The Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, attended the General Assembly, the International Board meeting and then the Annual Conference of the IOI – International Ombudsman Institute, which took place between 25 and 27 May in Dublin (remotely). The General Assembly was marked by the inauguration of the new members of the governing bodies of this international organisation, including the Ombudsman of…
he Ombudsmen of Portugal and Cape Verde, Maria Lúcia Amaral and José Carlos Delgado, signed a Cooperation Protocol to strengthen the conditions for sharing knowledge, good practices and exchanging experiences, as well as facilitating citizens’ access to their institutions. The Protocol foresees, among others, the development of joint actions of capacity building and exchange, namely of specialized technicians, so that…
In 2020, activity indicators were once again the highest in the history of the Ombudsman, an independent State body created in 1975 to defend people who feel aggrieved by unfair or illegal acts or omissions of the administration or other public powers or who see their fundamental rights violated. The Ombudsman dealt with a record 11,557 new cases, as a…
In the scope of an initiative of the Ibero-American Federation of Ombudsman (FIO) on the exceptional measures decreed by its Member-States in the scope of the combat and of the mitigation of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ombudsman Office drafted a chapter on the State of Emergency in Portugal. To read the publication [in Spanish and in Portuguese…
On the occasion of the World Day for Awareness of Violence against Older Persons, which is marked on 15 June, a survey [in Portuguese only] was released on the performance over the last five years of the telephone line dedicated to older citizens.
The Ombudsman drew the attention of the Secretary of State for Social Security to two of the social protection measures for illness and parenthood in situations of prophylactic isolation that are not being duly applied by the Institute of Social Security, I.P. (ISS), as well as for the difficulties that self-employed workers (TI) currently face in fulfilling their contribution obligations…
The Ombudsman marks Children’s Day, which is celebrated on June 1, with her participation in the conference "Themes of family and children’s law", organized by the Braga Delegation of the Bar Association. "The Ombudsman in the protection of childhood" is the theme of Maria Lúcia Amaral’s intervention.
The Ombudsman’s Office is publishing a small collection entitled “Pandemic Notebooks”, three studies on the extraordinary times we live in. The first focuses on the general topic of education and collects information that was obtained during the first phase of suspension of classroom classes that took place in 2020. The second focuses on homelessness and covers roughly the same period…
The Ombudsman once again addressed the President of the Institute of Social Security (ISS) to request that he proceed with the payment to companies of requests for extraordinary support for the progressive resumption of activity, formulated since December, which are still pending confirmation by the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) of the requirement related to the drop in invoicing. After…
Ombudsman addresses the Rule of Law in a conference organized by the Portuguese presidency of the EU
The Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, spoke at the two-day high-level conference on “The Rule of Law in Europe”, which brought together, in Coimbra, politicians, magistrates, academics and representatives of civil society. Co-organized with the European Commission, the conference took place in the framework of the Portuguese presidency of the European Union in a hybrid format (in person and online), with…