Angola: Christian Aid partners win Civil Society Human Rights awards

Christian Aid partners OMUNGA and SOS Habitatwere awarded the Civil Society Human Rights National Award, organized by the Human Rights Coordination Committee and Open Society Foundation –Angola. The award was implemented for the first time this year and is granted to organisations and individuals that have contributed to the defence, respect, protection and guarantee of human rights in Angola. This is a fantastic recognition of our partner’s human rights work in the country. The awards include:

The National Award for an individual was awarded to Luiz Araujo, coordinator of SOS Habitat, a civic and community organisation that protects poor people´s housing rights especially in Angola´s capital Luanda. In October 2008, Araujo participated in a session in the Parliament of Ireland to speak on the situation of land, housing and violation of human rights linked to land evictions in the country’s urban areas.

The National Award of Human Rights Civil Society Organization was awarded to Associação OMUNGA, a children´s rights lobby group based in the provinceof Benguela that promotes street children rights, children and youth protagonism, community and civil education. It is one of the five CSOs representing the Southern African country in the African Commission on Human and People´s Rights and it has had made an important contribution to helping enlarge the civic space in processes such as the review of the Angolan Constitution.

The journalist Domingos da Cruz, from opposition newspaper Folha 8, was awarded with The National Award of Human Rights Ricardo de Melo, as an Angolan journalist who stood out for his work in the promotion and defence of human rights.