Martial Arts for Three Years. It Now Has a Law — and the Ban Is Still On.
In November 2023 Timor-Leste suspended the teaching, learning and practice of martial arts across the entire country and ordered every club and school closed. The measure was meant to last six months. It has been extended five times and currently runs to 31 December 2026. In July 2026 the National Parliament passed the law that was supposed to end it. The premises remain shut.
How a six-month order became a three-year shutdown
On 10 November 2023, after clashes involving martial-arts groups left four people dead and twenty-six injured, with twenty-one homes and ten vehicles damaged, Timor-Leste’s Council of Ministers adopted Government Resolution No. 45/2023. It suspended the teaching, learning and practice of martial arts and ritual arts for six months, suspended the operating authorisations of centres, clubs and schools, and ordered their premises closed.
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| 10 Nov 2023 | Resolution 45/2023 — six-month nationwide suspension, premises closed |
| 24 Apr 2024 | Resolution 17/2024 — extended |
| 7 Nov 2024 | Resolution 60/2024 — extended |
| 7 Apr 2025 | Resolution 22/2025 — extended |
| 17 Dec 2025 | Resolution 77/2025 — extended |
| 3 Jun 2026 | Extended again, to 31 December 2026 |
| 6 Jul 2026 | Parliament passes the new statute in final global vote, 39–0 with 20 abstentions |
| 22 Jul 2026 | Promulgated as Law No. 9/2026 |
The law that now exists
Most coverage of this story still describes the statute as pending. It is not. Parliament approved it in generality on 31 March 2026 with 38 votes in favour and Fretilin abstaining, and passed it in final global vote on 6 July 2026 by 39 to nil with 20 abstentions. It was promulgated as Law No. 9/2026 of 22 July 2026, establishing a legal regime for the teaching, learning and practice of martial arts.
What the record establishes about its contents: it creates a Sports Regulatory Commission for Martial Arts (CRDAM) and a Martial Arts Monitoring and Inspection Commission (CMFAM); it applies a risk-profile regime to groups with histories of violence; it requires political and party neutrality of martial-arts organisations while preserving freedom of association; it requires that practice retain a sporting, educational and cultural character; it restricts the wearing of uniforms outside designated contexts; and it sets rules for clubs and trainers.
Other provisions have been widely attributed to the law — trainer certification, compulsory member registries, bars on serving police, soldiers, magistrates and civil servants joining martial-arts groups, and a penalties schedule. Those are plausible and consistent with the government’s stated aims, but we could not confirm them in the accessible record and have not stated them as fact. In August 2026 a parliamentary committee asked the government to run a public socialisation campaign explaining the regime, which suggests its details are not yet widely understood inside the country either.
The part that should unsettle a school owner
The law passed in July. The ban runs to December. A statute designed to regulate the sector is in force at the same time as an emergency measure that prohibits the sector from operating at all.
That gap is the real lesson, and it has nothing to do with Timorese politics specifically. Emergency measures are easy to extend and hard to end. Each of the five extensions was justified by social stability and by waiting for the legal framework. The legal framework now exists. The extension did not lapse with it.
Civil-society monitors, including the CIVICUS Monitor, have repeatedly flagged the rolling suspension and questioned whether a blanket nationwide prohibition is proportionate to the link between organised groups and communal violence.
What a school owner anywhere should take from this
When the public associates “the academy” with organised street violence, legislators do not distinguish between styles, affiliations, adult programmes and children’s classes. They close buildings. Nobody in Timor-Leste set out to shut down a kids’ taekwondo class, and a kids’ taekwondo class has been shut for nearly three years.
The professional defence against that is unglamorous and effective. A written code of conduct that governs behaviour off the mat. No club identity carried into street confrontations. Cooperation with police on actual crimes rather than internal handling. And a visible, documented record of youth and community programming, so that when someone asks what your school does, there is an answer on file rather than an assertion.
The counter-example exists in the same news cycle: in September 2026 Canadian federal funding went to boxing and martial-arts mentoring in Edmonton as crime-prevention infrastructure. Same activity, opposite public framing. Which story a legislature believes about your sector is not decided during the crisis. It is decided in the years before it.
Frequently asked questions
Is martial arts still banned in Timor-Leste?
Yes. The nationwide suspension of teaching, learning and practising martial arts and ritual arts, first imposed on 10 November 2023, has been extended five times and currently runs to 31 December 2026. Club and school premises remain closed.
Why did Timor-Leste ban martial arts?
The Council of Ministers acted after clashes involving martial-arts groups left four people dead and twenty-six injured, with twenty-one homes and ten vehicles damaged. Government Resolution No. 45/2023 suspended practice for six months and closed premises, citing social stability.
Has Timor-Leste passed a martial arts law?
Yes. The National Parliament approved it in generality on 31 March 2026 and passed it in final global vote on 6 July 2026 by 39 votes to nil with 20 abstentions. It was promulgated as Law No. 9/2026 of 22 July 2026, creating a regulatory commission and a monitoring and inspection commission for martial arts.
Does the new law end the ban?
Not so far. The statute was promulgated in July 2026 while the suspension was already extended to 31 December 2026, so both are currently in effect. A parliamentary committee asked the government in August 2026 to explain the new regime publicly.
Related reading
Sources, and what we could not confirm
Primary sources: the Government of Timor-Leste’s own communiqué of the 10 November 2023 Council of Ministers decision and Resolution No. 45/2023; the successive extension resolutions; Tatoli, the state news agency, for the 3 June 2026 extension, the 6 July 2026 final global vote and the August 2026 committee request; and Portuguese-language reporting of the 31 March 2026 generality vote.
Corrected from earlier accounts: the statute is no longer pending. It passed final vote on 6 July 2026 and was promulgated as Law No. 9/2026 of 22 July 2026. Accounts describing it as awaiting approval are out of date. We could not confirm a reported 38–0–16 split on the March generality vote; the record we could verify shows 38 in favour with Fretilin abstaining.
Not established: several provisions widely attributed to the law — trainer certification, member registries, incompatibility rules for police, military, magistrates and civil servants, and a penalties schedule — could not be confirmed against the published text and are not stated here as fact.
Corrected attribution: criticism of the ban has come through CIVICUS Monitor country updates rather than a Universal Periodic Review submission. Timor-Leste’s next UPR is scheduled for January 2027.
Corrections. See our editorial policy.
