LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The constitution defines the state as secular and prohibits religious discrimination. The constitution requires the state to protect churches and religious groups, provided they comply with the law. The constitution provides for freedom of conscience, religious belief, and worship, and it recognizes the right of religious groups to organize and carry out their activities, provided they adhere to the law. The constitution permits conscientious objection to military service for religious reasons, prohibits questioning individuals regarding their religious beliefs for reasons other than anonymous statistical purposes, and specifies the government may not suspend rights related to religion even if the state declares a state of war, siege, or emergency. It recognizes the right of prisoners to receive visits from, and correspond with, religious counselors. The law establishes that conscientious objectors may perform civilian service as an alternative to military service.

The penal code increases penalties for crimes committed because of religion or religious belief, including homicide, verbal or physical assault, discrimination, persecution, defamation, and genocide. Penalties for such crimes are variable and not based on a formula. For example, the punishment for willful homicide is 14-20 years in prison, while the punishment for willful homicide carried out on the basis of religious hatred is 20-25 years in prison. Hate speech, or inciting hate by other forms of communication, based on religious belief is punishable by imprisonment between six months and six years in prison. Impeding or disturbing a religious service or a funeral also carries criminal penalties.

The law requires religious groups to register to receive government recognition and allows the government to close the premises of unregistered groups. Legal recognition gives a religious group the ability to purchase property and use its property to hold religious events, exempts it from paying certain property and import taxes, and authorizes the group to be treated as an incorporated entity in the court system. Legal recognition also allows clerics to contribute to the social security system, which entitles them to a pension. The law requires 60,000 member signatures from legal residents to apply for registration and requires that at least 1,000 of the signatures originate from members residing in each of the country’s 18 provinces. Each signature and resident declaration must be notarized separately. Religious groups must also submit documents defining their organizational structure, location, methods and schedule of worship, financial resources, and planned construction projects. The law also establishes qualification requirements for clergy and requires religious doctrine to conform to the principles and rights outlined in the constitution.

The Ministry of Culture, through INAR, is the adjudication authority for the registration process and has an oversight role for religious activities. INAR assists religious groups through the registration process and analyzes religious doctrine to ensure that it is consistent with the constitution. INAR may grant provisional registration to some religious groups while they complete the full registration process. The government estimates there are 88 registered religious groups and more than 1,200 unregistered religious groups in the country. The Baha’i Faith and the World Messianic Church remained the only two non-Christian registered religious organizations. The other recognized religious groups include 58 Protestant denominations such as the Anglican, Baptist, Evangelical, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, and Seventh-day Adventist Churches; the Church of Jesus Christ; 28 African Messianic denominations; and the Catholic Church.

Under a Framework Agreement with the Holy See, the government recognizes Catholic wedding ceremonies and does not require an additional civil ceremony. For all other religious groups, the government recognizes only civil wedding ceremonies.

Religious instruction is not a component of the public educational system. Private schools are allowed to teach religion.

The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

The government did not approve the registration of any new religious groups during the year. INAR reported that 97 applications had been received since the registration process changed in 2019. Of those, 35 religious groups received conditional approval since that time while they completed the registration requirements. Of those provisionally approved since 2019, four were fully approved in 2022. Of the 62 groups that were denied since 2019, some applications lacked various prerequisites or contained irregularities discovered during review, which in a few cases included such matters as reported sexual abuse by church leaders, illegal immigration of religious group leadership, and submission of forged documents to meet registration requirements. INAR reported recommending to some of the denied groups that they consolidate their applications with other denied groups with similar religious characteristics and reapply. INAR reported many of the groups appealed their denials both to INAR and to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights; 12 of those appeals were accepted and those groups were provisionally registered during the year. Some of these religious groups had been seeking registration since before 2019.

