In a letter, signed by 15 organisations and delivered to Ombudsman and rights commission on Wednesday, the CSOs requested that “all necessary measures are taken so that all prisoners can register and vote.”
They argued that denying prisoners the right to vote violated provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
According to the CSOs, international conventions and the Mozambican constitution require that countries ensure that prison conditions that “minimize the differences between life in prison and life in freedom.”
The Mozambican constitution states that no punishment implies the loss of any civil, professional or political rights.