Parts of Mozambique, particularly in the central province of Sofala, are experiencing tension and instability caused by attacks carried out by gunmen of the former rebel movement Renamo.
Speaking to reporters after an audience granted to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Macamo urged all Mozambicans to work for a solution as soon as possible.
“You can’t fight poverty by scaring people, by feelings of terror, much less with deaths that carry away our relatives, our friends, our fellow citizens”, she said.
CNDH chairperson Custodio Duma warned that the current politico-military situation is leading to serious human rights violations.
“The CNDH has already made an appeal in writing to Renamo and to the government”, he said. But far from the attacks stopping, they had increased.
Duma believed that Macamo could play an important role. He suggested that she should speak to the 51 Renamo parliamentary deputies “and advise them so that they find other ways of addressing their concerns to the government, and not through the force of arms”.
He also urged the Assembly to approach the government so that it might “open up” a little more in dialogue with Renamo.
Duma was also concerned that, if the Assembly were to approve some of the proposals contained in the draft of a new Penal Code, there might be “embarrassing consequences” in Mozambican society. Among the controversial clauses in the draft code are proposals to criminalise adultery, vagrancy and public drunkenness.
Macamo said nobody should be worried, since when the Assembly finally votes on the Penal Code, “it will take the reality of the country into account”.
Macamo also discussed with Duma how the CNDH should relate to the Assembly, so that it can report to the public via parliament.
The CNDH was sworn into office in 2012. It consists of 11 members – three elected by the political parties who hold seats in the Assembly, four chosen by civil society, three appointed by the Prime Minister, and one (Duma) selected by the Mozambique Bar Association.
Embarrassingly for the CNDH, not all of its members believe in human rights – at least not when it comes to gay people.
Moslem cleric Sheik Aminuddin Mohamad is a member of the CNDH, and in the latest issue of the weekly paper “Zambeze”, for which he is a columnist, he wrote that homosexuals “are worse than animals because no animal is ever seen copulating with an animal of the same sex”.
Apart from sheer ignorance (there is documented evidence of homosexual behaviour among dozens of species), such statements call into question Aminuddin’s fitness to sit on a human rights body.
The Mozambican association that promotes the rights of gay people, Lambda, recently complained to the CNDH about the lengthy delay in obtaining government recognition. Associations are supposed to register with the Ministry of Justice. Lambda tried to do in January 2008, and has been waiting for a reply every since.
Lambda remarked, in response to Aminuddin’s piece in “Zambeze” that, “given the role of this Commission in promoting the human rights of all Mozambican citizens, one cannot understand such declarations coming from a member of the Commission”.
Post published in: Africa News