Luanda — The amendment to the Civil Protection Law, approved Wednesday during a general voting in Parliament, will enable the enforcement of a number of measures to respond to the covid-19 pandemic, outside a scenario of state of emergency.

Mentioning the four reasons, the minister spoke of the context of need characterised by the pandemic that could require the adoption of other measures outside the state of emergency currently in force in the country.

In general, he said, the requested amendment aims to adapt the law to the 2010 Constitution, since the previous one, in force since 2003, did not provide the Executive with sufficient tools to put in place an effective system of responses to situations of serious collective risk.

For this reason, he stressed, in order to make it more comprehensive, the Executive is proposing a change to the denomination, from Civil Protection Law to Civil Protection and Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Law.

On the other hand, opposition party MPs expressed support for the Executive's legislative initiative, since they believe civil protection to be essential to the functions of the State and fulfils the duty to ensure the right to life, physical integrity and security, but call for its adequacy to the Constitution.