The Shadow of São Vicente Over Angola’s Election to the UN Human Rights Council

By Irene Alexandra Neto – 16 October 2025

I write not only as a citizen concerned with justice in Angola but also as the wife of Carlos Manuel de São Vicente, who has endured this reality for five painful years.

Angola’s election to the United Nations Human Rights Council was announced as a diplomatic victory. Yet, a shadow looms over this achievement: the case of Carlos Manuel de São Vicente, an Angolan businessman whose detention was deemed arbitrary and unlawful by the UN itself.

On 14 November 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, operating under the Human Rights Council, issued Opinion No. 63/2023, determining that the Angolan State had violated fundamental provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The report called for his immediate release, the annulment of the judicial process, and compensation for the damages suffered.

More than a year later, Angola remains in violation. São Vicente continues to be deprived of liberty, in a process that the United Nations described as lacking evidence, tainted by irregularities, and conducted outside the guarantees of due process. The State’s silence—before a decision issued by the very body it now sits on—reveals a deep contradiction between diplomatic rhetoric and legal reality.

A Paradox of an Election Under Shadow

Angola’s seat on the Human Rights Council should be a source of national pride—an opportunity for moral and political affirmation. Yet, when a country joins the guardians of human dignity while keeping a citizen detained in defiance of international law, the achievement turns into a paradox—and a farce.

The São Vicente case has become a test of moral coherence. The same State that, in Geneva, pledges to uphold legality and justice, in Luanda violates its own constitutional and international obligations. This dissonance weakens Angola’s credibility and exposes the ambiguous nature of a multilateral system that too often privileges diplomatic power over the integrity of principles.

Angola’s election demonstrates the strength of its diplomacy—but also the limits of its narrative. The country has projected itself as a strategic partner in Southern Africa, active in the SADC and African Union, and adept at building regional consensus. Yet, foreign policy cannot be a mirror that conceals internal fractures.

The failure to implement the UN’s recommendation is not a bureaucratic oversight—it is a political statement. It sends the message that, for Angola, international conventions are optional. Such a stance erodes trust among multilateral partners and undermines the legitimacy with which the country presents itself as a defender of human rights and the rule of law.

The Price of Silence

Domestically, the São Vicente case fuels a growing perception of selective justice and political instrumentalization of the judiciary. The repression of dissenting voices and the arbitrary prolongation of detentions corrode the foundations of legality and weaken the moral contract between the State and its citizens.

In a nation whose recent history was built on sacrifice and resistance, justice should be the sacred space of independence and impartiality. When justice becomes spectacle and punishment, it no longer serves truth—it serves power.

The Path of Coherence

Complying with the UN recommendation and releasing Carlos de São Vicente would not be an act of weakness but of institutional courage and moral strength. It would acknowledge that to err is human, but to persist in injustice is political cruelty.

Angola now can align its international discourse with domestic practice, demonstrating maturity, self-criticism, and respect for law. More than correcting an error, such a gesture would redefine the relationship between the State and justice—a signal that the nation does not fear transparency or scrutiny but embraces them as tools of democratic growth.

The shadow of São Vicente hangs over Angola’s election to the Human Rights Council. It serves as a reminder that no diplomatic triumph can erase the scars of injustice.

If Angola wishes to be respected in Geneva, it must begin by respecting what its own Constitution enshrines: the right to liberty, legality, human dignity, private property, and free enterprise.

True international legitimacy is born from internal respect for justice. Only when the shadows are faced with truth will the light of victory shine without contradiction.