Subverting the Constitution and Curtailing Civil Society. Angola’s New Law on NGOs.

Abstract

In Angola, the government is in the process of making a new law on the NGOs, a law that is deemed unconstitutional, unnecessary, and a breach of people’s fundamental rights and freedoms of association. Like in many other authoritarian regimes, “terrorism financing” and “resistance of international donors to comply with national laws” are used to legitimate the law and its further restrictions and control of civil society, NGOs, activists, and democracy. Civil society has mobilised against the law, but protesters have been met with violent government suppression.