A/HRC/7/10/Add.4 page 4 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief conducted an official visit to Angola at the invitation of the Government from 20 to 27 November 2007. 2. The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank the Angolan Government for its invitation and for the cooperation extended to her during the visit. She also wishes to thank civil society and religious representatives for their information and opinions that they shared with her. She is particularly indebted to the invaluable assistance of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Angola. 3. The Government’s invitation represents a commitment to transparency, in the area of freedom of religion or belief, and also allows outside scrutiny of its human rights record. It may be viewed in the context of Angola’s election to the Human Rights Council in May 2007. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the voluntary pledges and commitments filed when submitting its candidature. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited Angola in September 2007 (see A/HRC/7/4/Add.4) and other special procedures mandate holders are scheduled to conduct further country visits. 4. As part of her visit the Special Rapporteur spent five days in Luanda and two days in Cabinda. In Luanda she met with the President of the National Assembly, the President of the Supreme Court, the Vice-Minister of Interior, the Vice-Minister of Justice, the Director of the National Institute for Religious Affairs, the Head of the Department of Religious Affairs, the Deputy Minister of Culture, the Attorney General, the National Children’s Institute, the National Institute for Research and Educational Development and the Deputy Governor of Luanda. She also travelled to Cabinda and met with the Deputy Governor, the Police Commander, the President of the Provincial Supreme Court and the Director of the National Children’s Institute. 5. The Special Rapporteur was also privileged to meet with members of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, in both Luanda and Cabinda, the United Nations Country Team, members of different faith communities, religious leaders, academics, journalists and diplomats. She visited places of worship, including churches and mosques. She also visited Viana Immigration Detention Centre in Luanda and a separate immigration holding centre. II. DOMESTIC LEGAL FRAMEWORK 6. The right to freedom of religion or belief is enshrined in Angola’s 1992 Constitution. Article 8 (1) of the constitution enunciates that the Republic of Angola is a secular state and there shall be separation between the state and churches. Article 8 (2) provides that religions shall be respected and the state shall protect churches, places and objects of worship, provided they abide by the laws of the state. 1 Article 18 provides that 1 Following independence, a new political and social system was adopted, based on Marxist ideology, redesigning new forms of regulation between the new State and the Church(es). The Catholic Church ceased to be privileged in State/Church relations, as had been the case during the Portuguese Colonial period when the State religion had been catholicism (see booklet on religious life in Angola published by INAR, 2007).