Africa-Press – Angola. The deputies of the National Assembly (AN) decided Friday, to postpone “sine die” the debates, in particular, around the duties of the police authorities, within the scope of the Assembly and Demonstration Law project.
According to the deputy and chairman of the 1st Commission, dedicated to Institutional and Legal Affairs, Joaquim Reis Júnior, due to lack of consensus on the duties of the authorities responsible for guaranteeing the protection of demonstrators, the debates were transferred, after already on Thursday- fair it was not possible to overcome the impasse for voting on the chapter.
This Friday’s session began with a contribution by Deputy Milonga Bernardo, on the actions of the authorities, essentially the police, in demonstrations.
The proposal indicates that the agent responsible for maintaining public order and tranquility must act with proportionality, balance, weighting, moderation, precaution and control in the use of the resources made available to him.
It also suggests that the police officer act exclusively on behalf of the public service and in respect of legally protected rights.
Within the framework of the same, highlight also for the intervention of deputy Olívio Calumbo, who asked that the norm prohibit the detention of demonstrators and the means and articles that they were accompanied by.
The position was contradicted by deputy Antonieta Baptista, referring that there are already instruments that regulate the actions of the corporation.
In relation to this aspect, deputy Yolanda Sousa considered the question “a non-issue”, given that the basic police law establishes procedures for its staff.
With regard to the understanding of whether the responsibility for ensuring demonstrations should be attributed to the authorities or to the agent of authority, deputy José Semedo advanced with a wording in a conciliatory perspective to bring together different positions, where he defended the need to respect the rights of demonstrators, but also to ensure that the demonstrators respect the rights of others.
He also suggested that the authorities responsible for maintaining, preventing and restoring order act appropriately and use appropriate and proportionate means to those of the demonstrators to impose public tranquility.
Deputy Jorge Vitorino, on the other hand, insisted on the need to regulate police action in law in order, supposedly, to avoid excesses by the authorities and their agents.
Due to the return to the initial positions, deputy Joaquim Reis Júnior decided to postpone the discussions “sine die”, since he considered that there had been a retreat in the discussions.
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