Португалия

Portugal regularly reports information on hate crimes to ODIHR. Portugal's hate crime laws consist of a combination of substantive offences and specific penalty enhancements. The Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor's Office collect data on hate crime.

How hate crime data is collected in Португалия

How hate crime data is collected in Португалия

Entries on all the police forces' incident reporting forms include the legal basis of recorded incidents, the characteristics of the incident, the victims and the perpetrators, as well as information about the time and place of the incident. The database of the Criminal Police already enables the flagging of potential hate crimes and capture bias motivation. There is a Manual for data collection that provides guidance for police officers when registering crimes for statistical purposes (the criminal classification of crimes). All police forces are obliged to fill out crime reports according to the Manual and send these to the Ministry of Justice's statistical department (DSEJI) every month.

The Ministry of Justice is responsible for the centralized collection processes and for producing reliable criminal statistics. Statistics are recorded by police forces, the Public Prosecutors Services and Judicial Courts. The data gathered by the three main police forces (the Criminal Police, the Police of Public Security, and the National Republican Guard) need to be transferred from the processing systems of these entities to the justice statistical information system of the Ministry of Justice. The collection of statistical data on proceedings pending before the courts is fully automated. The data is communicated to the Directorate General for Justice Policy via an automatic interface with Citius, the information system for first instance courts.

Portugal is undertaking efforts to improve their methodology with the aim of producing comparable data, particularly on hate crimes. These efforts include implementing standards set out by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights and ODIHR, in particular ensuring that an incident is identified as a potential hate crime in the IT systems of the three main police forces. The Ministry of Justice statistics already allow for a breakdown of the crimes of murder, serious assault/grievous bodily harm, threats, coercion, stalking, forced marriage and its preparatory acts for offences motivated by racial hatred or bias against the victim's skin colour. The need to collect information on other possible bias motivations and on the motivation of other crimes has already been identified and proposed as a possible change to implement in the Citius.

Access more information at the Legislation Online website Legislationline TANDIS Access more information at the Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Information System (TANDIS) website

OFFICIAL DATA

Year Hate crimes recorded by police Prosecuted Sentenced
2020 132 Not available Not available
2019 82 - -
2018 23 58 -
2017 48 Not available Not available
2016 - - 0
2015 Not available Not available Not available
2014 21 21 Not available
2013 Not available Not available Not available
2012 Not available Not available Not available
2011 Not available Not available Not available
2010 Not available Not available Not available
2009 2 0 0

About 2020 Data

    Police-recorded figures refer to the crime of racial or religious discrimination only, and includes incidents of discrimination and incitement to hatred, which fall outside of the OSCE's definition of hate crime. The records on prosecuted and sentenced cases were not available at the time of the publication of ODIHR's 2020 Hate Crime Report.

National developments

The new National Plan to Combat  Racism and Discrimination 2021-2025 (Plano Nacional de Combate ao Racismo e à Discriminação 2021-2025 - Portugal contra o racismo), announced the revision of Article 240 of the Portuguese Criminal Code in light of the international binding instruments to which Portugal is a party. The revision is aimed at extending the list of protected grounds under the provision. The Ministry of Justice is working on a draft amendment.

Law no. 55/2020, of 27 August 2020, defining the objectives, priorities, and general criminal policy general guidelines for the years 2020-2022, establishes crimes motivated by racial, religious, or sexual discrimination as crimes of priority prevention, thus recognizing the vital importance of combatting hate crimes in Portugal. Moreover, acknowledging that the internet is the predominant vehicle of communication associated with hate crimes, cybercrime is also considered both a crime of priority prevention and investigation.

Notable case

In July 2020, the murderer of a black Portuguese  actor shot dead in the middle of the day on a busy street in Lisbon was sentenced to 22 years and 9 months in prison for the crime of qualified murder, considering proven the motivation of racial hatred. The defendant will also have to pay 120,000 euros in compensation to the family of the victim. In the indictment, the prosecution charged the accused with aggravated murder "for vain reasons" and because it had been motivated by the victim's "colour and ethnic origin". The appeal was pending at the time of the publication of ODIHR's 2020 Hate Crime Report.

INCIDENTS REPORTED BY OTHER SOURCES

In addition to incidents summarized below, this graph includes 1 hate incident reported by Kantor Center as statistics.

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

Дата ВИД ИНЦИДЕНТА Источник Описание
2020-01 Violent attacks against people
Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV)
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2020-07 Threats
Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV)
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2020-09 Violent attacks against people
Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV)
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2020-02 Violent attacks against people
OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights
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2020-07 Violent attacks against people
OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights
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2020-01 Threats
OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights
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2020-08 Threats
OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights
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2020-09 Attacks against property
OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights
 Show info

Anti-Semitic hate crime

Дата ВИД ИНЦИДЕНТА Источник Описание
2020-10 Attacks against property
Kantor Center
 Show info

Gender-based hate crime

Дата ВИД ИНЦИДЕНТА Источник Описание
2020-08 Violent attacks against people
Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV)
 Show info

Anti-LGBTI hate crime

Дата ВИД ИНЦИДЕНТА Источник Описание
2020-07 Attacks against property
ILGA Portugal
 Show info
2020-08 Threats
ILGA Portugal
 Show info
2020-02 Attacks against property
ILGA Portugal
 Show info
2020-10 Violent attacks against people
ILGA Portugal
 Show info
2020-07 Threats
ILGA Portugal
 Show info
2020-02 Violent attacks against people
ILGA Portugal
 Show info
2020-09 Violent attacks against people
Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV)
 Show info
2020-08 Violent attacks against people
ILGA Portugal
 Show info
2020-02 Violent attacks against people
ILGA Portugal
 Show info
2020-12 Threats
ILGA Portugal
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2020-09 Threats
ILGA Portugal
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2020-05 Threats
ILGA Portugal
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2020-11 Threats
ILGA Portugal
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2020-10 Threats
ILGA Portugal
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2020-02 Violent attacks against people
ILGA Portugal
 Show info
2020-05 Violent attacks against people
Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV)
 Show info
2020-08 Violent attacks against people
Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV)
 Show info

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime, Gender-based hate crime

The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe published relevant recommendations in her "Memorandum on combating racism and violence against women in Portugal."

KEY OBSERVATION

ODIHR recognizes Portugal's efforts in reviewing its hate crime legislation. However, based on the available information, it observes that the law enforcement agencies of Portugal have not been recording the bias motivations behind hate crimes. In addition, ODIHR observes that Portugal would benefit from raising the awareness and building the capacity of criminal justice officials in relation to hate crimes.

ODIHR recalls that in the Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, participating States have committed to promptly investigating hate crimes and ensuring that the motives of those convicted of hate crimes are acknowledged. To that end, the law enforcement agencies must, first of all, record the bias motivations behind hate crimes. In the Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, participating States have also committed to introducing or further developing professional training and capacity-building activities for law-enforcement, prosecution and judicial officials dealing with hate crimes. ODIHR stands ready to support Portugal in meeting its relevant commitments through the provision of comprehensive resources and tailored assistance in the area of hate crime recording and data collection, as well as providing further resources and tailored capacity building assistance for police, prosecution, and judiciary.

Our methodology