Africa-Press – Angola. Angola’s commitments made under International Humanitarian Law more than 40 years ago, with the support of the National Red Cross Society and private partners, were highlighted yesterday at the 34th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which is taking place from the 28th to the 31st of this month, in Geneva, Switzerland.
The representative of Angola to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, Margarida Izata, who heads an Angolan delegation to the event, spoke at the plenary session in which she recalled that, immediately after National Independence, on March 16, 1978, the Angolan Red Cross was created, which in August 1982, played a fundamental role in the implementation of the country’s Humanitarian Action Plan, adjusted to current challenges.
According to the ambassador, Angola has implemented all instruments on International Humanitarian Law, and is a party to the Geneva Conventions and other instruments related to the protection of victims of armed conflicts, including the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and their additional Protocols I and II.
Margarida Izata said that Angola recognizes the urgent need to create, in the country, the National Commission for the implementation and dissemination of International Humanitarian Law, after internal consultations with related sectors, and that it will also count on the support of private humanitarian institutions, such as the Red Cross of Angola.
The Angolan diplomat also highlighted the humanitarian challenges faced by Angola, with emphasis on the drought and floods in the south of the country, which have received special attention from the Angolan Executive.
“Laws were approved, aiming at the domestication or transformation of the principles and norms of IHL in the internal legal system, with emphasis on the Civil Protection and Fire Service, as the main body that guarantees warning, alert, intervention, support and rescue, together with other institutions, whose action contributes to the implementation of IHL”, said Margarida Izata, at the event.
He assured that Angola has been working to ensure that national strategies, plans and programs are inclusive for all communities, especially those most vulnerable to disasters, such as marginalized groups, women, children and people with disabilities.
Strengthening the quality of services
He also explained that Angola has strengthened the functional quality of social action services, with special attention to the community level, so that sensitive groups are sufficiently known, through periodic registration which, in this way, facilitates the knowledge of people and groups vulnerable to disasters, their mobility across the territory and which helps them to identify the type of disaster that may constitute them, possibly the main targets.
At a global level, the diplomat considers it imperative that governments commit themselves more effectively to creating and adopting strategies for mobilizing financial resources, both domestically and internationally, with the aim of ensuring greater financing from the public and private sectors for reducing the risk of natural disasters, which can cause unpredictable humanitarian damage.
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