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
2021 150 5 3
2020 132 Not available Not available
2019 82 - -
2018 63 Not available Not available
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 2021 Data

    Police-recorded figures refer to the crime of racial or religious discrimination only, and include incidents of discrimination and incitement to hatred, which fall outside of the OSCE's definition of hate crime. Records on prosecuted and sentenced cases were not available at the time of publication of ODIHR's 2021 Hate Crime Report.

National developments

In January 2021, the Office of the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality set up a multidisciplinary Working Group to prevent and combat of racism and discrimination. The Working Group consists of state authorities, including the High Commissioner for Migration, the Office of the Secretary of State for Integration and Migration, and the Office of the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality, as well as representatives of civil society and academia. The Working Group aims to contribute to the systematization of information on discrimination and racism in Portugal; reflect on the European and national anti-discrimination mechanisms and the future Independent Observatory on Hate Discourse, Racism and Xenophobia; and identify priority areas and intervention needs, including by presenting proposals for measures to be included in the National Plan to Combat Racism and Discrimination.  

Portugal's Resolution No. 265/2021, approved by the Parliament in October 2021, recommended that the Government implement public policies to effectively combat hate crime in Portugal. Such policy recommendations include restructuring the operational procedures of criminal police bodies, the appropriate use of mechanisms to record incidents, promoting the collection and public dissemination of statistical data on hate crimes, the close and active co-operation between police and judicial authorities and civil society organizations, and ongoing hate crime training for professionals in the justice system and criminal law enforcement agencies 

The new National Plan to Combat Racism and Discrimination, 2021-2025, announced the revision of Article 240 of the Portuguese Criminal Code in line with 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 has continued preparing the draft amendment. 

In 2021, the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), along with the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality, and with the support of the High Commission for Migrations and the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG), granted special support to projects and initiatives that facilitate and disseminate information about actions to tackle hate crime.   

Notable case: 

In March 2020, a Ukrainian citizen died in the facilities of the Portuguese Border and Immigration Services at Lisbon airport. The case caused great social unrest due to its atypical nature and contours. In July 2022, the Supreme Court of Justice upheld the nine-year prison sentences handed down by the Lisbon Court of Appeal to the three perpetrators convicted for the crime of aggravated assault.

INCIDENTS REPORTED BY OTHER SOURCES

Anti-LGBTI hate crime

Дата ВИД ИНЦИДЕНТА Источник Описание
2021-01 Violent attacks against people
Transgender Europe (TGEU)
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INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

No information is available.

KEY OBSERVATION

ODIHR recognizes Portugal's efforts to review its hate crime legislation and the parliament's initiative to ensure a comprehensive approach to address hate crime, including through improved recording and data collection. Portugal is encouraged to extend these efforts as, based on the available information, ODIHR observes that law enforcement agencies have not recorded the bias motivations behind hate crimes. In addition, ODIHR observes that Portugal would benefit from raising awareness among and building the capacity of criminal justice officials to address hate crime. 

ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to promptly investigating hate crimes and ensuring that the motives of those convicted of hate crimes are acknowledged. To that end, law enforcement agencies must first record the bias motivations behind hate crimes. Participating States 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 by providing further resources and tailored capacity building assistance for police, prosecution, and judiciary. 

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