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United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child - States Parties Reports |
UNITED
NATIONS |
|
CRC
|
|
Convention on the Rights of the Child |
Distr. GENERAL CRC/C/65/Add.11 26 February 2001 ENGLISH Original: FRENCH |
COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES
UNDER
ARTICLE 44 OF THE CONVENTION
Periodic reports due in 1997
Addendum
PORTUGAL[*]
[8 October 1998]
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introductory note
5
I. GENERAL MEASURES OF IMPLEMENTATION 1 52 5
East
Timor 2 22 5
National Children’s Rights Commission
23 27 10
National Commission for the Protection of Children
and
Young People at Risk 28 31 11
National
Commission to Combat Child Labour 32 - 33 13
Grants allocated
34 36 13
Cooperation with Portuguesespeaking countries 37
52 14
II. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD 53 19
III. GENERAL
PRINCIPLES 54 134 19
A. Nondiscrimination (art. 2) 54
80 19
Office of the High Commissioner for Immigration
and Ethnic Minorities 55 56 19
Situation of Gypsies 57
60 20
Guaranteed minimum wage 61 64 21
Situation of
women 65 67 24
Equality between men and women 68
80 25
B. Best interests of the child (art. 3) 81 103 28
C. Right to
life, survival and development (art. 6) 104 120 35
D. Respect for
the views of the child (art. 12) 121 134 40
IV. CIVIL RIGHTS AND
FREEDOMS 135 138 43
V. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE 139
216 44
A. Parental guidance (art. 5) 139
144 44
B. Parental responsibilities (art. 18, paras. 1 and 2) 145
151 45
C. Separation from parents (art. 9) 152 163 47
D. Family
reunification (art. 10) 164 165 49
E. Illicit transfer and nonreturn
(art. 11) 166 49
F. Recovery of maintenance for the child (art. 27,
para. 4) 167 49
G. Children deprived of their family environment (art.
20) 168 186 50
Temporary family replacement measures 176
179 52
Definitive family replacement measures 180 186 53
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
H. Adoption (art. 21)
187 205 54
I. Periodic review of placement (art. 25) 206
208 58
J. Abuse and neglect (art. 19), including physical
and
psychological recovery and social reintegration
(art. 39) 209
216 59
VI. BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE 217 372 60
A. Disabled
children (art. 23) 217 268 60
Research support programme
229 66
Development of a specialized information
system 230 231 67
Technical support
232 67
Personalized reception, information and support
233 234 67
Accessibility 235 236 68
International
cooperation 237 68
Sport, culture and recreation
238 239 68
Support for nongovernmental organizations
240 69
Special education for disabled persons 241
268 69
B. Health and medical services (art. 24) 269
349 82
Health system support structures 276
277 85
Health care providers 278 281 86
Hospital
care 282 287 87
Outpatient consultations
288 88
Emergency services 289 291 88
Births
292 294 89
Family 295 299 91
Adolescents 300
301 93
Infant and child mortality 302
305 93
Monitoring of child and youth health 306
307 94
Health booklet 308 310 95
Vaccination
311 314 95
Oral and dental health 315
317 96
Nutrition 318 319 96
Accidents, injuries and
accidental injuries 320 321 97
Lifestyles, sport and
television 322 324 98
Harmful substances
325 98
HIV/AIDS 326 349 99
C. Social security
and childcare establishments
(arts. 26 and 18, para. 3) 350
363 103
D. Standard of living (art. 37, paras. 13) 364 372 107
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
VII. LEISURE,
RECREATIONAL AND CULTURAL
ACTIVITIES 373 441 110
A. Education,
including training and vocational guidance
(art. 28) 373
420 110
Preschool education 376 381 111
Inschool
education 382 396 113
Language teaching 397
401 119
Guidance and psychology services 402
404 121
“Continuing” education and outofschool
education 405 407 122
Secondary education 408
420 123
B. Objectives of education (art. 29) 421 431 126
C. Leisure
and cultural activities (art. 31) 432 441 128
VIII. SPECIAL MEASURES
FOR THE PROTECTION
OF CHILDREN 442 559 131
A. Children in
emergency situations 442 443 131
1. Refugee children (art. 22)
442 131
2. Children in armed conflicts (arts. 38 and 39)
443 131
B. Children in conflict with the law 444
510 132
1. Administration of juvenile justice (art. 40) 444
482 132
2. Children deprived of their liberty, including any
form
of detention, imprisonment or placement in
custodial settings (art. 37
(b)-(d)) 483 508 143
3. Sentencing of children, with particular
reference
to the prohibition of capital punishment and
life
imprisonment (art. 37 (a)) 509 150
4. Physical and psychological
recovery (art. 39) 510 150
C. Children in situations of
exploitation 511 554 150
1. Economic exploitation of children,
including
child labour (art. 32) 511 529 150
2. Drug abuse (art.
33) 530 535 156
3. Sexual exploitation and sexual abuse
(art. 34) 536 550 156
4. Sale, trafficking and abduction
(art. 35) 551 552 159
5. Other forms of exploitation (art.
36) 553 554 160
D. Children belonging to a minority or an
indigenous
group (art. 30) 555 559 160
Note by the editor: Some paragraphs and tables containing incomplete or incorrect data or unclear figures will be reissued in a corrigendum to be published under the symbol CRC/C/15/Add.11/Corr.1. These problematic points are marked in the text with an asterisk.
Introductory note
The following report supplements and updates
the initial report of Portugal (CRC/C/3/Add.30), submitted to the secretariat on
17
August 1994 and presented to the Committee on the Rights of the Child at its
tenth session, on 9 and 10 November 1995. It has been
drafted in strict
accordance with the general guidelines regarding the form and contents of
periodic reports to be submitted by States
parties under article 44,
paragraph 1 (b), of the Convention, adopted by the Committee on 11
October 1996 (CRC/C/58).
In order to aid the reader, as the text is
rather dense, a heading in italics at the start of each section of the report
dealing
with a specific topic refers to the relevant paragraph of the 1996
guidelines, where the information required is described. For
basic information
already provided, the reader is referred to the relevant paragraphs of the
initial report, in accordance with paragraph
8 of the guidelines.
I. GENERAL MEASURES OF IMPLEMENTATION
Paragraph 11 of the 1996 guidelines
1. Portugal was one of the first countries to accede to the Convention on
the Rights of the Child. The Convention has been ratified,
and entered
into force in the internal legal order on 21 October 1990. No
reservation was entered.
East Timor
2. Portugal is recognized internationally as the
Administering Power of the nonselfgoverning territory of East Timor, which was
illegally
annexed by the Republic of Indonesia in 1976. As a result of the
occupation and the severance of diplomatic relations between Portugal
and
Indonesia on 7 December 1975, the Administering Power is unable to obtain
information on the situation in the territory directly.
Nevertheless, on the
basis either of information published by the United Nations or of firsthand data
gathered by nongovernmental
organizations, experts or journalists, the
Portuguese Government wishes to register its deep concern and a strong protest
with regard
to the situation of Timorese children. The infant mortality rate is
one of the highest in the world, according to the International
Labour
Organization (ILO); and in 1995, 45.4 per cent of children aged 10 to
14 were working. The constant violation of children’s
human rights
(prison, torture, involuntary disappearance, summary execution), which
indirectly places them in situations of permanent
trauma, orphanhood, family
separation or thrusts responsibilities inappropriate to their age onto them,
is a situation that cannot
be denied and one of the utmost
seriousness.
Paragraph 12 of the 1996 guidelines
3. Portugal having participated in the drafting of the Convention, it
realized quite early on that, although there were no major incompatibilities
between the national legislation and the Convention, it would be necessary to
bring all the legislation on minors into line with
the new ideas and solutions
put forward in the Convention. However, following preparation of
Portugal’s initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.30), the Committee on the Rights
of the Child expressed concern regarding the Convention’s
implementation
in the area of the administration of juvenile justice and recommended that steps
should be taken to ensure complete
compatibility with the principles and
provisions of the Convention. Portugal is making efforts, both at the
legislative and at the
administrative levels, to implement measures that take
account of the precepts of the Convention.
4. One of the first decisions
taken by the Minister of Justice of the thirteenth constitutional Government,
which took office on 28
October 1995, was to appoint on 30 January 1996 a
Commission to review sentencing policy, one of whose priority tasks was
thoroughly
to examine the legislation on minors with a view to bringing its
procedures into line with the principles contained in the
Convention.
5. The Government also recently decided (Council of Ministers
decision No. 193/97, published in the official gazette Diário da
República of 3 November 1977), to embark on reform of the
legislation on the protection of children and young people at risk (see below,
paras.
28 ff.), which would also involve amending the legislation on
civil guardianship, the regulations governing the Minors’ Protection
Boards, and the legal framework for foster families and homes for children and
young people deprived of a family environment.
Paragraph 13 of the 1996 guidelines
6. The Convention has the force of law in the internal legal order, once
it has been approved for ratification by the Assembly of
the Republic. The
basic principles of the Convention are also included in the principles contained
in the Constitution of the Republic of Portugal, approved in 1976 following
the institution of a democratic political regime in Portugal. However, a
number
of nongovernmental organizations consider that there could be greater
consistency between the rights in the two instruments,
for example, by including
the State’s duties towards children in the general section of the
Constitution.
7. All the provisions of the Convention may be directly
invoked before the courts and applied by the national authorities; in the
event
of a conflict of laws the Convention takes precedence unless the national
legislation is more favourable.
Paragraph 14 of the 1996 guidelines
8. One provision of the national legislation that is clearly more
favourable relates to the minimum age of compulsory military service,
which is
18.
Paragraph 15 of the 1996 guidelines
9. A number of judicial decisions have invoked the Convention in order to
justify a procedure or confirm the fairness of an option.
The first case
includes decisions to allow a lawyer to intervene in guardianship proceedings
before the appeal stage; and the second
covers decisions where it has been
established that there is a conflict with the parents and it is the opinion of
the young person
which has prevailed. The latter were cases of parents’
abuse of their
authority, and, although the higher interest of the child was already
protected by national legislation as a fundamental right, the
clarity and
relevance of the Convention made it possible to develop and place special
emphasis on that interest.
Paragraph 16 of the 1996 guidelines
10. Cases of violations of the rights recognized by the Convention may be
reported to the police, who will bring them to the attention
of the government
procurator or of the Minors’ Protection Boards, or report them directly to
the juvenile court. Any other
case of violation of rights, including
illtreatment or abandonment, may be reported to official services equipped with
reception
and counselling hotlines (the “green line”), such as the
Ombudsman (Provedor de Justiça), or to emergency services
such as the Family and Children’s Support Project (PAFAC). This project
is attached to the Office
of the High Commissioner for the Promotion of Equality
and the Family and has an important role to play with regard to the problem
of
verifying illtreatment within the family. It is described in more detail in
paragraphs 172 ff. of this report. The office of
the government procurator
is responsible for representing minors in court. It may initiate proceedings or
lodge an appeal against
a court decision if it considers that there has been a
clear breach of the law. In the Juvenile Court, the representative of the
government procurator is known as the children’s procurator (curador de
menores); he may also represent the child and defend the child’s best
interests, even where there has been no clear breach of the law.
11. The
Minors’ Protection Boards, created under decree law No. 189/91 of
17 May 1991, take an experimental, nonjudicial approach
in which the
guiding principle is to involve the community in dealing with children deprived
of a normal family environment. They
work at the municipal level, and start out
from the assumption that an interdisciplinary, interagency approach is essential
to finding
the best solution for the child. They are therefore
multidisciplinary in nature (a doctor, a psychologist, a social worker, a
teacher,
a representative of the local authority, a representative of the police
and a lawyer). As mentioned above (para. 5), the legal framework
of the
Minors’ Protection Boards is currently under review; the reform aims to
improve their functioning and their links with
the courts and the public and
private services represented there. Their composition and their substantive and
territorial jurisdiction
will be reviewed in the light of the experience gained
and the actual situation on the ground, in order to provide children with
the
necessary technical and administrative support and appropriate followup, both at
the local and the national levels.
12. The Ombudsman, to whom any
individual may appeal in the event of a violation of rights recognized by the
Convention, closely follows
issues relating to the situation of children. In
a recent recommendation to the Department of Registration and Notarization
(No.
68/97, of 8 October), the Ombudsman recommended the registration
of the birth of a young person thought to be aged 14, who has been
in a home
since 24 December 1991; the recommendation cited both the Convention and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. The recommendation was
accepted by the Director of the Department of Registration and Notarization on
13 November 1997 in
respect of the three issues raised: the child’s birth
would be registered; he would then be given a name and permission was
also given
to grant him Portuguese nationality.
Paragraph 17 of the 1996 guidelines
13. The national programme of action prepared in 1992 in followup to the
Declaration adopted at the World Summit for Children held
in New York in
September 1990, recommended the implementation of a comprehensive national
strategy for children and proposed the
establishment of a permanent mechanism
responsible for initiating, coordinating and evaluating the programme. Under
the programme,
and following the work of a group composed of representatives of
the ministries of justice, health, education, labour and social
security, and
foreign affairs and of a number of nongovernmental organizations, appropriate
mechanisms must be established to compile,
analyse and publish, on a regular and
timely basis, the data needed to evaluate the social indicators relating to
child welfare.