The government did not register any Muslim groups during the year. Two separate groups both known as the Islamic Community of Angola (each group has a slightly different acronym), which submitted their applications in 2019, were among those granted conditional approval and allowed to operate while their applications were under review. In June, Minister of Culture and Tourism Filipe Zao, who oversees INAR, said to the media concerning registration, “We are studying this process, because the issue of the Islamic community is different. We [Angola] have a Christian cultural matrix, we do not have an Islamic cultural matrix and, therefore, this implies that we have to better understand the religious phenomenon in Angola [before registering Muslim groups].” According to the Secretary of State for Human Rights, a commission with membership drawn from across cabinet ministries and the Office of the President was already evaluating all religious issues in the country; a focus group on Muslim issues, including the recognition process, may be added to that commission. INAR officials continued to say the primary reason the government had not yet fully recognized Islamic groups was their lack of a single governing body. In the past, government officials also stated some practices allowed by Islam, such as polygamy, contradicted the constitution.

Unregistered religious groups continued to state the notary and residential declaration requirements (60,000 total notarized signatures, including at least 1,000 signatures from each of the country’s 18 provinces), which they estimated to cost approximately 3,300 kwanza ($4) per signature, were too expensive and burdensome for their congregations. In addition to the signature requirement, the large number of residents without legal immigration status and an unreliable residential registry system continued to present obstacles to registration, according to religious group leaders. Government officials generally allowed groups with pending registration applications to hold religious services. In its report for 2023, the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Freedom House said “the government imposes onerous criteria on religious groups for official recognition, which is required for the legal construction of houses of worship. Many Pentecostal churches remain unregistered.” Freedom House also stated, “There are no registered Muslim groups, though Muslim communities have been vocal in their demands for recognition and the right to worship freely.” In speeches and interviews throughout the year, Muslim leaders called attention to the lack of registration of Muslim groups.

The IURD announced that INAR-led mediation had ended the three-year dispute between the church’s Brazilian-linked and Angolan-based factions over which faction should lead the church. Bishop Alberto Segunda of the Brazilian wing of the church was recognized as the sole leader of the combined IURD church, which was renamed the Universal Church Angola (IUA). Previously, the government only recognized the Angola-based group.

The majority of former IURD temples remained closed after the mediation and were still closed at the end of the year, pending what Bishop Segunda said was an “administrative procedure” by the government. He said he expected they would reopen soon, but gradually, since many of the facilities were in disrepair from rain and lack of maintenance due to closure for three years. In 2020, the government seized and closed all IURD temples following allegations against IURD Bishop Honorilton Goncalves and the IURD’s Brazilian leadership of money laundering, tax evasion, criminal association, and in Goncalves’ case, physical violence for forcing IURD pastors to undergo vasectomies. Goncalves and the other church leaders were acquitted in 2022 and a court ordered the IURD temples be returned to the church.

The former Brazilian IURD’s religious programing platforms, FETv (Faith TV), on DSTV and TV Cabo cable television, which now fell under the IUA, remained suspended by the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Social Communications because they lacked the proper television broadcasting license. FETv was able to broadcast online without restriction, however.

The INAR director and Ministry of Culture officials continued to state they were concerned regarding the proliferation of religious “sects,” some of which, according to media reports, exploited vulnerable populations by forcing them to tithe, falsely promising employment, and involving them in criminal activity. Indicative of this concern, the government in Zaire Province said in February it wanted to survey churches and “sects” in the province to ensure they were not exploiting the vulnerable. In September, Zaire provincial authorities closed five churches they found were operating illegally.

In November, the country hosted the third Pan-African Forum for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence, which gathered heads of state, the president of the African Union, the UNESCO deputy general director, and representatives of religious institutions, among other participants. One of the events during the forum was the Ecumenical National Conference on Moral, Civic and Religious Values organized by Angolan Council of Christian Churches (CICA). Religious leaders who participated said the country should give more attention to programs that “defend peace, unity, cohesion and development” and build a society where “transparency and social justice prevail.”

In a statement in January, on World Religion Day, Vice-President Esperanca da Costa said religious freedom was a constitutional right in the country and the country did not discriminate against any church or religious community.

Religious leaders continued to be part of the 23-member Council of the Republic: Deolinda Dorcas Teca, Secretary-General of the CICA; Reverend Luis Nguimbi, President of the Angolan Christian Forum; and Prophetess Suzete Joao, leader of the Theosophical Spiritist Church.