Angola | Drop charges against 59 human rights defenders
At its 43rd session, the Human Rights Council considered Angola's report resulting from its last Universal Periodic Review, during which Angola received 272 recommendations and accepted 259 of them.
Regarding the eleven recommendations rejected by Angolan authorities, some related to the establishment of a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI), an issue already tackled last November during the review of Angola human rights record. Despite these rejections, Permanent Representative of Angola to the United Nations in Geneva Margarida Rosa Da Silva Izata asserted “that the establishment of a human rights institution in line with the Paris Principles [which provide guidelines for NHRIs] is an institution which has the appropriate legal framework in both political and administrative terms”. She also guaranteed that the NHRI ombudsman independently investigates human rights abuses and can “ensure that the justice system and the public administration work in accordance with law”.
ISHR repeatedly recommended Angola establish an NHRI that is compliant with the Paris Principles and fully mandated and resourced to monitor the situation of human rights defenders in the country and prevent violations and abuses. ISHR commends the establishment of such an institution and will monitor its effective compliance with the Paris Principles.
Among other recommendations, ISHR also pressed the authorities to adopt a national law for the promotion and protection of human rights defenders in line with the UN Declaration on human rights defenders and other relevant international and regional human rights norms. Such a law would indeed better guarantee that defenders and journalists can effectively exercise their freedoms of expressions, association and peaceful assembly without being harassed or arbitrarily arrested. As 59 protesters arrested in 2019 are currently being charged for criminal association, rebellion, insult of the state as well as public disturbance and resistance, ISHR called on authorities “to immediately drop the charges against the 59 defenders”.
At the 83rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, held in Banjul (The Gambia) from 2 May to 22 May, ISHR delivered an oral statement calling for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the continuation of the process toward a human rights defenders protection law in Zambia, reparations for Africans and people of African descent, and a binding treaty on environmental rights in Africa.
On 3 May 2025, on the sidelines of the 83rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ISHR co-sponsored a side event on the situation of human rights defenders in the Sahel, organised by the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organisation against Torture.
From 28 to 30 April 2025, participants in the NGO Forum held in Banjul, The Gambia, discussed key human rights and democracy issues affecting the continent, as well as the work of defenders. Participants contributed to the adoption of resolutions and recommendations, with a focus on reparations and transitional justice.
