"We are here because we were chosen by the class, so our actions will be solely committed and aligned with their interests and aligned with the rule of law, we will not therefore be political opposition, nor party instruments, we will just be OAA, solely committed to fulfilling the mission entrusted to us by our colleagues", stated José Luís Domingos.
The Angolan lawyer, who was speaking after being sworn in as OAA president, for the three-year period 2024-2026, announced a set of reforms for greater solidity and respect for the class, ensuring that arbitrary detentions of lawyers "will never go unpunished".
José Luís Domingos, 47 years old, was elected president of the OAA in December 2023, beating his peers Vicente Pongolola, Henriqueta Sousa, José Carlos Miguel and Sebastião Vinte e Cinco.
Last Friday, at the ceremony in which the elected president of the OAA Provincial Council was also sworn in, the president promised to create the consultative council of presidents, as a "fundamental instrument for (...) order to truly reach the level it expected".
The university professor also highlighted that with his inauguration a new cycle begins at OAA: "a cycle that presupposes harmonization of past achievements with future ones, within the scope of a modern and sometimes destructive vision, but always aligned with the values and principles that guide our class".
"This is the time to unite and move towards the dignification and defense of the class, this is the time to give more relevance and solidity to an Order that makes us all proud, for the transformative options it makes in society", he defended, promising do everything to live up to the confidence of the new OAA management members.
"We need an increasingly dignified and respected Order, made up of independent, competent, courageous and ethically irreproachable lawyers who, of course, fulfill their obligations", he appealed.
In relation to the context of the Angolan legal system, José Luís Domingos considered that the Angolan Justice "has strong cyclical and structural problems, which urgently need to be resolved to guarantee the consolidation of the nation".
He defended the need to rethink the current model of Angolan Justice, saying that the country needs a model that is based on strengthening the independence of the judiciary and that finds strategies to improve its efficiency.
"A judicial power that is materially independent of other sovereign bodies appears unavoidable for the emergence of a true democratic state based on the rule of law, which is one of the determining conditions for the strengthening of institutions and consequently the development of the country", he stressed.
And he recalled that the OAA is an association with enormous responsibility in relation to the implementation, consolidation and monitoring of the rule of law, considering that it needs resources from the State to finance its responsibilities.
"It is not fair that we are the only institution with this dignity, but without a Budget that comes from the State. The lawyer's pocket cannot be the means to finance the responsibilities constitutionally imposed on the Order", he pointed out.
"That's why we appeal to the competent entities so that the OAA is able to produce a Budget that is up to its responsibilities, we cannot continue to be treated as a poor relation of Justice", he pointed out.
With a degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University of Angola (UCAN), José Luís Domingos also has a master's degree in private law from the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University of Lisbon and director of the UCAN Law Research Center.
