Angola

Summary of Domestic Prohibition

Slavery and slave trade

Provisions related to slavery are found in the Criminal Code as amended in 2020, which criminalises slavery at article 177 with sentences of 7 to 15 years imprisonment. Provisions on slavery are also found in article 18 Criminalization of Money Laundering Offenses Act 2014, which criminalises slavery as well as the buying and selling of children under 14 years of age for slavery with sentences of 7 to 15 years imprisonment.

Practices similar to slavery and servitude

There appears to be no legislation in place in Angola which prohibits institutions and practices similar to slavery.

Servitude

Provisions related to servitude are found in the Criminal Code as amended in 2014, which criminalises servitude at article 18 with sentences of 7 to 12 years imprisonment.

Forced or compulsory labour

There appears to be no legislation in place in Angola which prohibits forced labour.

Human trafficking

Provisions related to trafficking in persons are found in the Criminal Code as amended in 2020, which prohibits all forms of trafficking in persons with sentences of 4 to 10 years of imprisonment. The 2014 Law about the Criminalisation of Infractions Surrounding Money Laundering also criminalises sex trafficking and labour trafficking with penalties of 8 to 12 years imprisonment.

Forced marriage

There appears to be no legislation in Angola that addresses forced marriage.

Consent to marriage

Although legislation in Angola does not recognize consent as a strict requirement of marriage, section 20 of the 1988 Family Code recognizes that marriage is founded / based on consent.

Servile marriage

There appears to be no legislation in Angola that prohibits servile matrimonial transactions.

Marriage trafficking

There appears to be no legislation in Angola that prohibits marriage trafficking.

Minimum age for marriage

The minimum age for marriage in Angola is 18, without differentiation by gender, as set out on Article 24 of the 1988 Family Code. However, marriages of females and males below this age may be exceptionally permitted when the circumstances of the case have been pondered, and bearing in mind the interests of the minor parties, when marriage is the best solution, with the consent of the parents, tutors or whoever has the minor in charge. Marriage of females is allowed under exceptions as early as 15. Marriage of males is allowed under exceptions as early as 16.

Region

Africa

Regional Court

Not party to a court

Legal System

Civil

International Instruments

1926 Slavery Convention
Not Party
1953 Protocol to the Slavery Convention
Not Party
1956 Supplementary Slavery Convention
Not Party
1966 ICCPR
10 January 1992
1930 Forced Labour Convention
04 June 1976
2014 Protocol to the 1930 Forced Labour Convention
Not Party
1957 Abolition of Forced Labour Convention
04 June 1976
1999 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
13 June 2001
2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons
19 September 2014
1998 Rome Statute of the ICC
Not Party
1956 Supplementary Slavery Convention
Not Party
1966 ICCPR
10 January 1992
1966 Optional Protocol to the ICCPR
10 January 1992
1966 ICESCR
10 January 1992
2008 Optional Protocol to the ICESCR
Not Party
1962 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages
Not Party
1957 Convention on the Nationality of Married Women
Not Party
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
05 December 1990
2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography
24 March 2005
2011 Optional Protocol to the CRC on a communications procedure
Not Party
1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
17 September 1986
1999 Optional Protocol to CEDAW
01 November 2007
1978 Convention on the Celebration and Recognition of the Validity of Marriages
Not Party
2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons
19 September 2014
1998 Rome Statute of the ICC
Not Party
1999 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
13 June 2001

International Obligations

  • Slavery
  • Servitude
  • Forced Labour
  • Human Trafficking
  • Marriage Trafficking
  • Minimum Age for Marriage

Regional Organisations

  • African Union
  • Regional engagement SCORE

Legislative Provisions

CONSTITUTION OF ANGOLA 2010

Article 2 Democratic State Based on the Rule of Law

2. The Republic of Angola shall promote and defend the basic human rights and freedoms of individuals and members of organised social groups and shall ensure respect for them and guarantee their implementation through the legislative, executive and judicial powers, their organs and institutions, and on the part of all individuals and corporate bodies.