14. A committee was established under the Ministry of
Justice to prepare the first report on the implementation of the Convention;
it
was opened up to representatives from the ministries of education, health and
employment and social security. It took part in
the meeting of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child at which Portugal’s report was considered and
promoted publication
of the Committee’s decisions.
15. In this
context, the establishment of the Office of the High Commissioner for the
Promotion of Equality and the Family is of particular
importance. As a
“national body whose task is to coordinate the various government
services whose functions give them responsibilities
in this area, in close
collaboration with private social welfare institutions and associations
representing families”, that
office has the following responsibilities as
regards children: “To oversee the situation of children by promoting
coordinated
measures by the competent public bodies, monitoring the activities
of nongovernmental organizations and supporting the formulation
and
implementation of policies with a bearing on children’s problems”
(decree law 3B/96 of 26 January).
16. Accordingly, the National
Commission on the Rights of the Child was established under the aegis of the
Office of the High Commissioner,
by an order issued on 13 December 1996
(Diário da República, second series). This Commission was
established for the purpose of systematic monitoring of the progress made with
legislative
and other measures relating to the implementation of the Convention
and also acts as a national focal point for children. During
its first year of
operation the Commission basically concentrated on preparing this report.
Having completed it, the Commission
continued its work, focusing not only on
gathering information on children and promoting the Convention, and also
preparing reports,
measures and scientific studies in order to improve the
understanding of children and their rights, but in particular on monitoring
the
abovementioned legislative measures (see also below, paras.
23 ff.).
17. As there is still no structure allowing effective
coordination of the various programmes, those operating nationwide are described
below.
(a) “What it means to be a child”, a major programme
in terms of both scope and objectives, was set up by order of the
Ministry of
Solidarity and Social Security (Diário da República 298,
second series, 28 December 1995) and supports preventive or actionbased
projects aiming to integrate children who are at risk or excluded from
society or the family, back into the family, society and school
and that may
help create conditions conducive to achieving those aims (see below, paras.
364372). The programme is coordinated by
the Department of Social Action and
aims to facilitate children’s harmonious development by promoting their
reintegration into
the family and improving the selfimage of children and their
families;
(b) Equally important in terms of relevance, scope and aims,
“Education for all” is an interministerial programme coordinated
by
the Ministry of Education. The programme was established by Council of
Ministers resolution No. 21/91, of 16 May 1991, and entered
its second phase in
1996. This phase is due to be completed during the 1999/2000 school year. The
programme aims mainly to tackle
the dropout and failure rates through a number
of initiatives; its scope and activities are discussed below (para.
390);
(c) The National Commission to Combat Child Labour, coordinated by
the Ministry of Training and Employment, was established under
an order dated 10
September 1996. Its tripartite nature, comprising Government, unions and
employers, ensures an interagency approach,
which is the only adequate means of
dealing with such a complex problem. The Commission is well aware that tackling
school dropout
and failure rates is an important prerequisite for combating
child labour, and prioritizes direct action in schools in cooperation
with local
authorities and local offices of the regional social security centres (see
below, paras. 32 ff. and 511512);
(d) Within the Ministry of
Health, the National Commission on Women’s and Children’s Health
(the successor to the National
Commission on Child Health), which was created by
an order dated 10 October 1992, has been directly responsible to the Minister of
Health since January 1994. This Commission plays an important role in
establishing priorities in the area of children’s and
young people’s
health (see below, paras. 105 ff.);
(e) The “School in
Safety” programme, launched in 1996 by the ministries of internal affairs
and education, involves
the security forces in school surveillance. By stepping
up school surveillance and coordinating resources, the programme aims to
ensure
the safety of pupils and schools, including protection of children against
sexual exploitation and violence and against abduction;
in addition, it aims to
help prevent drug use among young people through the deterrent effect normally
associated with measures of
this kind (see below, paras.
530 ff.).
18. The ministries with specific powers in the area of
child protection frequently establish committees to promote actions on behalf
of
children. Clearly, in the interests of consistency, action must be integrated
and coordinated, and many of these committees are
drawn from a range of agencies
(interministerial in most cases, but also joint or tripartite, i.e. including
government and nongovernment
bodies). However, the desirability of establishing
a coordinating mechanism at the national level, in order to give effect to the
contents of the preamble to the order establishing the Office of the High
Commissioner for the Promotion of Equality and the Family,
has been recognized
since the order does not in fact give the Office such powers.
19. An important step was taken towards the adoption of a comprehensive
strategy with the establishment of a working group under a
joint order issued by
the Ministers of Justice and Social Security with a view to bringing together
all ministerial and interministerial
programmes relating to children. We hope
that, when its conclusions and proposals have been examined, it will not be long
before
child policy in Portugal is properly coordinated.
20. In addition,
the Government considers it very important to enable young people to be involved
in defining policies relating to
them. The Secretariat of State for Youth, in
particular, is responsible for encouraging young people to get involved, on the
basis
that they are full citizens and agents of social and cultural change. On
the assumption that young people must be constantly involved
in defining,
implementing and evaluating youth policy, it was felt necessary to modify the
Portuguese Youth Institute’s philosophy,
and therefore its legislative
framework, by allowing young Portuguese to take part in the Institute’s
work and in the running
of youth clubs. It is the first time that a State body
has been run by representatives of central Government and young people together.
In the same vein, it was felt necessary to adapt the Youth Advisory Council,
which is part of the Office of the Prime Minister so
as to enable young people
to play an effective part in its work of consultation and followup on government
action.
21. Another initiative of the Secretariat of State for Youth was
the first national conference on youth policy, held in May 1996,
which produced
a final document that was to form the basis of a “strategic pact for the
21st century”. The p`act would
be concluded between youth associations
and the Government in 1997 with the aim of finding innovative solutions to young
people’s
problems. In order to encourage youth associations in their work
of socialization and teaching democratic values, a programme to
support youth
associations has been set up, together with the “Initiative
Programme”.
22. The Portuguese Youth Institute is aiming to set up
a youth association in every commune, so that young people can organize
themselves
and take part in various activities. In 1996, the number of youth
associations increased by 25 per cent. To gather data that will
give a true
picture of the situation of young people, the Support, Research and Planning
Office has been established together with
the Permanent Observatory of
Portuguese Youth, which is now analysing the first data.
Paragraph 18 of the 1996 guidelines
National Children’s Rights Commission
23. The Office of the High Commissioner for the
Promotion of Equality and the Family is
under the aegis of the Office of the
Prime Minister. Its powers are laid down in decree law No. 3B/96 of 26
January, article 2, paragraph
(d). That provision made it possible to establish
the National Commission on the Rights of the Child, which took note of the
recommendation
of the Committee on the Rights of the Child that Portugal should
strengthen coordination and monitoring between the different governmental
mechanisms involved in children’s rights, and promote closer cooperation
with nongovernmental organizations.
24. The National Commission on the Rights the Child is coordinated by a lady
magistrate from the government procurator’s office
detached to the Office
of the High Commissioner and is made up of a technical team from the Office of
the High Commissioner and of
representatives of the ministries of justice,
education, health and social welfare, and of nongovernmental organizations with
an
interest in children and youth. Its powers are defined in the order of the
Office of the High Commissioner published in the Diário da
República, second series, of 30 December 1996: it
systematically gathers data and studies on children that make it possible to
monitor and
evaluate the implementation of the Convention on an ongoing basis.
In view of the short time available, the Commission decided to
prioritize the
gathering of information and statistics for this report. It has not forgotten,
however, that one of the tasks assigned
to it by the order under which it was
established is to “play a major role in providing information on
children’s rights,
particularly to professionals working with children and
youth and to children themselves”.
25. Its systematic gathering of
information on the situation of children means that the Commission is
particularly wellplaced actively
to monitor the implementation of the Convention
and can therefore be regarded as an observatory. During the current year, the
Commission
made contact with State services and nongovernmental organizations,
requesting their help in the preparation of this report. It
believes such
interagency cooperation should be extended and become part of the normal working
methods of government and nongovernment
agencies (see below, paras.
51 ff.).
26. Early in 1997, the Office of the High Commissioner for
the Promotion of Equality and the Family launched a huge campaign, jointly
with
the “Education for all” programme (see para. 17 (b)), to
publicize the Convention in every school in the country.
The campaign was
extended to cover preschool establishments in 1997/1998. The Department of
Education and Innovation, through the
department of basic education, extended
this campaign to preschool and primary establishments jointly with the
Portuguese UNICEF
committee, which published a poster and leaflet in time for
the International Day of the Child celebrations. The text of the Convention
on
the Rights of the Child was publicized through a competition entitled “I
am young, I have rights”, which is still
running; strip cartoons have also
been used for this purpose.
27. The ministries with competence in areas
covered by the Convention, include the ministries of education, health,
solidarity and
social security, justice, training and employment and internal
affairs. There is also the Secretariat of State for Youth, which
is directly
responsible to the Prime Minister. Some of these ministries are represented on
the National Commission on the Rights
of the Child. In the next stage, when
this report has been submitted, the intention is to extend the Commission not
only by including
representatives of other ministries but also by inviting a
number of prominent individuals and nongovernmental organizations to join
a
consultative committee, in order to enhance the Commission’s impartiality.
National Commission for the Protection of Children and Young People at Risk
28. The Government recently decided (Council of
Ministers resolution No. 193/97, of 3 November), to launch an
interministerial and
interagency process of reform of the system of protection
of children and young people at risk, with five main components: (a) legal
reform,
(b) institutional framework, (c) coordination of social action, (d)
audits and studies and (e) launch and coordination of the reform.
The National
Commission for the Protection of Children and Young People at Risk was created
for this task.
29. The Commission “shall include representatives of
public and private bodies involved in this field”; its tasks are
as follows (Diário da República, No. 254, first series B,
3 November 1997):
“(a) To assist with amending
legislation;
(b) Mainly as part of the Social solidarity cooperation pact, to promote links between the minors’ protection boards, the government departments involved in this area and private social welfare institutions or other private bodies;
(c) To encourage the establishment of interdisciplinary teams to deal with children and adoption and ensure specialized training for them;
(d) To promote the establishment of emergency reception centres in zones where they are found to be necessary and where there are problems warranting such facilities;
(e) To prepare and coordinate the transfer of minors and human, physical and financial resources from the justice system to the social welfare system;
(f) To request and coordinate audits and studies to analyse and evaluate deficiencies, measures and social action;
(g) To coordinate action by all public and private bodies, mechanisms and action programmes dealing with children and young people at risk;
(h) To monitor and support the minors’ protection boards.”
30. The initial report of Portugal (CRC/C/3/Add.30) discussed the special
service for receiving and handling complaints from children,
which was set up in
1992 by the Ombudsman. This service operates mainly through a direct telephone
line, “Messages from children”:
this is not an emergency line but a
service providing technical and personal guidance on children’s rights and
the best way
to secure them. In 1996, nearly 2,700 calls were made, to the
“green line” as compared with some 4,500 in 1995. During
1996 and
particularly 1997, the number of frivolous calls diminished sharply, and the
situations described were considerably more
serious. According to the
information provided by the Ombudsman, children call basically during the school
term, taking advantage
of break time or school holidays, or when they are alone
at home. Sometimes it is during an informal chat that a child reports a
risk
situation that is the real reason for the call. On average, four out of five
cases are resolved satisfactorily. Fewer than
2 per cent of requests
for help are complex enough to give rise to a formal procedure that is
transferred from the “green line”
to the competent services of the
Ombudsman.
Paragraph 19 of the 1996 guidelines
31. In 1997, to mark International Children’s Day, the National
Commission on the Rights of the Child, jointly with Lisbon municipality,
organized a meeting attended by a number of schools, where young people were
able to say what they thought about their rights and
who to protect them. The
success of this initiative, in which the Office of the Ombudsman (“green
line”) was also involved,
was due in no small part to the efforts of civil
society, especially teachers, psychologists and, of course, the children, who
were
enthusiastic participants.
National Commission to Combat Child Labour
32. The National Commission to Combat Child
Labour, too, includes union and employer representatives; since mid1997, two
nongovernmental
organizations, the Child Support Institute (IAC) and the
National Federation for Action on Child Labour, have also taken part in
the
plenary meetings: because of their experience in this field, their contribution
has been regarded as particularly important.
The Commission presents periodic
reports to Parliament to enable progress to be evaluated. The system of
periodic reports is one
that should be encouraged and extended, since it enables
progress to be assessed and priorities to be identified or simply
confirmed.
33. In 1993 Parliament requested the Government for detailed
information on the situation in Portugal regarding the illtreatment of
children.
Recognizing that there was a lack of data on this subject, the Government
commissioned, through the Centre for Judicial
Studies, a team of university
researchers to conduct a study, the conclusions of which were submitted in 1996.
At that time, given
the receptive attitude to this parliamentary
initiative, it would have been desirable to have set up a system for the regular
provision
of information to Parliament. It is important that studies of this
type be widely disseminated and conducted on a regular basis
to ensure that a
comprehensive range of data on the issues in question is available and
constantly updated.
