On 10 December the international community celebrates International Human Rights Day, marking the moment when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Constituting a civilizational milestone in our collective history, the Declaration brought to the legal, social and cultural level the strong idea that all human beings are holders of inalienable rights, regardless…
The Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, participated in the XXVII General Assembly of the FIO, Ibero-American Federation of Ombudsmen, which took place in Mexico City from 28 November to 1 December 2022. The work brought together more than a hundred representatives of public human rights bodies from 21 countries. They focused in particular on the challenges posed by the pandemic and…
The Ombudsman has received various complaints about delays in the issue of the Former Combatant’s Card, and it has been established that these delays are often the result of out-of-date data from the applicants. In order to update this data, interested parties may access the Balcão Único da Defesa and submit the completed form, which is available there. Alternatively, this…
The Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, was in Parliament for a presencial hearing on the legislative initiatives under appraisal by the Working Group on the legal framework of Professional Associations. The hearing took place at the request of the coordinator of the Working Group, constituted in the scope of the Commission of Labour, Social Security and Inclusion.
To mark International Day of the Person with Disability, the Ombudsman presented a brief assessment of the activity developed by the telephone line especially dedicated to supporting these fellow citizens. Throughout 2022, in the period between 1st January and 30th November, the Disabled Citizens’ Line received 502 calls, a number that exceeds the total received in the previous year. Evolution…
The NPM – National Preventive Mechanism carried out joint visits to places of detention with its UK counterpart in November. The British NPM participated in the visits to the Detention Space at Lisbon Airport and to the Torres Novas prison establishment, and the Portuguese NPM team took part in the inspection of Garth prison, in Lancashire. The joint visits stem…
The Ombudsman has sent a letter to the Secretary of State for the Environment and Energy suggesting changes to the PAES – Support Programme for More Sustainable Buildings, aimed at avoiding, in the future, a repetition of the constraints and inequities that have led to more than a hundred complaints over the last year. Based on the experience resulting from…
Representing the Portuguese Ombudsman, the adviser Carla Vicente participated, on 31 October, in a Seminar on Responsible Gaming, organized by the Gaming Law Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association. The Seminar took place in the context of the procedure underway, in Brazil, to regulate the gaming market, and the topic was addressed in an interdisciplinary manner, with the presence of…
The Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, received a delegation from the Ministry of Justice of the Bavarian State Government, headed by Minister Georg Eisenreich and accompanied by the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Julia Monar, in an audience on 3 November. During the meeting, several aspects related to the history and the national and international activity of the Ombudsman…
At the start of the academic year and once the placement procedure that applied the new regime of mobility due to illness of teachers has been completed, the Ombudsman addressed an initial appraisal of this regime to the Minister of Education, requesting that he issue a statement, specifically in relation to the convenience of its integration within a suitable general…
