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