Paragraph 20 of the 1996 guidelines
Grants allocated
34. Notwithstanding
the progress achieved, including in raising awareness of the need to assign
coordination functions in the area
of child welfare, no breakdown of State
budgetary arrangements exists which would permit identification of social
expenditure for
children, covering health, social protection and education. It
is possible, however, to indicate these expenses in a fragmentary
fashion:
table 1 below shows the social expenditure on children in the social security
budget.
Table 1
Social security budget: current expenditure (thousands of
escudos)
|
Expenditure on children and young people (thousands of
escudos)
|
Percentage of total budget
|
|
1994
|
1 341 863 000
|
40 807 205
|
3
|
1995
|
1 465 453 852
|
45 853 941
|
3
|
Source: Department of Social Action, based on the social
security budget.
35. In reporting on its activities the National
Commission on the Rights of the Child will highlight the need for a clearer
delimitation
in the State budget of allocations for children. The Commission
also intends to suggest to the Office of the High Commissioner that
it include
among its members a representative of the Ministry of Finance, if possible from
the State Budget Secretariat.
Paragraph 21 of the 1996 guidelines
36. With regard to the provision of benefits,
radical measures have recently been taken to ensure that the benefits are fairer
and
more evenly distributed. This matter will be further considered below in
the section of the present report dealing with social security
(chapter VI,
section C, paras. 350362).
Cooperation with Portuguesespeaking countries
37. Following the decolonization process set in
motion following the establishment of a democratic system in Portugal,
cooperation
with the new Portuguesespeaking countries has increased, through the
implementation of development programmes, in particular in the
area of aid for
children. Since health and education are the priority areas in this
solidaritybuilding cooperation, it is appropriate
to draw attention to the
contributions of the United Nations International Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) and the World Health Organization
(WHO) (see table 2
below).
Table 2
|
1996
|
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Millions of US dollars
|
Percentage
of total |
Millions of US dollars
|
Percentage of total
|
I. European official development
assistance |
165.72
|
64.35
|
157.04
|
72.06
|
(a) Health sector
|
6.80
|
2.64
|
8.53
|
3.91
|
(b) Education sector
|
30.92
|
12.01
|
30.79
|
14.13
|
(c) Government and civil society
|
5.21
|
2.02
|
4.28
|
1.96
|
(c) (i) Assistance for the promotion
of democratica development |
0.54
|
0.21
|
0.75
|
0.34
|
(d) Other social sectors
|
5.69
|
2.21
|
6.32
|
2.90
|
(e) Economic infrastructure and
services |
8.44
|
3.28
|
9.28
|
4.26
|
(f) Production sectors
|
7.07
|
2.75
|
10.10
|
4.63
|
II. Multilateral official development
assistance |
91.81
|
35.65
|
60.89
|
27.94
|
(a) UNICEF
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
0.10
|
0.05
|
(b) UNESCO
|
0.94
|
0.37
|
0.26
|
0.12
|
(c) WHO
|
0.82
|
0.32
|
0.88
|
0.40
|
Total official development assistance
|
257.53
|
100
|
217.93
|
100
|
Official development assistance as a percentage of GNP
|
0.25
|
0.23
|
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
a
Covers the following activities: assistance for the electoral process and
election monitoring; strengthening the judicial system;
sound governance
(activities to promote the accountability, effectiveness and efficiency of the
public sector and an efficient and
fair administration system at all levels
of public service; human rights protection.
38. International cooperation
in this area has three essential aspects:
(a) Intergovernmental
cooperation, through bilateral or
multilateral
agreements;
(b) Cooperation between local communities,
usually through twinning or partnership agreements, with a view to
promoting decentralized
developmentoriented
activities;
(c) Cooperation through nongovernmental
organizations, focusing primarily on specific activities.
39. In 1994,
the Portuguese Cooperation Institute set up a special fund, which operates
under UNESCO and has a total balance of $330,000.
The fund is intended for
African countries whose official language is Portuguese and is to be used
to help fund projects proposed
by UNESCO. Portugal has already cofunded
two UNESCO projects, one an emergency education programme for child victims of
the war
in Angola ($187,369) and the other a project for children with
special needs in African countries whose official language is Portuguese
($80,000).
Table 3
Official development assistance
Geographical
distribution of bilateral ODA
(19901995)
Country
|
1990
|
1991
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
Angola
|
10.9
|
7.8
|
6.9
|
12.5
|
9.3
|
17.3
|
Cape Verde
|
14.9
|
9.4
|
7.4
|
9.0
|
8.0
|
7.7
|
Guinea Bissau
|
14.3
|
10.0
|
6.8
|
8.2
|
39.6
|
9.3
|
Mozambique
|
41.1
|
61.4
|
67.8
|
57.4
|
18.4
|
37.1
|
Sao Tome and Principe
|
15.6
|
6.2
|
6.5
|
5.4
|
4.2
|
32.7
|
Various
|
3.2
|
5.2
|
4.6
|
7.5
|
20.5
|
5.9
|
Total
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At the bilateral
level, mention must be made of the support provided by the National
Children’s Institute for Angola (INAC),
in the form of the donation of
medicines, toys, clothes and footwear.
40. Activities of this type also
depend on the collaboration of nongovernmental organizations, among which we
should note the special
activities conducted by the Child Support Institute
(IAC) and the Portuguese Committee for UNICEF, through their regular
participation
in solidarity campaigns and also through the Pro Dignitate
foundation. In 1995, IAC set up a special working group for cooperation
with
Angola (INAC), with a view to developing a project for children in such areas as
mother and child health, education and recreational
activities, as well as for
supporting orphans and street children. This working group, on the invitation
of INAC, has already participated
in several meetings (including at the
international level) forming part of the cooperation and international
solidarity efforts in
this area.
41. In 1996, IAC assisted with the
establishment of a children’s library in Luanda, Angola, by donating books
on a range of
different subjects. The institute also participated in the
project on the theme “A world of love” an initiative of
the
antiapartheid movement by sending clothes, shoes and toys to Angola. Also in
1996, IAC established close links with the Institute
for the Support of the
Child in Sao Tome and Principe and organized a training course for persons
dealing with street children in
Cape Verde, which was conducted by trainers from
the Street Project, in collaboration with the Cape Verdean Institute for Minors.
These projects, whose object is the social rehabilitation of street children,
were cofunded by the Portuguese Cooperation Institute.
42. Other nongovernmental organizations such as Cooperação e
Desenvolvimento (OIKOS), International Medical Assistance
(IMA), the Pro
Dignitate Foundation and the Amilcar Cabral Documentary and Information Center
(CIDAC) receive support from the Portuguese
Cooperation Institute for
development projects. An initiative to address the sexual abuse of
children by members of United Nations
peacekeeping forces and staff of
other international organizations, jointly organized by Civitas, Pro Dignitate
and CIDAC, is currently
being carried out. One of its primary aims is to have
the United Nations Code of Conduct translated into Portuguese and
distributed
to members of the Portuguese armed forces.
43. Mention should
also be made here of the Institute of Education Communities (ICE), which,
together with Seixal Municipal Council,
organized a course on the issue of women
and children, with particular reference to cooperation projects in
Portuguesespeaking countries,
held from 14 to 18 April 1997 with the
participation of a number of Portuguese, African and Brazilian nongovernmental
organizations.
This course, which was coordinated by ICE, was also promoted by
the Institute for Development Studies (IED), the Higher Institute
of Labour and
Business Studies (ISCTE), the Pro Dignitate foundation,
Setúbal Teachers Training College, the Office of the
High
Commissioner for the Promotion of Equality and the Family and IAC. The Seixal
Municipal Council, which has succeeded in involving
these highly regarded
institutions in various community projects, has undertaken to set itself up as a
forum for discussion and the
exchange of experience, with a view to establishing
a network from which activities may be developed in other Portuguesespeaking
countries.
Paragraph 22 of the 1996 guidelines
44. The citizens of Portugal speak only one language, Portuguese. Most
immigrants living in Portugal come from African countries
whose official
language is Portuguese: accordingly, translating the Convention into other
languages is not considered a priority.
It is acknowledged, however, that a
large number of immigrant children (primarily in the Cape Verde community)
have great difficulty
understanding Portuguese; the situation needs further
study so that a decision can be made about translating the Convention into
other
languages. Its translation into Tetum would also help promote its dissemination
in Eastern Timor.
45. The Office of the High Commissioner for the
Promotion of Equality and the Family has hitherto encouraged comprehensive
dissemination
of the Convention. In addition to reproducing and distributing
copies of the Convention in all schools in the country, the Commission
regularly
participates, on behalf of the Office of the High Commissioner, in radio
programmes and, occasionally, also in television
programmes in which such highly
topical issues as the rights of the child, illtreatment and adoption are
discussed. In the campaign
to disseminate the Convention, copies were
distributed to pupils and teachers in primary and secondary schools.
In addition, hundreds
of copies were sent to local authorities
(municipalities and councils at the parish, district and regional levels). In
all, 20,000
copies of this edition were printed.
46. The National
Commission on the Rights of the Child has prepared a training programme for
teacher trainers on the historical, legal,
healthrelated, psychological and
educational aspects of the Convention. The programme was launched in 1998, as
part of the “Focus”
programme of the Ministry of Education. In time
it will be extended to all teachertraining colleges, and other similar
activities
will be undertaken in other sectors.
47. The Ministry of
Solidarity and Social Security has also undertaken training activities for
personnel working in the childcare
and youth sector covering the subject of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. In 1995 the Convention was studied in a
training
course on “the problems of children and juveniles” and
was also covered in workshops on the subject of “children
and young people
at risk”; other, activities on a lesser scale dealing with
children’s issues have also been organized
at the local
level.
48. The Ministry of the Internal Affairs is also making efforts to
promote awareness of the Convention. Thus, special training in
this area is
provided at the police and Republican Guard colleges. The various colleges
for members of the security forces currently
include in their curricula two
subjects relevant to the rights of the child: “Fundamental rights and
human rights”,
which refers to the Convention, and “The rights of
minors” which looks closely at the law applicable under the Portuguese
legal order and refers to the Convention as the instrument which sets out the
rights of the child.
49. In addition to organizing events to mark
International Children’s Day, the National Commission on the Rights of the
Child
has also been involved in other activities around the country primarily
intended for children, young people and above all teachers.
Particular note should be taken here of a programme mounted in
December 1996, in which hundreds of children in the second and third
school
cycles after a period of study, were invited to give their views on violence,
and in particular on violence on television,
in the light of the principles of
the Convention. A questionnaire was circulated to dozens of schools and the
youngsters came together
in a students’ forum to draft their conclusions
on these issues.
50. This forum, which is an initiative of the Padre
António Vieira University, has strong traditions in the information
field.
The university has an information centre on student and youth matters,
at which recent information is available on colleges and
courses and on
appropriate job opportunities. The centre participates twice a year in the
international fair in Lisbon with a stand
providing uptodate information on
entry conditions and course curricula and also organizing symposiums and
cultural gatherings.
The last such exhibition by the centre was held from 14
to 18 December 1996 and support for its abovementioned activities
relating
to the application of the Convention, which sought association with the
immense following around the students’ forum, was provided
by the
Pro Dignitate foundation. The ministries of health and education also
collaborated in the activities.
Paragraph 23 of the 1996 guidelines
51. In preparing this report, contributions were
first obtained from the ministries represented in the National Commission on the
Rights of the Child, which provided detailed reports on measures taken in their
respective areas of activity. Thus, the Ministry
of Solidarity and Social
Security sought collaboration from all its services at the central, regional and
local levels; the Ministry
of Education set up a team to gather data for the
preparation of the report; and the Ministry of Health analysed information
compiled
by the National Commission on Women’s and Children’s
Health, which has also been used in preparing a book entitled:
Health of the
Portuguese recently published by the Department of Health. The Ministry of
Internal Affairs, the Secretariat of State for Youth, the Youth
Institute, the
Secretariat of State for Housing,
the Secretariat of State for
Cooperation, the Office of the High Commissioner for Immigration and Ethnic
Minorities, the Ombudsman
and, lastly, Parliament also collaborated in this
exercise. A large number of nongovernmental organizations were also invited to
participate.
52. Portugal’s initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.30) and the
concluding observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the
Child
following its consideration of the State party report have been published in the
journal Children and Young People. The Commission realizes that
insufficient copies of the initial report were distributed and intends to take
steps to ensure that
the second report is very widely distributed, in view of
its vital importance as a means of promoting the Convention itself.
II. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD
Paragraph 24 of the 1996
guidelines
53. Where the definition of the child is concerned, Portuguese legislation
does not differ from the Convention, as in Portugal the
age of majority for
civil purposes is 18. The legal framework already described in the initial
report has been maintained, and none
of the relevant provisions have been
changed. Reference is therefore made to chapter II of that report
(CRC/C/3/Add.30, paras. 1420).
III. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
A. Nondiscrimination (art. 2)
Paragraph
25 of the 1996 guidelines
54. The principle of nondiscrimination is enshrined in article 13 of the
Portuguese Constitution, article 69 of which specifically enunciates the right
of children to protection by society and the State against any form of
discrimination.
Here too, the previous report provides all the relevant
information relating to the legal framework upholding the principle of
nondiscrimination;
attention is drawn, therefore, to chapter III, section A, of
that report (paras. 2426).
