Luanda – The academic Maria Teresa Manuela was Friday night awarded with the prize of human rights personality of the year in Angola.
The award took place in the first ceremony of the National Human Rights Award 2021, headed by the minister of Justice and Human Rights, Francisco Queiroz.
Maria Manuela, who is the first commissioner of Angola at the African Commission on Human and Peoples´ Rights (at the Banjul Commission) has been developing relevant actions for the promotion and defence of human rights at national and regional level.
Master student in criminal sciences at the Law Faculty of the Agostinho Neto University, Maria Teresa Manuela received from the hands of the president of the jury, an award, certificate and a cheque for 700,000 kwanzas.
She dedicated the prize to all Angolan and African women. “This award is a commitment to help women, a very vulnerable but also very strong section (...)”.
Regarding other categories of the Award, the Human Rights Centre of the Catholic University of Angola (UCAN) was distinguished in two categories namely Community and Human Actions and Human Rights Research, having received two cheques worth 500,000 and 650,000 kwanzas, respectively.
The UCAN Human Rights Centre has developed a permanent free legal support service to citizens without financial resources, through the Human Rights Legal Clinic. The Centre provided support to over 3,000 citizens from January 2018 to December 2021.
As regards Research and Human Rights the centre released in 2021 the Angolan Magazine on Human Right and in the same year, published the compendium of international human rights instruments.
It also produced two reports on Human Rights, namely the report on domestic violence in Covid-19 and on the evolution of press freedom in Angola from 1975 to 2020.
The Non-Governmental Organisation ADRA won the Peace and Citizenship Culture award, and received a certificate and the amount of 400,000 kwanzas.
According to its representative, Carlos Cambuta, ADRA has been developing a project that has been boosting the participation of young people in the citizenship process in the south of the country, namely Huíla, Namibe and Cunene provinces, encouraging them to be real agents of local development.
Speaking at the event, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Francisco Queiroz, reminded that the National Human Rights Award, which comprises four categories, was approved by Presidential Decree and is an integral part of the National Strategy of Human Rights.
According to him, with this award, the Government intends to recognize and encourage the role of those who contribute with their dedication to the promotion, defence and monitoring of Human Rights in Angola.
“Nobody more than ourselves, the Angolans, feel the vital need to ensure the respect for our dignity as human beings”, said the minister, emphasizing that for that reason human rights were elevated to a national security issue with a permanent seat in the National Security Council.
The minister said that the reports of the local human rights committees in the 18 provinces, 164 municipalities and 50 communes “feed” the National Human Rights report that is assessed by the National Security Council.
Francisco Queiroz stated that one of the pillars of the national Human Rights strategy is the public recognition of the merit of the national players involved in this advocacy mission for the access of all citizens without any discrimination to their political, civil, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights.
Minister Queiroz said that the winners deserve the respect and admiration of the whole society and of the Executive, for whom this recognition should be seen as a starting point and not as an ending point.
The annual National Human Rights Award aims at publicly recognizing the entities and personalities that have distinguished themselves in the promotion, defence and protection of Human Rights in Angola.
