In a note to which Lusa had access, the UALP expresses “deep concern and indignation” with the decision to suspend the event “National Dialogue on the Electoral Legislative Process”, which it considers to have a “judicially preventive and limiting nature” and to constitute “unacceptable interference in the sphere of autonomy and institutional freedom of the OAA”.
The Luanda Court of Appeal ordered the suspension of the initiative scheduled for this Thursday, ruling in favor of a group of six lawyers who claimed that the OAA did not have the authority to promote this type of event.
The UALP disagrees with the Angolan judges and highlights in its note that the OAA statute provides for “collaborating in the administration of justice, fighting for the defense of the democratic rule of law and defending the rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens and the primacy of democratic legality”, a mission within which the event falls.
UALP, created in 2002 initially under the name of Association of Bar Associations of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, represents more than one million lawyers from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique and Portugal.
For UALP, “promoting public, technical and plural debate on a legislative initiative is to affirm the vitality of a democratic society”, so that its silencing represents a risk to the legitimacy of the democratic process.
“The simple act of organizing a space for listening and reflection does not, in any way, represent a replacement for legislative power, but rather its healthy complement,” says the note.
The UALP states that the arbitrary interpretation of the Luanda Court of Appeal, which invoked the “lack of institutional vocation of the OAA for this purpose”, is “worrying and unacceptable”.
“The attempt to exclude the OAA from the civic and democratic space is not only a legal error, it is a serious symptom of democratic regression”, criticizes the UALP, considering that the decision restricts “in a disproportionate way the exercise of freedoms of expression, assembly and association”.
The UALP speaks of a “direct violation of the autonomy of the OAA, which enjoys institutional independence” to promote debates on matters of public interest and an “alarming and dangerous precedent”, which could be used to curtail the critical thinking and performance of lawyers.
In the face of what it considers to be “an unacceptable distortion of the role of the OAA in public life” and an “affront to the spirit of advocacy”, the UALP stands in solidarity with its Angolan colleagues, to whom it expresses solidarity and institutional support, and urges the Angolan judicial authorities to ensure the “full freedom of action of the OAA”.
The organization also made itself available to mobilize the appropriate international mechanisms, together with the United Nations and the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), in defense of the integrity and independence of the legal profession in Angola.
The debate in question was intended to encourage "reflection on the electoral legislative package" that is being considered by the National Assembly, with various segments of civil society.
Among the participants in the debate were the former president of the OAA Luis Paulo Monteiro, the coordinator of the Angolan Social Political Observatory (OPSA), Sérgio Calundungo, the coordinator of the Angolan Electoral Observatory, Luis Jimbo, activists Luaty Beirão and Cesaltina Cutaia, journalists such as Reginaldo Silva and Teixeira Cândido (former president of the union), television commentators Bali Chionga and José Pakisi Mendonça and researchers Cesaltina Abreu and David Boio.
The OAA also promised to file a complaint against the reporting judge “for violation of the duties of impartiality, reasonableness and respect for the constitutional limits of jurisdiction” and admits to appealing to the Constitutional Court “given the non-application of constitutional norms relating to fundamental freedoms and the statute of the Order.