Paragraph 26 of the 1996 guidelines
Office of the High Commissioner for Immigration and Ethnic Minorities
55. A measure of particular political
significance in the practical implementation of the principle of
nondiscrimination was the establishment
of the Office of the High Commissioner
for Immigration and Ethnic Minorities. Recognizing that the increase in the
numbers of immigrants
was causing social tensions which could not be ignored and
anxious to promote mutual respect, by combating intolerance and discrimination,
the Government created this nationallevel body with the mandate of monitoring
the provision of support for the integration of immigrants.
The Office of the
High Commissioner was established by decree law No. 3A/96
of 26 January and falls under the authority of the Office of the Prime
Minister. In its preamble, this instrument declares that the
need to combat
racism and xenophobia poses a new challenge for Portugal, which, having now
become a country of immigration, must
learn to prevent those immigrants from
becoming marginalized. If efforts to integrate immigrants are to succeed,
particular weight
must be placed on education through measures involving
families, schools and social structures.
56. The Office of the High
Commissioner is called upon to promote research into the subject of the
resettlement of immigrants and
ethnic minorities and consultation and dialogue
with bodies representing immigrants or ethnic minorities, in cooperation with
the
social partners and private welfare institutions. The Office’s tasks
include the following:
(a) Helping to improve the living conditions of
immigrants, so as to facilitate their social integration, with due respect for
their
identity and their culture of origin;
(b) Helping ensure that all
persons legally resident in Portugal enjoy the same dignity and equal
opportunity, so as to eliminate
discrimination and to combat racism and
xenophobia;
(c) Monitoring the action of the different services of the
public administration competent in regard to the entry, stay and departure
of
foreign citizens in Portugal;
(d) Collaborating in the formulation of
active policies to combat exclusion, and helping promote the implementation and
followup
of those policies, by encouraging departmental and interdepartmental
action by the services of the public administration and the
government
departments involved in this sector;
(e) Proposing measures, notably of
a regulatory nature, to support immigrants and ethnic minorities.
Situation of Gypsies
57. Another measure of particular importance to
implementation of the principle of nondiscrimination was the creation of the
Working
Group for the Equality and Insertion of Gypsies (Council of Ministers
resolution number 157/96 of 19 October 1996), which was set
up to study the
difficulties faced by Gypsies in achieving integration into Portuguese society
and to develop proposals to help to
eliminate situations of social exclusion.
Working under the chairmanship of the High Commissioner on Immigration and
Ethnic Minorities,
the Working Group submitted a report in January 1997, which
recognized that there was a tendency in Portuguese society towards exclusion
and
indifference towards Gypsies.
58. The report stated that the Gypsy
community in Portugal faced severe problems of social, economic, cultural, and
even political
exclusion. The lack of occupational skills, low literacy levels
and the failure rate among young people made for poverty and destitution
among
the Gypsies. This social situation, compounded by other phenomena, such as poor
living conditions, lack of means of subsistence
and high levels of drug use and
involvement in drug trafficking,
further stigmatizes the Gypsies. Working together, all these factors have
created a very difficult situation and are responsible
for the group’s
extreme social vulnerability. One of the main problems faced by the Gypsies is
that of access to the labour
market owing to the lack of job
alternatives.
59. According to a study conducted between March and
September 1994 by the Lisbon Diocesan Secretariat of the National Department
for
the Pastoral Care of Gypsies, there were some 6,000 Gypsies in the Lisbon area.
They formed a young population (44 per cent
under 15 years
of age); 50.6 per cent lived in slum areas, 69 per cent lived off peddling
and 20 per cent had no occupation. Only
62 per cent of Gypsy children
were registered with schools and the attendance of half of these children was
very irregular, with
very poor educational performance. Nearly 50 per cent of
the children, from 10 to 14 years of age, did not attend school at all.
Where
school attendance is concerned, preference was given to boys, for entrenched
cultural reasons. The vast majority of those
children did not attend
kindergartens or crèches.
60. In this context, several recent
initiatives should be noted:
(a) With regard to housing, certain
innovative measures, albeit of limited scope, have permitted a more effective
response to the
housing needs of Gypsy citizens, such as providing homes with a
spatial layout more appropriate to their occupants’ cultural
characteristics;
(b) Where employment promotion is concerned, a
cooperation agreement has been concluded between the Employment and Occupational
Training
Institute and Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Lisbon, entitled
“social and economic integration of young Gypsies”.
Under this
agreement, 200 young Gypsies will be able to undergo vocational training for a
period of two years in the fields of social
and educational
training;
(c) In the area of intercultural education, several measures
have been taken, including the preparation of a teacher’s guide
for the
first cycle of secondary education, containing useful suggestions on teaching
approaches, and the translation of several
works on tolerance and human rights;
in addition, a number of intercultural educational projects have also been
launched.
It should also be noted that several of the projects making up
the National AntiPoverty Programme specifically address the Gypsy population,
and that Gypsies are the beneficiaries of some pilot projects under the
guaranteed minimum wage scheme.
Paragraph 27 of the 1996 guidelines
Guaranteed minimum wage
61. Various measures have been adopted to reduce
economic, social and geographical disparities, among which the guaranteed
minimum
wage scheme has had the most immediate and farreaching effects.
Designed as a priority component of the campaign to combat social
exclusion,
this measure places obligations on the State, private social welfare
institutions, local communities and citizens. The
guaranteed minimum wage
scheme has two components: the first is the provision of social benefits and
the second is the social integration
programme, aimed at the empowerment of
families.
62. An experimental programme of pilot projects was launched in
June 1996, and in July 1997 it was extended throughout the country.
Table 4 relates to the first phase of the pilot project programme, the outcome
of which has been very positive in such areas as the support of local
communities, institutions and beneficiaries.
Table 4
Guaranteed minimum wage: pilot project implementation
Number of projects
|
Projects approved
|
Projects rejected
|
|||
Families
|
Persons
|
Families
|
Persons
|
||
North
|
46
|
1 094
|
3 355
|
628
|
1 696
|
Centre
|
38
|
1 912
|
5 750
|
734
|
2 028
|
Lisbon and
Tagus Valley |
45
|
1 415
|
4 483
|
521
|
1 680
|
Alentejo
|
9
|
237
|
791
|
276
|
698
|
Algarve
|
6
|
291
|
1 048
|
109
|
275
|
Azores
|
12
|
727
|
3 703
|
276
|
1 181
|
Madeira
|
12
|
608
|
2 568
|
444
|
1 560
|
Total
|
168
|
6 284
|
21 698
|
2 988
|
9 118
|
Source: Technical Support Office of the National Minimum Wage
Commission, April 1997.
63. Table 5 below contains data relating to
the number of persons benefiting from the integration programme.
Table 5
Distribution by integration
sectors of beneficiaries of the integration programmes
|
Integration sectors |
No. of beneficiaries |
---|---|---|
Education
|
Compulsory schooling |
1 146 |
Regular teaching |
673 |
|
Preschool |
1 |
|
Special education |
10 |
|
Extramural activities (teaching and courses) |
41 |
|
Psychological support |
5 |
|
Monitoring of school attendance |
105 |
|
|
|
|
Vocational training
|
Initial apprenticeship |
128 |
Initial qualification |
104 |
|
Vocational training for the unemployed |
99 |
|
Special vocational training |
34 |
|
Educational guidance |
10 |
|
Electromechanical technologies: Special training |
1 |
|
Onthejob training |
13 |
|
Jobfinding sessions |
18 |
|
Employment
|
Job creation or business |
44 |
Entry into job market |
453 |
|
School/workshop |
1 |
|
Job finding support/job club |
67 |
|
Vocational programmes |
317 |
|
Revitalizing vocational activities |
38 |
|
Health
|
Consultations/treatment |
706 |
Detoxification/alcoholism |
142 |
|
/drug addiction |
80 |
|
Family planning |
97 |
|
Followup/prevention |
106 |
|
Training in health matters |
5 |
|
Social welfare
|
Infant carers/family crèches/crèches |
252 |
Leisure activities |
187 |
|
Psychological and social support |
1 234 |
|
Kindergartens |
28 |
|
Household training and management |
6 |
|
Training for family helpers |
4 |
|
Home help |
18 |
|
Day centres |
5 |
|
Applications for social benefits |
13 |
|
Social and family education |
107 |
|
Information and guidance |
7 |
|
Regularizing situation of minors courts |
5 |
Source: MSSS/RMG/97.
64. Given its importance for the
principle of nondiscrimination, mention should be made here of the National
AntiPoverty Programme,
which is targeted against such vulnerable groups as the
unemployed and, in particular, women.
Situation of women
65. It is recognized today that the promotion of
women is an essential precondition for the healthy upbringing of children and
for
social progress in general; accordingly, new impetus has been given to
activities in such areas as vocational training, literacy
education, and support
for local crafts and other traditional forms of production, and support is also
being provided for projects
to modernize the agricultural sector and to revive
small farming and fishing concerns, which has resulted in the creation of more
than 1,000 new jobs.
66. Among the nongovernmental organizations working
to reduce geographical disparities, mention should be made of the Child Support
Institute, engaged in awarenessraising activities on the rights of the child and
which, through its “SOS for Children”
telephone service (set up
in 1988), has already provided support, information, counselling and
guidance in a wide range of cases
involving children and young people at risk.
This service, which is provided in confidence and anonymity, is provided on an
individualized
basis and is available throughout the country. The telephone
service is operated by specialists trained in social and human sciences
(psychologists, social workers and teachers).
Table 6
Data on the “SOS for Children” service for 1996
Paragraph 28 of the 1996 guidelines
67. The thirteenth constitutional Government is similarly concerned about
the commitments entered into at the Fourth World Conference
on Women. The first
major step taken in response was the establishment of the Office of the High
Commissioner for the Promotion
of Equality and the Family: the basic Act
establishing this body recognized that it was not sufficient merely to proclaim
equality
and stressed the need, in the interests of strengthening the democratic
system, to ensure that women were able to give effect to
their rights.
Equality between men and women
68. The resolution adopted by the Council of
Ministers on 6 March 1997 on the equality of men and women is of particular
importance.
On the premise that priority shall be accorded to policies designed
to promote equality between men and women, the implementation
of the resolution
is set as an indispensable precondition for the promotion and development of
citizenship.
69. This Council of Ministers also approved a comprehensive
equal opportunity plan, incorporating the following
measures:
(a) Prevention of violence and protection against
violence:
(i) Establishment of shelters for women victims of violence, to receive, shelter and provide appropriate information for them;
(ii) Introduction in the curriculum of police training courses of matters relating to the psychological and social effects of domestic violence on the victims and on the family structure;
(iii) Establishment of family mediation centres;
(b) Reconciliation of family life with working
life:
(i) Policies to encourage affirmative action by enterprises;
(ii) Organization of awarenessraising campaigns for the public;
(c) Health: support for measures to prevent teenage
pregnancy and promotion of such measures in schools, health centres and
hospitals
as well as through sex education and family
planning;
(d) Education, science and culture:
(i) Preparation of textbooks and other teaching and cultural materials which
convey nonstereotyped images of men and women;
(ii) Design of school curricula to ensure that due attention is paid to the complementary roles of men and women in society and in the family, with a view to overcoming all forms of discrimination, including that regarding the traditional division of roles between the sexes;
(iii) Incorporation of sex education modules in school curricula, as part of health education programmes;
(iv) Introduction, in vocational training and careers, of nonstereotyped options, offering young people guidance and appropriate training in intermediate and higherlevel courses, and in preparation for subsequent job openings.
70. Also in response to commitments entered into at
the Fourth World Conference on Women, in the fourth revision of the Constitution
(Constitutional Act No. 1/97 of 20 September), article 9
designates the promotion of equality between men and women as a fundamental
task
of the State. The inclusion of this new provision in the general section of the
Portuguese Constitution and, more particularly, in that part of the Constitution
which sets forth the fundamental principles, is an important step
forward.
71. The attribution of this responsibility to the State reflects
the far greater respect accorded to the issue of equality between
the sexes as a
precondition for political democracy. Accordingly, this measure, which was
adopted in response to a popular movement
and is not yet as widely evident as
one might wish, but which manifests itself primarily by its effects, has been
accompanied by
other legislative measures, including, in
particular:
(a) Act No. 17/95 of 9 June 1995, amending Act No. 4/84 of 5
April 1984, on the protection of motherhood and fatherhood;
(b) Decree
law No. 332/95, of 23 December 1995, regulating Act No. 17/95 in the light of
amendments made in relation to the system
of
holidays;
(c) Decree law No. 333/95, of 23 December 1995, also
regulating Act No. 17/95, with regard to the system of benefits and allowances
payable during the holidays established by the decree law referred to
above;
(d) Act No. 10/97, of 12 May 1997, strengthening the rights of
women’s association;
(e) Act No. 105/97, of 13 September 1997,
relating to the right to equal treatment and in the fields of work and
employment and introducing
major amendments providing for a more adequate
monitoring system to address all types of discrimination.
Paragraph 29 of the 1996 guidelines
72. As a comprehensive measure to promote equality, stress has been placed on the need to identify the sex of the persons concerned in all performance appraisals and statistical compilations, so as to improve planning and implementation of various sectoral measures. For the purposes of implementing this measure, a representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for the Promotion of Equality and the Family (whose appointment has not yet been confirmed) will be nominated to the Higher Statistical Council.
