A/HRC/35/25/Add.1
15.
Angola has not signed the International Labour Organization (ILO) Migration for
Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97), the Migrant Workers (Supplementary
Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143) or the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011
(No. 189).
B.
Regional framework and institutions
16.
Angola acceded to the 1969 Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention
Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa in 1981. It acceded to the
African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced
Persons in Africa (the Kampala Convention) in 2013.
17.
Angola is a party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In
November 2007, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted
resolution 114 on migration and human rights, 4 which recommends that member States:
(a)
Recognize the importance of the human rights of all migrants, including
refugees and internally displaced persons, and ensure that national legislation relating to
migration issues is consistent with and does not conflict with international human rights
standards and conventions;
(b)
That have not done so ratify and implement the main regional and
international instruments relating to migrants and refugees, in particular the Convention
relating to the Status of Refugees, the International Convention on the Protection of the
Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the African Union
Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa; implement the
Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in
Africa, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women and the Optional Protocol thereto, which provides for the submission of individual
communications, in order to respect the rights of migrant women;
(c)
Respect the customary international law principle of non-refoulement; make
legal requirements for entering a territory more flexible, in order to take into account the
needs of asylum seekers; revoke the notion of “safe third country”; strengthen institutional
structures for addressing and managing individual asylum requests; respect the right of
asylum seekers to contest rulings on asylum status; and improve the reception structures
and processes for refugees seeking asylum.
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
18.
In 2008, the issue of mass expulsions of foreigners was addressed by the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the Institute for Human Rights and
Development in Africa v. Angola case. While the case was brought by 14 Gambian citizens,
the Commission made some important general observations about the human rights
implications of the mass expulsion of foreigners from Angola, and noted that the majority
of those affected were from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.5 In examining the case,
the Commission found that Angola was in breach of article 12 (5) of the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights, which prohibits mass expulsions. Moreover, the Commission
held that the Government of Angola had also violated the principle of non-discrimination
(art. 2) as the expulsions were carried out in a way that targeted foreign nationals.
Furthermore, the Commission found Angola to be in breach of a number of provisions
regarding due process of law, including articles 6, 7 (1) (a) and 12 (4), as the migrants
4
5
groups of refugees, and to restrict their freedom of movement, whenever considerations of national or
international order make it advisable to do so.” Available from https://treaties.un.org/pages/
ViewDetailsII.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=V-2&chapter=5&Temp=mtdsg2&lang=en#EndDec.
See www.achpr.org/sessions/42nd/resolutions/114/.
Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa v. Angola (2008) AHRLR 43 (ACHPR 2008).
Available from www.chr.up.ac.za/index.php/browse-by-country/angola/198-angola-institute-forhuman-rights-and-development-in-africa-v-angola-2008-ahrlr-achpr-2008-.html, para. 67.
5