Throughout this presentation we will seek the work of Human Rights in Angola, the challenges  and perspective for Angola, regards to the Viena Declaration and Programme of Action and  global Human Rights Governance. 

The Angola National Human Rights Strategy (NHRS) is part of the process on participatory  construction of public policies on Human Rights, coordinated by the Ministry of Justice and  Human Rights, with the participation of public institutions, civil society and international  institutional partners. As part of the mainstreaming of Human Rights policies and the necessary  institutional linkage, the Action Plan to Combat Trafficking of Human Beings will be  incorporated as a key part of this Strategy.

The NHRS is a guiding document which aims to frame the actions of the Government of Angola  in the field of Human Rights, with reference to the Governance Plan 2017-2022 and the National Development Plan 2018-2022. The strategy is based on the Constitution of the Republic of Angola (CRA) and the international  treaties ratified by Angola on Human Rights, namely the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights of 1986 and Angola's  commitments for election as a member of the Human Rights Council 2018-2020.

For this reason, the present National Strategy, which was designed in the context of the  International System of Human Rights, becomes a compass for the effective implementation of the governance agenda on Human Rights, and should be absorved and reflected in all sectoral  public policies, as well as in the most distinctive national policy instruments. 

 GENERAL FRAMEWORK 

The aim of this strategy is to achieve the "National Majority in Human Rights", elevating  Human Rights to the category of "Issue of National Security" worthy of evaluation, prevention  and measures to guarantee stability and social peace, as well as to assess, prevent and take  measures for the issues of Defence, Security and Internal Order and, in this measure, return to Angolans the civic and political sovereignty of their defence and protection, through permanent self-assessment, denunciation, condemnation and correction of Human Rights violations  committed by ourselves, Angolans, or by external entities, thus seeking to diminish the external  "paternalism” with which Angola is often guided, evaluated, denounced and condemned by some private-law organizations, considered independent, that deal with Human Rights. This is the fundamental axis of the strategy, and it is on it that the Human Rights policy  contained in the Strategy was built upon. 

For this Strategy to be successfully implemented, it is necessary to clearly distinguish  international political-diplomatic management from Angola's responsibilities and commitments  in the field of Human Rights, from internal political-administrative management, with the  involvement of the entire society in the defence, promotion and protection of Human Rights. At an International Level, the Strategy foresees the strengthening of the role of the competent  national institutions in the United Nations Human Rights organizations, strictly implementing  the rules and principles contained in the legal and international Human Rights instruments,  notably the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the African Charter on Human  and Peoples' Rights of 1968 and other international Human Rights conventions.

Internally, it is imperative that the National Strategy foresees and creates instruments to effectively and efficiently operationalize the involvement of Angolan society in the defence,  promotion and protection of human rights, based on the Constitution of the Republic of Angola  and other existing or future national legal instruments. 

In order for Angolan society to be proactively involved in the defence, promotion and  monitoring of human rights, the instruments that are intended to do so are the Human Rights  Local Committees (CLDH) in provinces, municipalities, districts and communes. According to this perspective, the Human Rights Local Committees should produce reports on  the state of Human Rights in each commune, district, municipality and province. These reports will then be consolidated into a National Human Rights Report that will be  subject to evaluation, prevention and corrective action by the National Security Council. 

A national public stimulus to encourage the defence, promotion and endogenous protection of  Human Rights is the institution of the "4th of April Human Rights Award" to be awarded  annually to entities, organizations and people who stand out in the national panorama of Human  Rights. The main objective is to make Angola a reference in the guarantee, respect and defence of  Human Rights, based on the principle of human dignity. Ensuring respect for and compliance  with Human Rights in Angola. 

The mission, vision and actions reflected in this Strategy are guided by two sets of principles:  historical-cultural principles and normative principles. The historical and cultural principles are anchored in the national culture of respect for human  dignity, especially of the most vulnerable, and in the generational transmission of the values  and references by which Angolan society is governed in its ethnocultural diversity. Furthermore,  the Strategy draws on the history of the Angolan people's secular struggle to achieve freedom  and human dignity, the highest point of which was the struggle for national liberation from  colonialism and its historical outcome, which was the conquest of national independence in  1975. 