Paragraph 30 of the 1996 guidelines
73. The Ministry of Education, working together with the Office of the High
Commissioner for Immigration and Ethnic Minorities, is
conducting
awarenesspromoting activities designed to break down prejudices and prevent
behaviour conducive to social or ethnic tension.
An example of such an activity
was the symposium held at the Lisbon International Fair on 6
and 7 November 1997. The essential
aim of this initiative was to
highlight the European Year against Racism, with the participation of the public
services, local authorities
and nongovernmental organizations. Universities and
teachertraining colleges also participated, as did representatives of
religious
communities.
74. Development education programmes carried out
by several nongovernmental organizations, including Cooperação e
Desenvolvimento
(OIKOS), the Portuguese Committee for UNICEF and the Amilcar
Cabral Documentary and Information Center (CIDAC), help to raise young
people’s awareness of cultural diversity, interdependence and
international cooperation. Also at the initiative of the Ministry
of Education,
on 10 November 1997, meetings to discuss more effective ways of combating racism
were held all over the country. Representatives
of human rights associations,
notably SOS Racism, were invited to take part in initiatives in schools as part
of the “Day against
racism”.
Paragraph 31 of the 1996
guidelines
75. It is in this context that some official organizations, particularly the
Office of the High Commissioner for Immigration and Ethnic
Minorities, encourage
people to practise cultural activities drawn from their home cultures, which are
promoted by schools, leisure
centres, immigrant associations and so on, in order
to help establish crosscultural links between all the children covered by the
programme. Some festivities of this kind are becoming more popular and are
respected by the Portuguese people, and thus help combat
racism and xenophobia.
In Portugal, certain features of the home cultures of ethnicminority groups
exist side by side with Portuguese
culture.
76. The largest communities
affirming their cultural identity through their language are those from Cape
Verde, Guinea, India and
Timor. The children from these communities speak their
mother tongue at home and Portuguese at school and with other members of
Portuguese society. The communities from the other Portuguesespeaking countries
speak in Portuguese.
77. There are two large nonChristian religious
communities: Muslims and Hindus. All are free to practise their own religion
and
teach the children in their community about their religion, beliefs and
values. People readily adapt to the circumstances; for instance,
children dress
for the occasion, wearing Westernstyle clothes for school and traditional ones
when they go to the mosque or temple.
Paragraph 32 of the 1996
guidelines
78. The greatest difficulties experienced in implementing the principle of
nondiscrimination have to do with poverty. According to
a report by the High
Commissioner, children from ethnic minorities are often prey to the evils of
social exclusion. They live with
their families in slum areas unfit for human
habitation. Overcrowding is exacerbated by the serious social problems of
unemployment
and job insecurity: most of the adults work without a contract
(men in the building trade, women as cleaners in apartments or offices),
so that
many families miss out on the social security scheme and related welfare
benefits.
79. The report adds that the shortage of free crèches
and leisure centres for these lowincome communities endangers the educational
and psychological development of their children, who do not receive the support
they need, and is a primary factor in their poor
academic results and leading
them to drop out from school. As a result of poverty and social exclusion,
children from ethnic minorities
have learning difficulties and are at a
disadvantage from the beginning as compared with other
children.
80. There are now therefore two programmes under way, one to
combat poor academic results and dropout (see chapter VII, section A,
paras. 375
ff.) and one to demolish the slums on the outskirts of towns (under the Special
Rehousing Programme), which will be discussed
in more detail in paragraph 91 ff.
It can be stated that there are plans to improve the living conditions of these
populations by
providing decent housing and social amenities (kindergartens,
leisure areas and children’s parks).
B. Best interests of the child (art. 3)
Paragraph 33 of the 1996
guidelines
81. As there have been no changes in the Portuguese Constitutional
framework, the information provided in the previous report (CRC/C/3/Add.30,
paras. 2734) is still valid. The legislation relating to children reflects the
principle of the defence of the best interests of
the child, which governs all
measures and actions affecting children.
Paragraph 34 of the 1996 guidelines
82. The social policies in the programme of the 13th constitutional
government are aimed, directly or indirectly, at guaranteeing
the best interests
of the child. Two of their main objectives are:
(a) To strengthen
solidarity, which is a top priority for the Government. The achievement of this
objective involves a radical reform
of the social security system, which
has been under way since 1997. The Government intends to encourage all
social partners to become
involved, sharing responsibility for implementing
policies, and is also counting on the cooperation of local authorities,
within
the limitations of the expertise and resources available;
(b) To
support the family and promote gender equality, including by promoting the
reconciliation of family and working life, which
involves a more balanced
sharing of responsibilities; it is therefore necessary to promote greater
fairness in the areas of employment
and social, political and economic
power.
83. The following measures, among others, will form the basis for the pursuit
of these objectives:
(a) Establishment of a guaranteed minimum
income;
(b) Organization of backtowork programmes for those receiving
the guaranteed minimum income, to ensure that they are not always dependent
on
it;
(c) Promotion of cooperation between State agencies, family
associations and other organizations from civil society to combat social
exclusion;
(d) Support for the integration of the families of
immigrants and those belonging to ethnic minorities;
(e) Development of
support schemes for families with dependants or those which take in nonfamily
members on a voluntary basis;
(f) Establishment of a national network
providing assistance in the home, through coordination between public services,
private institutions,
neighbours and companions;
(g) Wider coverage
around the country of social services and amenities, in coordination with
private welfare institutions;
(h) Implementation of measures to protect
children at risk;
(i) Promotion of initiatives to establish the
preconditions for a mechanism to coordinate policies and measures at the
central, regional
and local levels to integrate disabled
persons;
(j) Review of the amounts of social security benefits for
families and the criteria for allocating them in a way that marries the
principles of universality and selectivity;
(k) Review of the conditions
for entitlement to earningsrelated and supplementary unemployment benefit, by
adjusting the rate of
coverage to the actual unemployment situation and problems
facing families;
(l) Preparation of the Social Security White Paper,
which evaluates the social security system and lays out the broad guidelines
for
reforming it.
84. The radical reform of the juvenile justice system
should also be mentioned. The reform, which is aimed at bringing the system
closer to the principles and philosophy of the Convention, is analysed in more
detail in paragraphs 144 ff.
Paragraph 35 of the 1996 guidelines
85. The best interests of the child are a fundamental right that takes
precedence over all others. On 3 October 1997 the Cabinet
took a
decision (Diário da República
of 3 November 1997) which recognized that the promotion of the
family and the protection of children and young people at risk were
a priority
for the Government. The decision lists the programmes and bodies set up to
protect children and concludes that there
is a need for a comprehensive overhaul
of the system for protecting children and young people at risk.
86. The
decision also says that it is important to combine the various measures taken to
reform the legislation, improve coordination
between services, reorganize the
minors’ protection teams, reorganize the adoption services of the regional
social security
centres, and improve monitoring, support and assessment of the
work of the minors’ protection boards.
87. For this purpose, the
Government decided to:
(a) Develop an interministerial process for
legislative reform (in the context of the protection of children and young
people at
risk and in the context of foster families and homes);
(b) Set
up the National Commission for the Protection of Children and Young People at
Risk;
(c) Promote the expansion of the minors’ protection boards
throughout the country, helping them realize their full potential
by
strengthening them and listing the resources available to them.
88. It is
also proposed to improve coordination of the social services’ responses
by:
(a) Reorganizing and reinvigorating the social security
system’s juvenile and adoption services;
(b) Setting up a national
network of temporary and emergency shelters for children and young people at
risk;
(c) Monitoring, supporting and assessing foster families and homes
for children and young people;
(d) Coordinating, within the National
Commission for the Protection of Children and Young People at Risk, all
programmes dealing
with specific issues (illtreatment, adoption,
etc.);
(e) Providing appropriate initial and continuing training for
everyone dealing with these matters.
89. This was the background to the
launching, on 19 April 1997, of the “Adoption 2000” programme, which
is based on the
recognition of the child’s right to a substitute family
when the child’s biological family has not provided the protection
necessary for his or her balanced development. In fact, the concept of the best
interests of the child underlies the practice of
adoption as it is understood
nowadays. Indeed, it was only after quite a long period (a full century) during
which the Portuguese
legal system ignored adoption as a source of legal family
ties that adoption was recognized as the preferred solution for children
deprived of a normal family environment. Throughout Europe, in the first half
of the twentieth century, situations where the biological
family was unable to
cope were resolved by placing the child in an institution. In Portugal,
however, this way of thinking persisted
for too long, and the idea that, in the
absence of a biological family able to ensure the balanced development of the
child, the
State had a duty to provide a substitute, on the grounds that
children have the right to be brought up in a family, is a very recent
one.
90. Placement in an institution is now seen as a fallback,
preferably not the definitive, solution. It is the job of the regional
centres
to care for the children placed in social security institutions, train the
carers and check the quality of services provided;
it is the job of the Social
Security Inspectorate to ensure that the operating standards of the institutions
and other support services
are observed. These matters will be dealt with in
more depth in paragraphs 184 ff.
91. In terms of living
conditions, Portugal faces many problems. With a view to realizing the right to
housing, an integrated planning
and development policy is being pursued to
ensure that town planners provide for transport and amenities (kindergartens,
leisure
areas, community centres and children’s parks). Preference is
given to projects that incorporate social and environmental
improvements, and
thus take account of the best interests of the child. Consequently, the central
administrative bodies (the Institute
of Management and Alienation of State
Residential Property (IGAPHE) and the National Housing Institute) have already
signed adhesion
contracts and contracts providing finance on favourable terms
with the municipal authorities submitting rehousing programmes.
92. It
should be pointed out that in Portugal, since the 1980s, economic developments,
which have been marked by a vast array of
structural reforms, have also been
accompanied by problems in controlling the haphazard expansion of towns, and
sometimes by a sharp
deterioration in living conditions, characterized by the
spread of slum areas and worsening social problems.
93. The doubling,
between 1985 and 1995, in the number of foreigners living in Portugal left these
groups of people especially vulnerable,
since they take jobs in the sectors
employing unskilled workers. These groups, who live on the outskirts of the big
cities, are
among the main beneficiaries of the special rehousing programmes.
These programmes were set up to solve the problem of makeshift
housing, and
especially to demolish the slums in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto.
By the end of 1995 the central authorities
had signed contracts concerning some
50,000 dwellings.
94. As part of the National AntiPoverty Programme,
partnership networks have been set up to integrate the work of the public and
private
sectors, and specific programmes have also been started in this
area:
(a) The INTEGRAR programme is designed to promote the economic and
social integration of the most disadvantaged population groups.
It includes
measures to support social development and the construction and adaptation of
social amenities;
(b) The URBAN programme is a community initiative designed
to renovate urban areas suffering from deteriorating housing, lack of
basic
infrastructure and particularly serious problems of poverty, unemployment, drug
abuse and marginality;
(c) Urban Renewal Operational Action (IORU), part
of the second community support plan, contributes to the urban renewal of slum
areas (which will be developed under the special rehousing programme) and of
rundown districts in the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan
areas. IORU cofinances
the acquisition and construction of infrastructure and of the social, sports and
leisure facilities needed
for the appropriate integration of the families to be
rehoused or those already rehoused in public housing projects;
(d) The
overall investment envisaged for these measures is about 40,763 million
escudos, with community cofinancing accounting for
26,130 million escudos. The
target areas for urban renewal cover 1,500 hectares and some 42,000
families.
95. Immigration, asylumseeking and refugee status are matters
for the Aliens and Frontiers Department. We have already drawn attention
to the
large increase in immigration in the 1980s, with the number of foreigners
legally resident in Portugal rising from 79,594
in 1985 to 157,073 in 1994. The
Aliens and Frontiers Department handles the procedure for granting refugee
status to children, in
accordance with article 22 of the Convention, which sets
forth their right to receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance
in cases of asylum.
96. Act No. 70/93, which regulates this legal
institution, provides indirectly (in article 5) that minors themselves may
lodge requests
for asylum. The order by the DeputyDirector of the SEF clarifies
this provision, explaining that foreign citizens aged between 16
and 18 may
themselves lodge requests for asylum, which will if appropriate follow the
normal procedure. When the foreign citizen
lodging a request for asylum is
under 16 and has been abandoned or neglected, he or she will be brought before
the competent children’s
procurator, who will take action to appoint a
guardian, who may give the goahead to pursue the request. In the case of
younger children
who have been abandoned or neglected, the juvenile court shall
decide on the implementation of the protection measures provided for
in the
minors’ protection regime.
Table 7
Requests for asylum concerning minors
Source: Aliens and Frontiers Department (1997).
Paragraph 36 of the 1996 guidelines
97. Respect for the best interests of the child governs the actions taken
by the ministries concerned with children’s issues.
At the moment, there
is a broad movement to reform legislation to increase respect for
children’s wellbeing. The Fourth Constitutional
Amendment, adopted by the
Constitutional Act of 20 September 1997, stipulates that the State is
responsible for ensuring that children
without a normal family environment
receive special protection, thus broadening the scope of the provision, which
previously only
afforded special protection to orphans and abandoned children.
