Besides the parlatory of the Hospital Prisão São Paulo of Luanda, the secretaries of State of the Interior, José Bamoquina Zau, and of Human Rights and Citizenship, Ana Celeste, also inaugurated this Thursday the parlatory of the Central District of Luanda.
The two new virtual parlatories join the four previous ones installed in the District of Viana, two in the female wing and one in the male wing, under the Project "A Word, A Virtual Embrace - Virtual Parlamentarium" funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Angola.
For the Attorney General, Hélder Pitta Grós, the virtual parlatories have a "great dimension", especially because "they offer an opportunity" for the interaction of the inmates with their families.
"Due to the covid-19 there are many restrictions for them to see their family and now they have the opportunity in a virtual way to be in contact with their family, so this platform also has the issue of facilitating access to justice," said Pitta Grós.
The deputy representative of UNDP in Angola, Mamisoa Rangers, made it known, on the occasion, that the project that contemplates the construction and/or installation, in the initial phase, of 10 virtual parlatories in prisons is budgeted at 300 thousand dollars.
For the UNDP representative, the construction of virtual parliaments in Angolan prisons illustrates the United Nations agency's multisectoral partnership with the various public and private organizations in Angola.
Regarding the extension of these services to the other Angolan prisons, Mamisoa Rangers admitted to "mobilize more resources", together with her partners, to reach other provinces.
"The parlatory also has the strand of access to justice and the educational strand for prisoners and we now need to formulate new proposals to see how to mobilize more resources," he stressed.
The Secretary of State for Family and Promotion of Women, Elsa Bárber, considered the virtual parlatories as "an initiative for the socialization of families and will shorten the distance between the inmate and the family, relieving pressure on the families of inmates.
"It's a very important initiative and we're going to be increasingly publicizing the parlatory access numbers so that families can interact with their members," he pointed out.
The Project "A Word, A Virtual Embrace - Virtual Parlamentarium" is also supported by the Center for Human Rights and Citizenship of the Law School of the Catholic University of Angola (UCAN).