In this sense, the Strategy is an appanage of the values of African civilization as an  inspiring element of the African concept of Human and Peoples' Rights contained in the 1986  African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. The normative principles are enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Angola, in the  treaties ratified by the Angolan state, as well as in the international Human Rights instruments  adopted by the UN and the AU. The NHRS absorbs each of the rector principles listed in the  internal legal order, through the different regulations, with which the Angolan state seeks to  guarantee the rights of citizens. These include the principle of universality and inalienable,  dignity, justice and the rule of law, social participation and inclusion and equality and nondiscrimination. 

The Strategy is a governance tool to achieve, among other, the following specific objectives: 

(a) guarantee the effective enjoyment of Human Rights in Angola for all persons, on equal terms  and without discrimination of any kind; 

(b) Ensure effective participation of civil society in the management and implementation of  Human Rights;

(c) enshrine the principle of stimulating and encouraging institutions, persons and entities that  excel in the promotion, defence and protection of Human Rights through public recognition; 

(d) provide decentralized Human Rights management through local Human Rights Committees; 

(e) establish institutional coordination mechanisms for the integrated and cross-sectoral  management of Human Rights; 

(f) define mechanisms for collecting and reporting on actions that threaten Human Rights  throughout the national territory; 

(g) define mechanisms for liaison between the Delegations of Justice and Human Rights and  the Local Human Rights Committees; 

(h) create institutional conditions for the teaching of Human Rights issues in schools and Higher Education Institutions;

(i) allow specific links with the defence, security and internal order forces in terms of education and specific training of their personnel; 

(j) disseminate the culture of internal autonomy in terms of evaluation, denunciation, condemnation and correction of internal institutional weaknesses; 

(k) ensure and strengthen the highest standards of recognition, respect and protection of economic, social and political rights in all public and private institutions;

(l) Ensure increasingly transparent public governance through the consolidation of inclusive public policies; (m) Deepen the sense of the relationship between good governance and the positive effects on citizens' Human Rights. 

The NHRS is structured in two parts. (a) The first is general and gives theoretical support and methodological scope to it. This part contains the background and explains the reasons for providing technical support to the NHRS. Also in the first part, the structuring principles and the public policies guiding the Strategy are defined. (b) In the second part, the 9 (nine) structuring axes, on which the NHRS is broken down, are dealt with in a concrete and detailed manner, namely: i. equality and non-discrimination; ii. culture and education in Human Rights; iii. civil and political rights; iv. economic, social and cultural rights; v. justice; vi. Action plan to address challenges and constraints in Human Rights; vii. Framework of Actions to be developed to achieve majority in Human Rights; viii. means and instruments for the implementation of HUMAN RIGHTS; ix. NHRS implementation plan. 

Axes of Approach The Strategy has been designed based on the following axes of approach: (a) Historical Development of Human Rights in Angola; (b) Legal and Institutional Framework for Human Rights; (c) The current Human Rights situation; (d) The Human Rights Action Plan; (e) Plan of Action. In Conclusion Angola´s national Strategy is a document that allows the participation in active and organized manner in priority international events, drawing up in advance memorandum setting out objectives to be achieved at each event; Follow and implement the recommendations of the Human Rights Council in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review; Submit the reports in due time and defend them to the competent institutions; Hold meetings with the National Assembly to promote ratification of unratified International Human Rights Treaties. 

Promote the alignment of public policies with international Human Rights standards The Strategy and the Angola Human Rights Action Plan is in accordance of the International principle of cooperation, global Human Rights Governance and the Viena Declaration and program of action.

Excerpt from Ana Celeste Cardoso Januário's Speech at the "Forum on Global Human Rights Governance".

(Ana Celeste Cardoso Januário is State Secretary of Human Rights and Citizenship, Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Angola)