Moreover, both in the regulations on juvenile justice and in social
security
legislation (on foster families and homes), amendments designed to improve
procedures with a view to ensuring the child’s
wellbeing are
envisaged.
Paragraph 37 of the 1996 guidelines
98. The Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security is constantly striving
to ensure that reception centres, homes and institutions
for children and young
people function properly. To this end, while prevention has been recognized as
being of fundamental importance
and strict criteria have been applied in the
selection of foster mothers and foster families and in regulating homes, efforts
have
also been made to reinvigorate the Social Security Inspectorate. This has
been done by appointing two judges to the management authority
and by increasing
its means and resources.
99. In 1996 and 1997, services were
systematically checked and a large number of inspections were carried out in
institutions for
children and young people, such as kindergartens, leisure
facilities, homes for children and young people, crèches, facilities
for
disabled children and youngsters, family crèches, foster families and
emergency shelters (140 inspections were carried
out between 1994 and
1997). The conclusions of the reports on these inspections were decisive for
certain government programmes.
For instance, Adoption 2000 was one of the
programmes set up on the basis of the findings of the inspections carried out
during
the past two years.
100. Indeed, the Government, after seeing
the large number of children kept in institutions who had no contact at all with
their biological
families and the small number of adoptions approved, believed
it was necessary to review and speed up the legal procedures for adoption.
For this purpose, a programme coordination group was set up, not only to
broaden the criteria for adoption through legislative measures
but also to
encourage the establishment in regional social security centres of
multidisciplinary teams with expertise in either the
selection of prospective
adoptive parents or in the prompt placement of children, whenever possible, as
an alternative to putting
them into an institution.
Paragraph 38 of the 1996 guidelines
101. The main problems in this area have been identified in studies showing
that there are around 13,500 children and young people
deprived of a normal
family environment who are in the care of social security (in foster families
and homes); of these, 4,000 are
in a foster family or
extended family and
9,068 are in homes (of which there are 220), with a further 900 in
institutions which come under the Ministry of Justice. This situation shows
the persistence of the practice of putting children in
institutions, which is
clearly not the ideal solution for many of them.
102. When the Government
decided to go ahead with Adoption 2000, its aim was to tackle the problem on
four interrelated fronts: (a)
reform of adoption legislation; (b)
reorganization of the social security adoption services; (c) coordination of
public and privatesector
services; and (d) establishment of the
coordination group for Adoption 2000.
Paragraph 39 of the 1996 guidelines
103. With regard to staff training, the concept of the best interests of
the child is studied in greatest depth in the Centre for
Judicial Studies
(college of magistrates) and in the continuous training courses in the social
security services, because of the
specific nature of their duties. However, it
should be stressed that the subject is also broached in the training courses in
the
Ministries of Education and Health and that in 1996 and 1997 topics such as
child development, children’s rights and children
and violence were dealt
with in some depth.
Table 8
Courses run by the Services and Staff Training Department
1995
|
1996
|
1997
|
||||||||||
(a)
|
(b)
|
(c)
|
(d)
|
(a)
|
(b)
|
(c)
|
(d)
|
(a)
|
(b)
|
(c)
|
(d)
|
|
Children’s and young people’s issues
|
30
|
25
|
12
|
13
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Adolescence: a development phase
|
30
|
23
|
8
|
15
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Seminar: Children and young people at risk
|
18
|
25
|
13
|
12
|
|
|
|
|
18
|
30
|
20
|
10
|
Seminar: Children’s and young people’s spare time
|
18
|
27
|
7
|
20
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Seminar: Children and young people with disabilities
|
|
|
|
|
18
|
24
|
8
|
16
|
18
|
27
|
13
|
14
|
Institutional project
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30
|
25
|
|
|
School guidelines for preschool education
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30
|
25
|
|
|
Totals
|
96
|
100
|
40
|
60
|
18
|
24
|
8
|
16
|
116
|
107
|
33
|
24
|
Source: Services and Staff Training
Department.
(a) Duration in hours.
(b) Number of
participants.
(c) Managerial staff.
(d) Frontdesk staff.
C. Right to life, survival and development (art. 6)
Paragraph 40 of the 1996 guidelines
104. The right to life is foremost among the fundamental rights enshrined
in the Constitution. The overview of the situation given in the initial report
(CRC/C/3/Add.30, paras. 3537) is still valid.
105. The Ministry of
Health, through the Department of Health, is taking various steps to give effect
to the right to life. At the
instigation of the National Commission on
Women’s and Children’s Health, a working group on the prevention of
accidents
was set up in April 1997 to concentrate on making people aware of
the need to follow the rules on safety. In July 1997, this working
group
carried out an information campaign under the slogan “You’ll see
it’s better without accidents”, which
involves a play on words in
Portuguese (“Sem accidentes verão que e melhor”:
verão is the future tense of the verb “to see” and
also the word for “summer”). The aim was to establish a link
between prevention and safety and the season in which most accidents involving
children and young people take place. Subjects as
varied as precautions against
sunburn (Portugal is a country where people traditionally go to the beach in
summer), prevention of
drowning, safety in children’s parks and play areas
and road accidents have been dealt with in some detail, the Ministry of
Health
having supplied statistics to highlight the need to adopt safetyconscious
behaviour.
106. Road accidents have been dealt with in a special campaign
targeting, on the one hand, adults taking children on trips and, on
the other,
teenage roadusers themselves, with particular emphasis on the need for cyclists
to wear helmets.
107. Another priority for the Ministry of Health is
children’s health, insofar as it is a consequence of respect for the right
to life, survival and development, which are recognized as fundamental rights of
the child. The National Commission on Women’s
and Children’s
Health, which assists the Minister of Health by proposing operational programmes
and encouraging interdisciplinary
coordination between the health services and
nongovernmental organizations, is seeking, by studying the underlying causes of
infantile
mortality, to define the action to be taken and is collecting data on
the subject with a view to improving the indicators. Despite
the great progress
made in reducing infantile mortality, there is still a need to pursue efforts to
reduce the number of deaths further.
It is true that Portugal still has the
worst indicators in the European Union, and improving on them is undoubtedly a
precondition
for the success of healthcare programmes aimed at
development.
108. As far as children’s and adolescents’
health is concerned, the Commission would like the agelimit for paediatric
care
to be set at 18 and the competence of community paediatricians to provide health
care to be recognized. It also hopes a national
programme will be developed for
the prevention of accidents and the promotion of child and youth safety, for
further training of
experts on adolescent health, and for closer links between
child and paediatric health care and child and youth mental health care.
109. Along the same lines, the Department of Road Traffic has developed a
series of activities concerning safety, particularly road
safety, which are in
keeping with the objective of respect for the right to life. By joint order of
the Ministry of the Interior
and the Ministry of Education, dated
23 January 1997, the Commission on RoadSafety Education was
established to create a system for
the introduction of roadsafety lessons in
schools. This initiative is aimed at young people as pedestrians and
roadusers.
110. Campaigns to raise awareness about these topics have been
run by the Association for the Promotion of Child Safety (APSI) and
by the
Portuguese Road Safety Organization (PRP). During the 1994/95 and subsequent
school years, APSI organized a project called
“Safe schools” for
pupils in the early years of primary school, to improve safety in schools. The
project, which was
supported by the Health Promotion and Education Programme of
the Ministry of Education, was designed to make teachers and pupils
more aware
of safety issues. Booklets containing useful information on safety standards
were sent to around 10,000 schools. Five
schools whose projects were selected
will receive grants to carry them out.
111. The following school year,
1996/97, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education continued
the theme of safety
in the schools curiously, with the same title “Safe
Schools Programme” with the goal of achieving a significant increase
in
safety in the schools. To that end, 72 cars marked with the “Safe
Schools” slogan were assigned to the Programme.
Human resources, i.e. the
members of the special units of the security forces were also increased
significantly. This programme
comprises a series of activities,
including:
(a) An information campaign on children’s and young
people’s safety while travelling from home to
school;
(b) Distribution of personal equipment for children and young
people aimed at increasing their visibility and safety in the
streets;
(c) Awarenessraising campaign on safety in the
schools;
(d) Systematic programme of visits by the security forces to
the schools and by pupils to the security force units.
112. With regard
to respect for the right to life, as a result of concerns repeatedly expressed
by APSI, legislation was recently
adopted on safety standards in
children’s playgrounds and other recreational areas. APSI has also
cooperated with other campaigns
on protection of the right to life, such as
consistent and determined action to make the wearing of bicycle helmets
compulsory and,
in 1997, the holding of a press conference broadcast
simultaneously in several European countries on children’s use of
seatbelts
and other devices in the back seats of automobiles.
113. With
regard to maternal health, mention should be made of the guidelines set by the
National Commission on Women’s and
Children’s Health, whose basic
goals are to expand prenatal care so as to be able to provide prenatal diagnosis
to all pregnant
women over 35 years of age, and to reduce the number of teenage
pregnancies, especially among girls under 16 years of age. This
topic will be
developed further in paragraphs 271 ff. below.
Paragraph 41 of the 1996 guidelines
114. As the registration of children’s deaths is obligatory, a document
must be drawn up specifying the cause of death (death
certificate). Studies
containing information on causes of death and numbers of deaths, disaggregated
by region, are available in
the files of the Department of
Health.
115. As regards infant mortality which, in addition to being a
health indicator, is a socioeconomic parameter the past five years
have seen a
continuation of a trend observed earlier in causes of death: the leading causes
are perinatal disorders (slightly more
than half of cases), congenital anomalies
(approximately one third) and accidents predominate; infectious diseases
(pneumonia, gastroenteritis,
meningitis, septicaemia) and nutritional diseases
(malnutrition, vitamin deficiency) have practically disappeared as causes of
death
among Portuguese children. These changes are a reflection of improvements
in living conditions housing, nutrition, hygiene, education
which have
mitigated the effects of the environmental conditions that were formerly
responsible for most children’s deaths.
The infant mortality rate in
Portugal is no longer as important as previously as a political and
socioeconomic parameter, especially
if it is not doubled in terms of both social
and economic parameters. For example, when disaggregated according to
father’s
profession and mother’s education level the figures still
indicate obvious inequalities.
116. With regard to the other age groups,
the mortality rate of children 14 and 59 years of age is still higher than in
other western
countries, due to an exceptionally high proportion of traumas and
accidental injuries, which account for more than half of deaths.
In second
place are congenital anomalies and in third place, tumours. Infectious diseases
have practically disappeared as causes
of death.
117. The mortality rate
among adolescents (1014 and 1519 years of age) has stabilized, with accidents,
traumas and injuries accounting
for nearly twothirds of deaths, followed by
other violent causes (including suicide) and tumours. Nevertheless, as the
number of
adolescent deaths attributed to “unknown” or
“uncertain” causes (it is not known whether violence or accident
was
involved) is still high (nearly onethird of the total), it is not possible to
obtain a complete mortality profile with regard
to these adolescent age
groups.
118. Due to distortions and a few errors, especially with regard
to the 01 year and adolescent age groups, the health authorities
have considered
conducting a casebycase study, with a view to obtaining better clarification of
some deaths and the extent of certain
situations, in particular the sudden
infant death syndrome, illtreatment and suicide. For epidemiological,
bureaucratic, social
and cultural reasons, many deaths are classified under the
“illdefined situations” rubric or as cases where “it
is not
known whether an accident or some other form of violence was
involved”.
119. Table 9 below provides the infant mortality rate for 1996; in all there
were 747 deaths among children under 1 year of age countrywide.
The figure for
1992 was 1052.
Table 9
Infant mortality rate in 1996
Rate
|
|
Aveiro
|
6.0
|
Beja
|
5.4
|
Braga
|
8.4
|
Bragança
|
11.9
|
Castelo Branco
|
5.9
|
Coimbra
|
5.5
|
Evora
|
5.4
|
Faro
|
5.4
|
Guarda
|
7.5
|
Leiria
|
5.4
|
Lisbon
|
6.4
|
Portalegre
|
1.9
|
Porto
|
7.7
|
Santarém
|
3.2
|
Setúbal
|
6.0
|
Viana do Castelo
|
5.9
|
Vila Real
|
7.9
|
Viseu
|
6.1
|
North
|
7.9
|
Centre
|
6.0
|
Lisbon and Tagus Valley
|
5.9
|
Alentejo
|
4.4
|
Algarve
|
5.4
|
Azores Autonomous Region
|
7.9
|
Madiera Autonomous Region
|
11.9
|
Portugal
|
6.8
|
Source: Ministry of Health.
120. The two tables below concern children’s suicides, disaggregated by
sex and age.
Table 10
Suicide by children
1996
|
Boys
|
Girls
|
Total
|
January
|
4
|
|
4
|
February
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
March
|
3
|
|
3
|
April
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
May
|
2
|
2
|
4
|
June
|
|
|
|
July
|
3
|
1
|
4
|
August
|
|
|
|
September
|
1
|
|
1
|
October
|
2
|
|
2
|
November
|
2
|
|
2
|
December
|
|
|
|
Total
|
19
|
10
|
29
|
1997
|
|
|
|
January
|
|
|
|
February
|
4
|
|
4
|
March
|
4
|
3
|
7
|
April
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
May
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
June
|
|
1
|
1
|
Total
|
12
|
6
|
18
|
Source: Studies and Planning Office, Ministry of Justice;
Department of Health.
