Luanda — The Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Francisco Queiroz, reaffirmed Wednesday in Luanda that the 162 Local Committees of Human Rights are the main tool of the National Strategy for the promotion, defence and protection of citizens, at a time when it is intended to be extended to 500 communes.

The Cabinte minister, who was speaking during a hearing with the deputies of the Human Rights, Petitions and Citizens' Complaints and Suggestions Commission, said that the country currently had 162 local committees, lacking just four more to cover the country's 164 municipalities.

He also said that with regard to the communes, 40 institutions have already been established, called Commune Committees, and assured that the network will be extended to the entire national territory.

"The system of human rights management in the country aims to give national actors greater protagonism, promotion, defence and monitoring of human rights, thereby rescuing national sovereignty over the human component," he stressed.

He explained that the historical and cultural principles of the National Human Rights Strategy (ENDH) are anchored in the values of the culture of respect for human dignity, especially of the most vulnerable and in the generational transmission of the principles and references that govern the Angolan society in its ethno-cultural diversity.