Article 21 Fundamental Tasks of the State

The fundamental tasks of the Angolan state shall be:

b.To ensure fundamental rights, freedoms and guarantees;

c.To gradually create the necessary conditions required to effectively implement the economic, social and cultural rights of citizens;

Article 26 Scope of Fundamental Rights

1. The fundamental rights established in this Constitution shall not exclude others contained in the laws and applicable rules of international law.

2. Constitutional and legal precepts relating to fundamental rights must be interpreted and incorporated in accordance with the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man, the African Charter on the Rights of Man and Peoples and international treaties on the subject ratified by the Republic of Angola.

3. In any consideration by the Angolan courts of disputes concerning fundamental rights , the international instruments referred to in the previous point shall be applied, even if not invoked by the parties concerned.

Article 31 Right to Personal Integrity

1. The moral, intellectual and physical integrity of individuals shall be inviolable.

2. The state shall respect and protect the human person and human dignity.

Article 36 Right to Physical Freedom and Personal Security

1. Everyone shall have the right to physical freedom and individual security.

2. No-one may be deprived of their freedom, except in cases prescribed by the Constitution and the law.

3. The right to physical freedom and individual security shall also involve:

a.The right not to be subjected to any form of violence by public or private entities;

b.The right not to be tortured or treated or punished in a cruel, inhumane or degrading manner;

c.The right to fully enjoy physical and mental integrity;

d.The right to protection and control over one’s own body;

e.The right not to be submitted to medical or scientific experiments without prior informed and duly justified consent.

Article 60 Ban on Torture and Degrading Treatment

No-one shall be subjected to torture, forced labour or cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment.

Article 61 Repugnant and Violent Crimes

The following shall be imprescriptible and ineligible for amnesty or provisional release, through the application of coercive measures:

a.Genocide and crimes against humanity, as stipulated in law;

b.Crimes stipulated as such in law.

Article 64 Deprivation of Freedom

1.Deprivation of freedom shall only be permitted in cases and under the conditions determined by law.

Article 76 Right to Work

1.Work shall be the right and duty of all.

2.Every worker shall have the right to vocational training, fair pay, rest days, holidays, protection, and workplace health and safety, in accordance with the law.

3. In order to ensure the right to work, the state shall be charged with promoting:

a.The implementation of policies to generate work;

b.Equal opportunities in the choice of profession or type of work and conditions which prevent preclusion or limitation due to any form of discrimination;

c.Academic training and scientific and technological development, as well as vocational development for workers.

4. Dismissal without fair cause shall be illegal and employers shall be obliged to pay just compensation for workers who have been dismissed, under the terms of the law.

Constitution of Angola 2010 (PDF)

AMENDMENT TO THE PENAL CODE 2014

In February 2014, the government amended the 1886 penal code to prohibit all forms of trafficking in persons, proscribing penalties of eight to 12 years’ imprisonment—penalties that are both sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those proscribed for other serious crimes. Article 19 criminalizes the act of delivering, enticing, accepting, transporting, housing, or keeping of persons for the purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labor, or trafficking of organs, including by force, fraud, or coercion. Article 19 also makes the enticement, transport, or housing of a child for such purposes by any means a trafficking offense; in keeping with international law, it does not require the use of fraud, force, or coercion to prove a trafficking case when a child is the victim. This provision would appear, however, to overlap with Article 22, pimping of minors, which provides a lower penalty of two to 10 years’ imprisonment for promoting, encouraging, or facilitating the exercise of the prostitution of children, with enhanced penalties for the use of force, threat, or fraud of five to 12 years’ imprisonment. Slavery and servitude are separately criminalized in Article 18 with sentences of seven to 12 years’ imprisonment.

PENAL CODE

Article 175. Abduction

Any person who, by means of violence, threat or cunning, kidnaps another person, transferring them from one place to another, with the intention of:

a) Enslaving them;

b) Extorting them;

c) Committing a crime against their sexual self-determination;

d) Obtaining ransom or reward,

shall be punished with a prison sentence of between one and five years. The penalty shall be imprisonment for a term of three to ten, four to twelve or five to fifteen years, if any of the situations described in paragraphs 2, 3 or 4 of article 2 occurs respectively.

