Africa-Press – Angola. The President of the Constitutional Court, Laurinda Cardoso, highlighted the role of this body as the “guardian” of the Constitution of the Republic, as the country’s fundamental law, aimed at safeguarding fundamental rights, freedoms and guarantees.
The presiding judge of the Constitutional Court was a speaker on the theme “The role of the Constitutional Court and the processing of the Extraordinary Appeal of Unconstitutionality (REI)”, at the first tripartite provincial conference on Angolan criminal procedure, held in the city of Lobito.
Laurinda Cardoso reminded the speakers that, contrary to common jurisdiction, Constitutional jurisdiction translates into a set of mechanisms and judicial procedures created in order to guarantee the constitutional order of a State.
“Hence the need for the existence of the Constitutional Court or, at most, a Constitutional jurisdiction”, as he advances, explaining that this Constitutional jurisdiction is implemented through supervision and consists of the power that this body has to examine whether a normative, judicial or whether or not the administrative body conforms to the Constitution.
And if the conclusion is negative, declare it unconstitutional, as admitted.
Regarding the Extraordinary Appeal of Unconstitutionality (REI), the President of the Constitutional Court said that its importance should be gauged by looking at the issue of human dignity and human rights.
In fact, he recalled, “we have reiterated several times that the Constitutional Court is the only court that has the competence to judge, in the last instance, questions that concern human rights”, he stressed.
And he adds: “It is a true court of human rights”.
Especially because, he recalled, the Constitution of the Republic has almost 70 to 80 chapters dedicated to fundamental rights, freedoms and guarantees, “not to mention that then we have the part of economic and social rights that constitute a part of fundamental rights”.
In her speech, the judge clarified that the role of the TC, in the first instance, aims to ensure the application of the principle of supremacy of the Constitution – the country’s fundamental law – and the effectiveness of fundamental rights, freedoms and guarantees.
On the other hand, he mentioned the material guarantee of the Constitution, that is, resolving constitutional conflicts of a legal-constitutional and political-electoral nature, namely the competence to deal with issues related to political parties, their conflicts and the electoral process.
Added to this is the role of carrying out the integrating function of constitutional justice, in addition to defending the Constitution.
In fact, he said that the Angolan legal system enshrines various “guarantee mechanisms”, including habeas corpus, habeas data, popular actions, actions of responsibility of the State and other public legal persons, constitutional actions and constitutional resources.
And it considers that, as a mechanism for protecting the rights, freedoms and fundamental guarantees of the acts of State bodies, on the one hand, and protecting citizens against the arbitrariness of public authorities, on the other, and by strengthening the rule of law , the REI gains its constitutionality in the material sense.
The purpose of this tripartite conference between the Benguela Provincial Council of the Angolan Bar Association (OAA), the Lobito District Court and the Attorney General’s Office was to reinforce and improve the level of knowledge of justice and law professionals regarding responses to the needs of citizens in this segment.
Topics were also discussed on “The main legal instruments in the Angolan legal system for combating corruption”, “The relationship between judges, prosecutors and lawyers” and “Public security and the guarantee of defendants in criminal proceedings”.
The event had more than 200 participants, including judges, prosecutors and lawyers.
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