Nuno Caldas spoke this Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, before the Working Group of the United Nations Human Rights Council to present Angola's report on the 4th universal periodic review.
The governor highlighted that freedom of expression and of the press are enshrined in the Constitution, indicating that there is an independent entity to regulate the 'media' and that it makes regular reports on the sector's activity, with 3,275 journalists registered with the Ethics Card Commission.
Angola, he stressed, “has no record of journalists being arrested or persecuted for expressing themselves freely, and no journalist has died in the course of their professional activity.”
Nuno Caldas also highlighted the increase in media outlets between 2017 and 2024, with there currently being 33 newspapers in print or digital, 37 magazines, 36 publications, 16 news websites, 23 radio stations and two television channels.
He highlighted, on the other hand, that freedom of assembly and demonstration are also protected by the Constitution.
"Citizens can demonstrate freely as long as they do not violate the rights of others and the demonstrations are peaceful and respect public order," he stressed.
As an example, between 2018 and 2024, there were a total of 838 demonstrations organized by citizens, in which they expressed their opinions and which were "peacefully supervised by the National Police and other competent entities", with emphasis on the province of Luanda.
“When there is excessive use of force, police officers are held accountable,” added Nuno Caldas, saying that acts of vandalism and violence against the police are also recorded, the perpetrators of which are subject to legal proceedings and tried in court.
The official said there was also an increase in legalized non-governmental organizations, which rose from 620 in 2020 to 1,158.
“Human rights are protected by law and we have increased dialogue and cooperation with civil society (…). This shows that Angola has an open attitude towards dialogue,” he highlighted.
Last year, Angola was the only Portuguese-speaking African country to rise in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking, but organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have denounced increased restrictions on freedom of expression.
The Minister of Justice, present at the same meeting, said that the vast majority of the recommendations presented previously were or are being implemented and stressed that the fight against corruption is one of the executive's priorities, saying that between 2017 and September 2022 more than 2,500 criminal cases involving money laundering, embezzlement, corruption and other economic and financial crimes involving public office holders, of which more than 2,000 are under preliminary investigation, 474 cases have progressed to trial and 40 convictions have been obtained.
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism of the Human Rights Council that requires each United Nations Member State to undergo a human rights review by its peers every four and a half years.