Article 177. Slavery

  1. Whoever reduces another person to the status of an individual over whom the powers inherent to the right of property are exercised, wholly or in part, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of 7 to 15 years.
  2. 2. Any person who alienates, assigns, acquires or takes possession of a person for the purpose of maintaining that person in the state or condition described in the preceding paragraph commits the same crime and shall be punished with the same penalty.
  3. The crime of slavery is also committed and punished with a penalty of five to ten years imprisonment whoever purchases or sells a child under the age of 14 for adoption or, for the same purpose, intermediates an equal or similar business or transaction.

Article 178. Trafficking in persons.

  1. Whoever, by means of violence, abduction or serious threat, ruse or fraudulent manoeuvre, with abuse of authority resulting from a relationship of hierarchical, economic, work or family dependence or by taking advantage of the psychic incapacity or situation of special vulnerability of the victim, offers, accepts, delivers, recruits or entices, shelters, accommodates or transports persons for the purpose of labour exploitation or to pursue other forms of exploitation, commits the crime of trafficking in persons and is punished with a penalty of 4 to 10 years imprisonment.
  2. If the purpose is the extraction of organs or harvesting of human tissues, the penalty shall be 5 to 12 years of imprisonment.
  3. Illicit trafficking in human organs or tissues shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of 5 to 12 years.
  4. If the extraction or procurement of human tissue results in the death of the victim, the penalty shall be 20 to 25 years imprisonment. 5) Whoever withholds, conceals, damages or destroys identification or travel documents of a person who is a victim of human trafficking shall be punished with a penalty of 1 to 5 years of imprisonment.

Article 189. Panderism

  1. Whoever, with intent to profit, promotes, favours or facilitates the exercise of prostitution or the repeated practice of sexual acts by another person, taking advantage of a situation of economic need or particular vulnerability of the victim or forces the victim to such exercise or practice, using violence, threat or fraud, shall be punished by imprisonment of between 1 and 8 years.
  2. If the perpetrator takes advantage of the situation of psychic incapacity of the victim or makes of the activity described in the previous number a profession, the penalty shall be imprisonment of between 5 and 10 years.

Asticle 190. Sexual trafficking

Whoever, by using violence, threat, trickery, fraudulent manoeuvre, or taking advantage of any relationship of dependency or situation of particular vulnerability of a person, induces or constrains the practice of prostitution in a foreign country or favours such practice, by transporting, sheltering or accepting such person, shall be punished by a maximum imprisonment of 2 to 10 years

Article 195. Panderism of minors

  1. Whoever promotes, encourages, favours or facilitates the exercise of prostitution of persons under the age of 18 years or the repeated practice of sexual acts by persons under the age of 18 years shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of 3 to 12 years.
  2. If the perpetrator uses violence, threat or coercion, acts for profit or engages in the activity described in the previous number, and the minor suffers from a psychic anomaly or is under 14 years of age, the penalty is imprisonment for 5 to 15 years.

Article 196. Child trafficking

  1. Whoever entices a minor under the age of 18 years for the practice of prostitution or, for the same purpose, transports, lodges or shelters him or her or, in any other manner, favours that practice, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of 5 to 12 years.
  2. If the perpetrator uses violence, threat or coercion, acts for profit or engages in the activity described in the preceding paragraph, and the minor suffers from a psychic anomaly or is under 14 years of age, the penalty shall be imprisonment for a term of 8 to 15 years.

Article 382. Crimes against humanity

Any person who, within the framework of a generalised or systematic attack against a population, or within the context of an internal or international armed conflict, or during the military occupation of a state, territory or part thereof, commits the following acts against protected persons, shall be punished by imprisonment of between 3 and 20 years, unless a heavier penalty is imposed under another legal provision

(a) Murder with intent;

  1. b) Extermination;
  2. c) Enslavement; […]

Article 383. Definitions

For the purposes of the previous article, it is considered:

[…]

(c) “Slavery” means the exercise of a power in the form of ownership or possession over a person or group of persons, including the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons

[…]

(f) “Sexual Slavery” means the exercise of a power inherent in or associated with the right of ownership over one or more persons, who are compelled by a person who has such power to engage in one or more acts of a sexual nature

(g) “Forced Prostitution” means the performance of one or more acts of a sexual nature by one or more persons against or without their will, for financial or other advantage to the perpetrator or to another person;

[…]

