Africa-Press – Angola. The deputies of the National Assembly (AN) debated intensely this Thursday, in particular, the chapter referring to the duties of the new bill of Assembly and Demonstration Law.
Due to the interventions, and due to the lack of consensus, the board was forced to transfer the vote on the chapter to a next session.
During the debates, a proposal for an amendment, presented by deputy Milonga Bernardo, suggested the duty of the organizers to inform, in good time, about the intention to hold the meeting, indicating the place, date, time, names and contact details of the promoters of the same.
Likewise, it also reflects the duty of the meeting to take place strictly in the space indicated, also respecting the time and date, as well as the obligation of the participants to leave the space in the conditions in which they found it.
It also proposes the duty not to violate the rights of others, collective security, morality and common interest.
It stresses that, if it takes place at night, there is a duty not to jeopardize tranquility, respecting the rules that regulate the use of sound instruments.
As for freedom of expression, along with the duty of prior communication, it seeks to inhibit the dissemination of messages that incite hatred, violence in its most varied forms of discrimination.
Protesters must refrain from coercing others to participate, from attacking their personality, especially their dignity, honor and good name, as well as respecting the defined places, under the terms of this bill and the duty to respect the competent authorities.
In her speech, deputy Maria Antonieta Baptista considered it essential that the organizers are also considered as co-protectors of public goods.
Armando Caquepa, on the other hand, suggested arrangements to prevent the notification of the intention from conditioning the holding of meetings or demonstrations.
Joaquim Reis Júnior, who guided the discussion, suggested that prior communication would only be required in the event of meetings indoors.
This suggestion led the chairman of the commission for Constitutional and Legal Affairs to appeal to his colleagues to legislate with a sense of state, referring that it is more valuable to approve the law by consensus than by majority.
Deputies such as Jorge Bombolo, Daniel Chikwamanga and Paulo de Carvalho focused essentially on issues of wording to correct, in their view, ambiguities in the law.
During the debate, deputies Fernando Dinis, Elisandra Coelho and Rosa Branca presented new additions to the proposal presented by Milonga Bernardo.
As a contribution, deputy Dolina Thinhama proposed the adoption of measures that discourage the participation of children and adolescents in demonstrations, if the physical integrity of minors is called into question.
However, he admitted the possibility of minors participating in acts such as the Children’s Day, Peace Day, National Independence Day, as long as their safety is guaranteed.
After Mihaela Weba, one of the staunch defenders of the bill, congratulated the rapprochement between the deputies, discord sparked, with some defending the regulation of the action of the authority agents in charge of the security of the demonstrations and others not.
In the debates, a ban on the security forces detaining demonstrators and their objects and a duty to use means proportional to those of the demonstrators was suggested.
Deputy Estevão Hilário replied to this matter, stressing that the regularization of police excesses was not part of the object of the law.
It fell to Reis Júnior to answer that there were already other laws regulating police activity, as well as the penal code, which specifies the cases of application of civil and criminal responsibility.
On Wednesday (5), discussions within the framework of the draft of the new Assembly and Demonstration Law culminated in the approval, in particular, of its object, with 63 votes, and of Article II, with 57 votes.
The diploma, which began to be discussed Monday (3), in the specialty, has 20 articles, with the aim of revoking Law no 16/91, of May 11 – Law on the Right to Assembly and Demonstration, currently in effect.
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