The manifesto on the right to demonstrate was read out today at the official launch of the campaign "Proteger o Protesto", an initiative of Amnesty International, the Angolan association Omunga and other civil society organizations in Angola.
The document read by the activist and member of the contesting civil society, Pembele Pacavira, expresses concern in Angola with "the levels of police violence and constant rebuke to demonstrations and other forms of protest, persecution and threats to demonstrators".
"That all cases of police violence reported since the beginning of the first state of emergency in the context of the onset of the covid-19 pandemic be investigated, in which the excessive and disproportionate use of force by the police resulted in the death of adolescents and young people , whose youngest victim was 14 years old", says the document.
Activists and members of Angolan civil society demand that all agents, security agents who have some involvement, be brought to justice and duly held accountable in cases of shooting, torture of demonstrators and impediment to the holding of peaceful demonstrations from March 2020 to the present date .
For the survivors and relatives of at least 11 victims, including the doctor Sílvio Dala, who died after being taken by the police to a police station for allegedly driving without a mask, and Inocêncio de Matos, a university student killed during a demonstration in Luanda, demand that they be compensated by the State.
"We also demand that the Angolan authorities adopt a more unifying discourse and that, through their leadership, they inspire the increasingly republican security forces, that they respect the right to life, freedom of expression, assembly and demonstration and understand that their role in society is to guarantee the safety of Angolans and not put their lives in danger and that, above all, they understand the exercise of protest as a social element in a plural and democratic society", he said.
The manifesto also called for a revision of the May 1991 Law on the Right to Assembly and Demonstration and that it be adapted to the new context, explicitly expressing that peaceful demonstrations do not require any type of authorization, as stipulated in Article 47. of the Constitution of the Republic of Angola.
The Angolan National Assembly scheduled for the 25th of this month the discussion and vote, in general, of the Draft Law on Freedom of Assembly and Demonstration, on the initiative of the parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the largest opposition party.
The basis of the document states that this bill aims to respond to an imperative of democracy, as well as to allow a truly effective implementation of the rule "Freedom of Assembly and Demonstration, of article 47 of the Constitution", according to the news agency angolan, Angop.
During the event, two people were invited to share their experiences and current situations on the subject, namely the wife of activist Gilson Moreira "Tanaice Neutro", who has been detained since January last year.
Tanaice Neutro was sentenced, in October 2022, to a suspended sentence of one year and three months, for the crime of outrage against the State, its symbols and organs, for having made a video where he called the Angolan President, João Lourenço, a "bandit and clown".
The activist, who is ill, according to the woman's report today, is still in detention awaiting a response to the appeal filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office to the Court of Appeal, for not agreeing with that sentence.
The secretary general of the Union of Higher Education Teachers of Angola (Sinpes), Eduardo Peres Alberto, also reported the threats he has been subject to due to the interpolated strike, which was resumed in January this year, after other phases carried out from of November 2020.
Eduardo Peres Alberto shared that on Monday his residence suffered yet another act of vandalism, the second, when his eldest daughter, attacked in the street last April by two unknown men with a toxic gas, was resting in her room.
The trade unionist said that the threats began in March of this year, taking advantage of the occasion to denounce the "crime against humanity" of which he and his family are being targeted, regretting the silence of the police authorities to whom he denounced the case.
The Movement of Angolan Students (MEA), in the voice of its vice-president, Joaquim Lutandi, expressed support for higher education teachers in their claims, criticizing the setback in education and the lack of investment in this sector.
Joaqui Lutandi mentioned that due to the higher education teachers' strike, the MEA organized demonstrations, but in both attempts they were stopped by the police.