Criminal Code 2020- Portuguese

CRIMINALIZATION OF MONEY LAUNDERING OFFENSES ACT 2014

The 2014 Law on the Criminalization of Infractions Surrounding Money Laundering criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Article 18 criminalized slavery and servitude, as well as the buying and selling of a child under 14 years of age for adoption or for slavery, with a penalty of seven to 15 years’ imprisonment. Article 19 criminalized the trafficking of adults and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labor or trafficking in organs and prescribed penalties of eight to 12 years’ imprisonment. Article 20 criminalized enticing or forcing a person to practice prostitution in a foreign country, with a penalty of two to 10 years’ imprisonment. Article 21 criminalized pimping using force, fraud, or coercion of adults and prescribed penalties of one to 6 years’ imprisonment. Article 22 criminalized “pimping of minors” under the age of 18 and prescribed penalties of two to 10 years’ imprisonment; if force, fraud or coercion was ANGOLA used or the child was less than 14 years old, the penalties were increased to five to 12 years’ imprisonment. Article 23 made it a crime to entice children to engage in prostitution in a foreign country, with sentences of three to 12 years’ imprisonment; with force, fraud or coercion, the sentence was increased to three to 15 years’ imprisonment.

GENERAL LABOUR LAW 2000

Article 96 Length of working time

1.Except as otherwise provided by law, the normal period of work shall not exceed the following limits:

(a) 44 hours per week

(b) 8 hours per day

2.The normal period of work per week may be extended up to 54 hours where the employer adopts shift work patterns or modulated or flexible hours, where a recovery schedule is in effect or where the work is intermittent or simply requires presence.

Article 97 Rest periods

The normal daily working time must be interrupted by a rest and meal break of not less than one hour and not exceeding two hours, such that workers do not work for more than five hours of normal working time consecutively.

2. To the extent possible unless otherwise agreed with the workers’ representative organization, the interval shall be one hour if there is a canteen in the workplace which can provide meals to the workers, or otherwise two hours.

CONSTITUTION OF ANGOLA 2010

Article 35 Family, marriage and filiation

1. The family is the basic nucleus of social organisation and shall be the object of special protection by the state, whether based on marriage or on a defacto union between a man and a woman.

2. Everyone shall have the right to freely found a family under the terms of the Constitution and the law.

3. Men and women shall be equal within the family, in society and before the state, enjoying the same rights and being responsible for the same duties.

4. The law shall regulate the requirements for, and the effects of, marriage and defacto union, as well their dissolution.

5. Children shall be equal before the law and any discrimination or the use of any discriminatory nomenclature with regard to filiation shall be prohibited.

6. It shall be an absolute priority of the family, the state and society to protect the rights of the child, namely their full and balanced upbringing, health care, education and living conditions .

7. The state, in collaboration with the family and society, shall promote the full and balanced development of young people and adolescents, and the creation of conditions for the fulfilment of their political, economic, social and cultural rights and shall foster youth organizations established for economic, cultural, artistic, recreational, sporting, environmental, scientific, educational, patriotic and international youth exchange purposes

Angola Constitution 2010 – Consitute Project – English (PDF).

FAMILY CODE OF ANGOLA 1988

Article 3 Equality between man and woman

1. Man and woman are equal in the heart of the family, enjoying the same rights and responsible for the same duties.

2. The State and the family ensure the equality and reciprocity to which the previous number refers, specifically promoting the right to instruction and the right to work, repose, and social securities.

 

Article 20 Concept

Marriage is the voluntary union between a man and a woman, formalized under the terms of the law, with the objective of establishing a full life communion.

 

Article 21 Equality of rights and duties

Marriage is founded on the equality and reciprocity of rights and duties of the spouses.

 

Article 24 Nubile age

1. Only those older than 18 years may marry.

2. The marriage of a 16 year old man as well as a 15 year old woman may be exceptionally authorized when the circumstances of the case have been pondered, and bearing in mind the interests of the minor parties, when marriage is the best solution.

3. The authorization referred to in the previous number will be conceded by the parents, tutors, or whoever has the minor in his/her charge, with the Court able to supply [t.n.: this entity] once the Family council is heard, when non-authorization turns out to be unjustified.