Table 11
1014
|
1519
|
Total
|
Percentage of total deaths
|
|
1992
|
4
|
24
|
28
|
2.7%
|
1993
|
3
|
15
|
18
|
1.9%
|
1994
|
4
|
21
|
25
|
2.8%
|
1995
|
2
|
23
|
25
|
3.0%
|
1996
|
1
|
13
|
14
|
1.7%
|
Source: National Statistical Institute (INE).
There were inconsistencies between the figures from the different sources.
For example, in 1996 INE recorded 14 cases of suicides
by children in the 1019
age group, whereas according to Ministry of Justice statistics there had been 29
cases. This gap is due
to what was stated earlier in connection with the civil
register and death certificates and, where suicide is concerned, to cultural,
religious and other factors which result in suicide being classified under the
headings of “accident” or “cause
unknown”.
D. Respect for the views of the child (art. 12)
Paragraph 42 of the 1996
guidelines
121. Paragraphs 38 to 41 of the initial report contain information about the
relevant legal framework as a whole. Within the family,
children’s views
on family matters of importance should be taken into account, depending on their
maturity, by parents, who
should allow them gradually increasing independence in
running their lives.
122. However, it is generally accepted today that
legal instruments in this area must clearly state the child’s right freely
to express his opinion on matters affecting him, in particular when decisions
concerning his future are involved. Such questions
will therefore be addressed
in the framework of the reform, that the Government has decided to undertake.
As the authorities have
been aware for some time that administrative decisions
must be taken on the basis of fundamental principles, respect for the views
of
the child has been enshrined in specific legislation and in the statutory
instruments governing the various alternative care measures.
Which are the
following:
(a) Foster care: Article 5 of decree law No. 190/92 of 3
September 1992 provides that a child over 12, (or less if his mental development
permits) must be given a hearing. The hearing shall cover the various stages of
foster care from commencement through stay in the
foster home, transfers if any
and return to the natural family;
(b) Adoption: From the age of 14
onwards, (Civil Code, art. 1981), young persons cannot be adopted without their
consent. In fact,
efforts are made to ensure that children even younger are
given a hearing, if their mental development
permits;
(c) Children’s homes: decree law No. 2/86 of 2 January
1986 does not explicitly provide for the child to be heard. Mention
should
be made, however, of a recent social security service regulation (1997)
which provides that, on admission to a home, a child
over 12 years (or less than
12 if his mental development permits) shall be given a hearing; a hearing may
also take place at other
times, for example during his stay in the home, on
transfer or on return to his natural family.
Given the legallyrecognized
right of children to be heard, technical support and training activities for
staff working with children
emphasize the importance of seeking the
child’s views. The relevant legal instruments, however, require
amendment, as stated
in Council of Ministers decision No. 193/97 of 3 November
1997.
Paragraph 43 of the 1996 guidelines
123. Portuguese legislation sets forth the idea that young people must be
granted the right to be heard in all important matters affecting
them. However,
difficulties arise in implementing this idea, relating especially to cultural
conceptions of the value of children’s
opinions and their proper place in
the hierarchy of family members. Nevertheless, striking changes are taking
place both within
the family and at school: it is now considered important to
hear the views of children and young people as there is an awareness
that the
authoritarian approach to relations in the family and at school fosters neither
responsibility nor independence. Young
people themselves are aware of their
rights, and when they consider themselves to have been the victims of misuse of
parental authority
they attempt to have the conflict resolved by the competent
bodies.
124. Where school life is concerned, the provisions of decree
laws Nos. 769A/76 of 23 October 1976 and 172/91 of 10 May 1991 are
increasingly
applied with regard to student participation in educational bodies
and structures. The decrees, which relate to the democratic management
of
primary and secondary school establishments, provide for student representation
on school councils and class councils, although
restricted to pupils in the
third cycle of secondary education: it should be noted, however, that
representation has now been extended
to all students.
125. As for the
administration of juvenile justice, it should be noted that the movement which
has arisen around the need for a revision
of the Act on the Minors’
Protection Regime has decided, by consensus, to take as its central theme the
right of a young person
to be heard in such a way as to be able to influence a
decision. This theme will be discussed further in chapter VIII, section B
(1),
“Administration of juvenile justice (art. 40)” (see paras. 444
ff.).
Paragraph 44 of the 1996 guidelines
126. As stated earlier, the Government intends to expand and develop the
right of the child to be heard and even, in certain cases,
to make such hearings
obligatory. The Commission for the Review of Sentences and Measures has
announced this intention publicly.
Paragraph 45 of the 1996 guidelines
127. It should again be stressed that the Secretariat of State for Youth is
eager to encourage the participation of young people in
decisionmaking, to the
point of adopting a philosophy encouraging young people to monitor Government
action through the Youth Advisory
Council and to take part in the management of
the Youth Centres (see para. 20 above).
Paragraph 46 of the 1996 guidelines
128. Generally speaking, it is not yet possible to state that the Convention on the Rights of the Child is included in all the curricula of the teacher training colleges. However, since the school year 1994/95, the Convention has been included in the curriculum of the bachelor’s degree in
education dispensed by the Institute for Studies on Children. The Convention
is also obligatory reading in the training courses for
judges dispensed by the
Centre for Judicial Studies (CEJ), the higherlevel training college for judges,
and is taught in lessons
or lectures in the context of children’s law and
family law. Similarly, the Centre provides ongoing training for serving judges,
in which the Convention is studied as part of the shortterm courses in both
treaty law and children’s and family law.
129. It should be noted,
however, that there are no specific programmes for judges assigned to family or
juvenile courts, as they
are not required to specialize in order to serve on
these courts. Several experts in various childrelated areas and several
nongovernmental
organizations, including the Portuguese Association of Women
Jurists, advocate specialization not only by the judges assigned to
these courts
but by all staff working in them, with a view to providing better quality of
service, in the best interests of the child.
130. Although training
activities are not always obligatory, it should be noted that the Convention is
a required subject in the curricula
of the School of Advanced Police Studies and
the other schools of the Public Security Police and the Republican
Guard.
131. It should be noted that, in recent years, the interest shown
by universities in childrelated areas has led not only to seminars
and studies,
but also, more significantly, to the holding of postgraduate courses in these
subjects. The first university institute
in Portugal was established in 1996 at
the University of Minho, with the goal of offering children’s studies from
a multidisciplinary
standpoint. This new institution provides training for
nursery school teachers and teachers in the first cycle; its activities are
geared to extending provision of training to cover the new problems confronting
children. A research project on children in Portugal
involves a study on the
situation of children in Portugal by the year 2000. A centre for documentation
and information on children
is being set up and should be available for
consultation by mid1998. A postgraduate course on children’s welfare
began in
November 1997 at the Coimbra faculty of law.
132. The
Higher Institute of Applied Psychology also offers a master’s degree in
forensic psychology, which contains a children’s
law module that includes
the Convention. The Convention is also increasingly studied in nursing and
medical schools, as part of
classroom studies in paediatrics; mention should be
made of the master’s degree in school health at the Lisbon faculty of
medicine,
which comprises a module specifically on the rights of the child from
the Convention’s perspective.
133. Teacher training programmes
include the project mentioned in paragraph 46, which lasts 30 hours and the
symposium on the Convention,
organized by the students’ association in the
Higher Institute for Social Services, to which it invited two members of the
National Commission on the Rights of the Child. In order to raise public
awareness in general, the Child Support Institute conducts
information and
training activities on behalf of children throughout the country, through the
media or by participating in seminars
and symposia organized for the
purpose.
Paragraph 47 of the 1996 guidelines
134. Improvements have been noted in this area. Children’s opinions
are being given increasing importance, and an effort is
made to ascertain their
feelings, reasoning and desires, either before a judicial decision is taken or
with regard to policy decisions.
Knowledge of children’s views has had a
positive influence to date. One example of this was the Children’s
Parliament,
which met on 1 July 1997 in the Assembly of the Republic; an
initiative in which children participated and the symbolic significance
of which
aroused curiosity and sympathy on the part of public opinion and the
media.
IV. CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
Paragraphs 4861 of the 1996
guidelines
135. The civil rights and freedoms set forth in the Convention are guaranteed
in Portuguese law. The preceding report contains detailed
information on
the relevant legislation; the reader is referred to its paragraphs 42 to 97,
relating to articles 7, 8, 13, 17 and
37, paragraph (a).
136. Some
practical difficulties still arise from time to time, however, with regard to
registration of orphaned or abandoned children,
which has given rise to the
recommendation by the Ombudsman mentioned in paragraph 12 of the present
report. The case in question
concerns an African child who, since 24 December
1991, has been living in a welfare institution and awaiting a name and
nationality,
as required by article 7 of the Convention. This important
recommendation has even been confirmed in a decision by the administration
authorities.
137. In all situations where an administrative measure of
alternative care has been taken, the right of the child to preserve his
or her
identity, nationality, name and family relations is guaranteed by law, unless
the situation dictates otherwise. Where a child
is subject to a measure
involving provisional placement in alternative family care, the encouragement of
relations between the child
and his or her family is one of the aims pursued
with a view to the eventual return of the child to the
family.
138. Mention should also be made of a measure recently taken by
the Ministry of Science and Technology aimed at strengthening the
right of
access to adequate information. In view of young people’s particular
interest in information technology, a schools
Internet programme has been
conducted since March 1997. The Ministry of Science and Technology, which has
been meeting the entire
cost of the programme, announced in September 1996 that
all public and private schools in the country, from the fifth through the
twelfth grades, would be connected to the Internet. A few schools in the first
cycle and a few private social welfare institutions
have also been beneficiaries
of the programme, in view of their activities in the area of information
technology.
V. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE
A. Parental guidance (art. 5)
Paragraph
62 of the 1996 guidelines
139. The information provided in the initial report on the legal framework
remains valid (CRC/C.3/Add.30, paras. 98100). With regard
to family structures
within society, the 1996 report of the European Observatory on National Family
Policies notes that Portugal
can be described as a country with a strong
ideological commitment to the family. In this context, the family has always
been proclaimed
and broadly considered to be the institution providing
fundamental care and solving individual problems, thus offsetting imprecisions
or weaknesses in social policies.
140. The report emphasizes the constant
nature in recent years of concern about the true (economic and social) situation
of families
and states that real efforts have been made to guarantee that they
have a minimum standard of living. It is believed that, by providing
systematic
support to lowincome families, it will be possible to reduce the relatively high
rate of poverty (in particular by providing
a minimum guaranteed
income).
141. Another report published in December 1996 to mark the
International Year for the Eradication of Poverty revealed that 18.5 per
cent of
Portuguese families could be considered poor; of those, 4.8 per cent were very
poor and had difficulties chiefly with housing
and the regular payment of water
and electricity bills, but also with the payment of food, clothing and medical
expenses.
Paragraph 63 of the 1996 guidelines
142. After abolishing the organizational structure for family matters, the
Department of Family Affairs, the Office of the High Commissioner
for the
Promotion of Equality and the Family took on some of the
DirectorateGeneral’s duties. Priority was given to the establishment
of a
national family council, the better to evaluate existing measures and propose
any changes needed.
143. The National Family Council replaced the
Advisory Council on Family Affairs and the Interministerial Commission for the
Family.
It defines and implements an overall family policy, but its role is
above all to advise the Office of the High Commissioner in the
following
areas:
(a) Promotion of the creation of support infrastructure for
families;
(b) Adoption of measures aimed at overcoming discrimination
towards singleparent families;
(c) Promotion of cooperation with
families in the rearing of children (particularly the families with handicapped
children);
(d) Promotion of a tax policy favourable to lowincome
families.
The National Family Council is made up of ministerial
representatives, recognized specialists on family matters, representatives of
nongovernmental organizations and representatives of local communities. The
nongovernmental organizations active in this field are
encouraged. The Office
of the High Commissioner intends to submit to the Government a proposal for a
global, coherent and integrated
plan on family policies in 1998.
Paragraph 64 of the 1996 guidelines
144. Various measures have been adopted with a view to providing information
on the Convention. The most significant, because they
reach a huge target
group, are undoubtedly those conveyed by the schools, either in writing or in
presentations after school hours.
Some of the presentations discuss only topics
relating to the rights of the child and his development, while others include
play
activities to attract more people, both children and adults. Some schools
organize presentations of this kind; they are generally
well accepted by the
parents and the children and thus help to spread knowledge and harmonize
humanist thinking. On the occasion
of International Children’s Day, the
Portuguese Committee for UNICEF published a brochure intended especially for
parents on
the rights of the child and the Convention.
B. Parental responsibilities (art. 18, paras. 12)
Paragraph 65 of the 1996
guidelines
145. The information provided in the initial report remains valid with regard
to the responsibilities of parents during marriage (para.
101).
