Luanda - Angolan MP Luísa Damião, on Monday in Johannesburg, South Africa, presented Angola's progress on legislation to protect children's rights.
The Angolan MPs was speaking at the debate of the Committee on Human Development and Special Programmes of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum, which is taking place under the slogan "Advancing the African Union's (AU) Agenda 2040 for Children: Strengthening Parliamentary Engagement for Child-Centred Legislation and Policies."
The politician informed that Angola ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child on 11 April 1992 and submitted the instruments of ratification with the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Secretary General on 7 October 1999.
Luísa Damião said that Angola, as a member state of the African Union, the United Nations Organisation and the Development Community of Southern African Countries, had ratified a number of international legal human rights instruments, including the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
Amongst these, she said that the country had ratified around 20 international legal instruments on human rights, particularly the rights of the child and in line with the main international agendas, and in 2007 made 11 Commitments to Children.
In her speech, she informed that Angolan parliamentarians remain committed to deepening the issues inherent to the protection and promotion of children's rights.
“As parliamentarians we must continue to legislate so that the family remains the fundamental section of society, which shapes the citizens of tomorrow, upright and responsible, filled with moral, ethical, civic and patriotic values”, she stressed.
Regarding vulnerable groups, to Luísa Damião, parliamentarians must continue to play a fundamental role in protecting the family by passing laws that favour groups considered vulnerable, such as children, women and the elderly.
The governing party’s MP revealed that the Angolan parliament has been creating forms of dialogue with the aim of preserving and extending one of humanity's main achievements, which is children's rights.
Luísa Damião welcomed the SADC Parliamentary Forum as a regional inter-parliamentary body, since it is a platform to support and improve integration through parliamentary participation, as well as to promote good practices and methods of intervention by states, especially on issues related to the promotion of human rights.
The Angolan parliamentary delegation, led by Luísa Damião, also includes MP Diamantino Mussokola, who will be working in South Africa until tomorrow, 21 May.
SC/MRA/jmc
