According to the Secretary of State for Human Rights and Citizenship, Ana Celeste, the actions related to the protection, defense and promotion of religious freedom in the country are in perfect alignment with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The minister, who was speaking this Wednesday at the opening of a seminar on Human Rights and Freedom of Religion, said that the executive is firmly committed to normalizing the religious situation.
Another "important commitment" in the country, he noted, has to do with "promoting the process of recognizing religious confessions and, at the same time, protecting citizens from all religious practices that violate human rights".
"Among several concerns, the discriminatory treatment given to women stands out, namely, relegation to the condition of stigmatization, female genital mutilation and polygamous and unequal marriage," he said.
Angola currently has 84 churches registered and / or recognized by the authorities and more than 1,000 unrecognized.
Islam, which has thousands of believers spread across the country, is still not recognized by the authorities.
The seminar is the result of the National Human Rights Strategy Implementation Plan, "recently approved", and the "commitment assumed by Angola" when defending the II Implementation Report of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the II Periodic Evaluation Cycle Universal.
Sensitize society about freedom of religion, "from a human rights perspective, foster dialogue with religious minorities, with particular emphasis on the Muslim community and promote a culture of human rights", are the objectives of the meeting, according to the ruler.
"The present seminar highlights our inter-religious dimension as a nation, as we managed to bring together in this event, in a totally harmonious climate, people of different sensibilities from our religious mosaic", he underlined.
For Ana Celeste, religious freedom "is strongly related to a series of economic, civic and public health benefits".
"From an individual perspective, religious people and those who practice their faith can have a better family life," he noted.
According to the authorities, 41 percent of the Angolan population is Catholic and 79 percent profess Christianity.
The meeting that brought together religious minorities, especially Muslims, was promoted by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Angola with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
In 2019, Angola passed the law on freedom of religion and worship, a regulation regulated in February 2020.
