Overview 109 session – Mozambique
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Mozambique was reviewed for the first time by the Human Rights Committee on the 22nd and 23rd of October 2013. The Mozambican delegation was headed by the Ministry of Justice. The deadline for the submission of the Initial Report expired in 1994, but it was not until 2012 that it was made available. Moreover, the State Replies to the List of Issues was only presented a week before the review by the Human Rights Committee.
The Human Rights Committee raised a large number of human rights abuses that occur in Mozambique including gruesome accounts of trafficking in body parts, violence against women, lynching, payment of bribes in prisons and a lack of judicial enforcement. The Mozambican delegation admitted to many of these problems, but cited cultural and traditional norms and a lack of a budget as reasons the State had not fully overcome them.
The Human Rights Committee, while pleased to see that a National Human Rights Commission had been established, was concerned about reports from NGOs that it lacked resources for its normal functioning. The State delegation responded by asserting that the problems result from the lack of organisation within the Committee itself.
Whilst the Mozambican delegation seemed to genuinely want to demonstrate its efforts in creating laws and implementing them to protect and enforce human rights in the country, there were some issues that remained unclear such as the difference between the secure cells under the control of the Police Command and the prison of Maximum Security as well as judicial taxes.
The Concluding Observations selected for the follow-up procedure, under which the State should provide information on the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations within one year, are: paragraph 13 on arbitrary arrest and detention; paragraph 14 on conditions in detention; and paragraph 15 on the need for more judges.
The next periodic report should be submitted by the 1st of November 2017.
For more information, see the Alternative Report prepared by a coalition of national NGOs with the support of the CCPR-Centre and the NGO press release.
The complete video of the review (in English) is also available from: http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/hrctte-109-session-mozambique
