Speaking to Lusa, on the sidelines of a ceremony for the signing of human rights contracts by the European Union (EU) delegation, Ana Celeste Januário commented on the report by the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), released last week, expressing the concerns of the government on the subject.
Noting that HRW does not have a presence in Angola, the Secretary of State said that "these reports always bring some inaccuracies", although she admits that "there are concerns" on the subject and added that the National Human Rights Strategy contemplates "very specific actions regarding to these matters".
Attacks on freedom of the press, police violence and arbitrary arrests in Angola are some of the complaints in the HRW report on human rights in 2022, which coincided with an election year in the country.
Regarding police action, Ana Celeste Januário underlined that there is a protocol with the National Police, for the training of agents, and all cases in which "there is bad performance" are followed.
"It is not State policy in terms of human rights that human rights are violated, that the dignity of any citizen is violated, most of the time they are individual procedures and breaches of protocol", she stressed.
As for freedom of the press and access to information, the Secretary of State also guaranteed that reported cases are followed up.
"The work we have been doing is centered on prevention, so that no violation (of human rights) occurs in any area, but unfortunately this is not always possible in most countries in the world and HRW itself makes this reference ", stressed the official.
Ana Celeste Januário explained that the first step is always to verify the veracity of the information, followed by follow-up.
"There are cases that, sometimes, appear to be violations or bad behavior, but then it turns out that there is no intervention by the State, either through action or inaction", she continued, stressing that when cases are confirmed there must be accountability.
For this reason, in 2022 a complaint system began to be developed so that there is also a response and "that the citizen does not feel that there is impunity and effectively feels the hand of the State".
The minister also referred that, in the field of human rights, the Government has promoted forums for dialogue with civil society, and mechanisms for bilateral dialogue with institutions, as well as the publication of reports.
