Africa-Press – Angola. The Ombudsmen of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) addressed this Wednesday the mechanisms for creating these services in Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe.
The matter was discussed during a virtual conference, led by Angola’s ombudsman, Florbela Rocha Araújo, as president of the CPLP ombudsman network, a position she has held since April 2022.
Speaking to the press, in the city of Cuito, Bié province, at the end of the meeting, Florbela Rocha Araújo said that the network’s biggest concern relates to these two African countries, where this institution does not yet exist.
He said that both Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe only have Human Rights Commissions, which presupposes that these services are still dependent on the Ministry of Justice, a situation that could be reversed from next year.
The measure aims to bring justice providers and the presidents of human rights commissions closer to the population, to defend their rights, so that there is human dignity.
In this sense, Florbela Araújo also recommended greater interaction between the network and provincial governments, municipal, district and communal administrations in the respective countries, for equitable justice.
Florbela Araújo promised, on the occasion, that during her mandate she will defend the intensification of ombudsman offices in Member States, with a view to ensuring a more effective defense of citizens’ rights, freedoms and fundamental guarantees.
Ombudsman intends to narrow distances with other bodies
As part of her three-day working visit to the province of Bié, the ombudsman, Florbela Rocha Araújo, held meetings with the presiding judge of the Cuito District Court, Nganga Liberdade Pilates da Silva, and with the prosecutor- general of the Titular Republic in Bié, Jaime Inácio Prata.
At the end of the meetings, the person in charge said that the Ombudsman’s Office intends to close distances with other institutions, to resolve situations that afflict citizens.
According to Florbela Rocha Araújo, the objective of the visit to the justice bodies was to strengthen relations and create a focal point to facilitate exchange, thus shortening the distance between the Ombudsman’s Office and other bodies, in resolving situations that afflict the population.
On her last day of work in this central/southern region of the country, the provider also visited the Bié general hospital, where she observed the current conditions of the infrastructure and the way in which patients are accommodated.
There, he recommended that the hospital management redouble efforts to meet the basic needs of patients, especially in medical care and medication.
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