146. There has, however, been a major change with regard to parents
who have separated. Law No. 84/95, of 31 August 1995, gives the
parents, in the
section on the effects of the divorce or the separation, the possibility to
choose a system of joint custody, enabling
them to opt for a system that does
not prevent one of them from having parental responsibility. In fact,
Parliament unanimously
approved an amendment enabling the parents to opt for
joint custody (in Portuguese, guarda conjunta), bringing Portugal in line
with the majority of European countries while at the same time enhancing respect
for article 18, paragraph
1, of the Convention. The law originated in a
proposal made by two nongovernmental organizations (the Portuguese Association
of
Women Jurists and the Father, Mother, Child Centre) which, to mark the
International Year of the Family, sent parliamentary groups
an appeal promoting
the adoption of several amendments to certain precepts of the Civil Code that
had been demanded in particular
by associations of parents and which seemed to
be the object of a broad consensus.
Paragraph 66 of the 1996 guidelines
147. Adopted as a support measure for parents and legal representatives in
the discharge of their responsibilities, Law No. 17/95
of 9 June 1995,
regarding the protection of motherhood and fatherhood, is a step forward from
the ideological point of view, given
not only that it recognizes fatherhood and
motherhood as functions within society, but also that it attempts to find
mechanisms for
the implementation of that principle. The Law, which amended law
No. 4/84 of 5 April providing for 90 days of maternity leave, incorporated
into internal legislation Community Directive 92/85/CEE of 19 October, bringing
maternity leave up to 98 days.
148. The opportunity was not taken to grant
prospective adoptive parents the right to take leave when adopting a child over
the age
of three. It is nevertheless hoped that this will be the case soon. It
is indeed puzzling that, at a time when the intention is
to encourage the
adoption of children over three years old, the prospective parent is
obliged to take leave without pay in order
to be with the child he or she has
decided to adopt as a son or daughter when the child
is 3 years old.
149. Decree law No. 333/95 of 23
December 1995 contains the implementing regulations for Law No. 17/95 of 9 June
1995 and deals with
the allocation of social services to pregnant women, new and
nursing mothers, people who are unable to work or unavailable for work
because
of motherhood, fatherhood or adoption and people who have handicapped or sick
children or underage descendants whom they
are obliged to assist. The decree
law also deals with working conditions considered to be hazardous for pregnant
women and new or
nursing mothers (physical effort, exposure to certain agents,
night work, particularly heavy work). Once it has been determined
that the
situation is hazardous, the employee can receive a 65 per cent increase in basic
pay and, in circumstances considered to
be too serious, she may be excused from
work.
150. With regard to the measures adopted for the express benefit of
children belonging to the most underprivileged groups, including
those living in
extreme poverty, the reader is referred to the national programmes mentioned
above: the national minimum income,
which aims gradually to make the family
independent; the National AntiPoverty Programme, which runs occupational
training and literacy
projects for various vulnerable groups, in particular
unemployed women; and the “What it means to be a child” programme,
which aims to develop special projects for deprived children, those in hazardous
social and family situations and handicapped children,
with a view to their
integration into family and society.
Paragraph 67 of the 1996 guidelines
151. In the framework of the “What it means to be a child”
programme, projects concerning almost 14,000 children have
been approved
throughout the country (see table 12 below).
Table 12
Number of candidates
|
Target group
|
What it means to be a child funding, 1997
|
||
---|---|---|---|---|
children
|
families
|
|||
North
|
30
|
5 371
|
3 549
|
303 644 768
|
Centre
|
17
|
1 193
|
982
|
165 022 555
|
Lisbon and the Tagus river valley
|
15
|
1 230
|
1 036
|
166 823 519
|
Alentejo
|
4
|
644
|
422
|
61 882 002
|
Algarve
|
2
|
38
|
30
|
10 107 816
|
Madeira Autonomous Region
|
4
|
80
|
49
|
43 083 938
|
Azores Autonomous Region
|
3
|
651
|
188
|
38 004 044
|
TOTAL
|
75
|
9 207
|
6 256
|
788 568 642
|
Source: Department of Social Action (DGAS).
C. Separation from parents (art. 9)
Paragraph 68 of the 1996
guidelines
152. The references made in the initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.30, para. 106) to
the Constitution (art. 36, para. 6) remain valid: children may not be separated
from their parents unless the latter fail to perform their fundamental
duties
towards the former, and then only by judicial decision.
153. The social
policy measures are aimed at guaranteeing the right of the child to know his or
her parents and to be raised by them.
Only in cases in which the situation is
not viable are steps taken to find a replacement for the natural family, to
which the child
should, where possible, be returned. The family replacements,
or temporary foster families, guarantee that right, which is enshrined
in the
legislation on foster families and in the regulations on homes and temporary
reception centres.
154. There are cases in which, if the parents have
consented to nonjudicial action, assessment of the case and the decision to
transfer
the child to an alternative home fall to the minors’ protection
boards. This is a recent endeavour to give priority, whenever
possible, to
administrative protection of the child, in an attempt to attract the attention
of the entire community by supplementing
the knowledge of the institutions
through the personal interest demonstrated by the members of the
community.
155. The public authorities are aware that a distinction must
be made between families who are unable to rear their children for reasons
of
extreme poverty and those that are seriously dysfunctional and can gravely harm
the child’s development. For this reason,
the Government has drawn up
several programmes aimed at clearly identifying the causes of the family’s
social and educational
incapacity.
156. The most important programme to
promote the development of family skills, based on the idea that whenever viable
the family is
the best solution for the child, is the “What it means to be
a child” programme mentioned in paragraph 17 (a) above and
paragraphs
365 ff. below. Generally speaking, the minors’ protection boards
assess and decide in cases in which the parents
are aware of their inability or
lack of availability to assume their educational responsibilities, a state of
affairs they almost
always consider to be temporary. It is those cases which
determine the placement of children in foster families or with a member
of the
extended family concerned.
157. The cases in which the parents do not
agree to the intervention of the minors’ protection boards are usually
more serious,
and sometimes prolonged illtreatment, sexual abuse or abandonment
has damaged the relationship between the child and the parents
beyond repair
from the psychological point of view. In such cases the court must take action
to limit the exercise of parental authority
or even declare it forfeit, and
decide to place the child with a third person, or an appropriate institution,
that will nevertheless
have the duty to keep the court regularly informed. It
is this duty to provide regular information, provided for in article 22 of
the
minors’ protection regime, which, if duly fulfilled, makes it possible
periodically to assess the child’s situation.
158. Indeed, the law
provides that a child removed from his or her parents by a court decision must
be followed by the court which
decided on the separation. Through reports
submitted at various intervals by the court’s assistance services (monthly
if the
child’s future is hard to diagnose, or annually in thoroughly
studied and diagnosed cases), an attempt is made to obtain sufficient
data to
outline the child’s life project.
Paragraph 69 of the 1996 guidelines
159. There is growing awareness that no decision in respect of a child can be
fair if it does not take account of the child’s
view; court decisions
often refer to the right of the child to respect for his or her deep
psychological bonds. This is why, when
a child should not or cannot be heard by
the judge, for example because of age, his or her view should be heard by a
psychologist.
Paragraph 70 of the 1996 guidelines
160. The reader is referred to paragraphs 38 to 41 of the initial report
(CRC/C/3/Add.30)
(respect for the opinions of the child) which remain
valid.
Paragraph 71 of the 1996 guidelines
161. When a court decision is taken in respect of a child, the parents are
notified of that decision and have the right to appeal
to a higher court. If
the child has been removed from the family because of illtreatment, the parents
may, in exceptional circumstances
and only in order to safeguard the physical
integrity of the child, not be told where the child has been placed. This is
also the
case for adoption, where the identity of the adoptive parent is
communicated to the natural parents only if the former agrees.
Paragraph 72 of the 1996 guidelines
162. In Portugal only the situations arising from detention or
imprisonment need to be discussed, given that exile does not exist
and that the
accessory penalty of expulsion applies only to foreigners. One unregulated
situation that is worth studying is that
relating to the measures regarding the
right of parents in custody who are divorced or separated to maintain contact
with their children.
Several male and female detainees have written to the
juvenile courts asking that measures be taken allowing them to see their
children
or to have news of them in cases where the other parent does not bring
the child to the penal establishment. Staff from the Social
Rehabilitation
Institute sometimes take ad hoc measures allowing detainees to have access to
their children if they so request.
163. A mechanism must nevertheless be
established by which to fulfil not only the right to information but also to the
maintenance
of regular contact with the child, unless such contact is contrary
to the child’s development and wellbeing.
D. Family reunification (art. 10)
Paragraphs 7377 of the 1996
guidelines
164. In Portugal the Government has taken measures which have had radical
effects on the issues dealt with in article 10 of the Convention.
Indeed, the
creation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Immigration and Ethnic
Minorities, and the establishment of a standing
interministerial commission for
the reception and social integration of the Timorese community and of an aliens
special regularization
commission are evidence that tangible measures are
essential to ensure tolerance and nondiscrimination.
165. Law No. 17/96
of 24 May 1996 set out a procedure for the special regularization of
clandestine immigrants. That procedure,
which was coordinated by a national
commission, lasted from 11 June to 11 December 1996 and enabled aliens to
enjoy social and economic
rights, particularly in connection with employment,
social security benefits and access to housing, within the framework of the
special
rehousing programmes previously considered. Of the 35,082 aliens who
applied for the procedure, 9,255 were from Angola, 6,782 from
Cape Verde,
5,380 from GuineaBissau, 2,330 from Brazil, 1,549 from Sao Tome and Principe and
416 from Mozambique, making a total
of 25,730 from Portuguesespeaking
countries.[*] Some 4,000 were not admitted;
3,772 of them have appealed.
E. Illicit transfer and nonreturn (art. 11)
Paragraph 78 of the 1996 guidelines
166. Portugal is a State party to the Hague Convention on the Civil
Aspects of International Child Abduction of 25 October 1980.
The information
provided in paragraph 117 of the initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.30) remains
valid.
F. Recovery of maintenance for the child (art. 27, para. 4)
Paragraph 79 of the 1996
guidelines
167. No legislative amendments have been adopted since the initial report
(para. 111). That said, a study carried out by the Office
of the High
Commissioner for the Promotion of Equality and the Family served as the basis
for a proposal to establish an assistance
fund for deprived children whose
parents did not help pay for their food, the State naturally having the right of
recourse once the
debtor possesses distrainable assets.
G. Children deprived of their family environment (art. 20)
Paragraph 80 of the 1996
guidelines
168. Article 69 of the Constitution guarantees the protection of children.
During the fourth constitutional review, that article was substantially
modified, providing
not only that children deprived of a normal family
environment are entitled to special protection but also that the State has a
duty
to ensure that protection (the previous version of the Constitution only
stipulated the right of orphans and abandoned children to special protection).
This very recent amendment (Constitutional Decree
published in the
Diário da República of 20 September 1997) will undoubtedly
have a highly significant impact on legislation regarding children at risk or in
danger and
will constitute the reform referred to in Council of Ministers
resolution 193/97, published in the Diário da República of
3 November 1997.
169. In Portugal it was not until the 1980s that
discussion started to focus on the special attention that should be granted to
children
deprived of a normal family environment, in particular children who are
the victims of illtreatment, sexual abuse or negligence.
The Centre for
Judicial Studies (national school for magistrates) and the Child Support
Institute played a significant role in discussions
on the rights of children who
are illtreated by their families and on the definition of the higher interests
of the child.
170. In the past, parental authority was routinely
considered to be almost absolute; grave outrages to physical integrity went
unpunished
because they were considered to fall within the parents’
absolute right to punish their children as they pleased, within the
private
sphere of the family. As citizens became increasingly aware of their rights, in
particular of human rights, the view spread
that the State had a legitimate
right, through the courts, to intervene in the family sphere in order to
guarantee the health (understood
to mean both physical and psychological
health), security and wellbeing of a child when it had been proven that the
child was in
danger and that his or her rights had indeed been violated.
171. Under the 1982 Penal Code, illtreatment is a crime. The media have
broadcast several programmes for the general public on this
offence; those
programmes gave rise to great indignation among the viewers and to awareness
that such a crime in fact violates fundamental
rights. The danger nevertheless
exists that a child may be separated from his or her parents by a wrong or
inappropriate decision.
Situations have been observed in which only one of the
parents illtreats the child who, because of the good relationship that he
or she
has with the other parent and any siblings, did not wish for the separation.
This being the case, the solution was not to
separate the child from the family
but rather to provide the entire family with therapy.
172. Since children
should not be removed from their families without the provision of support or
care, a structure had to be established
for that purpose. The Family and
Children’s Support Project (PAFAC) was intended to be a response to the
problems arising
from the existence of illtreatment within a family. The
observation and analysis of cases of illtreatment observed in hospitals
lead to
the conclusion that illtreated children (except in exceptionally serious cases
where it is recommended that the child be
immediately removed from the family)
who have been separated from their families develop feelings of guilt and
repulsion for their
parents, and that the separation can also lead to risks of
violence towards other children who have not been so separated or are
born after
them. It has been recognized that only systematic support for the family can
help it to organize itself. By providing
the family and the child with
therapeutic support medical, psychological and pedagogical assistance the
project aims to provide
an alternative to the child’s removal to an
institution, which should always be the solution of last
resort.
173. PAFAC is presently run by the Office of the High
Commissioner for the Promotion of Equality and the Family, and its objectives
are:
(a) To detect situations involving illtreatment of children by
establishing contact with hospitals and setting up a hotline;
(b) To
make an accurate diagnosis of family dysfunctions responsible for illtreatment
of children and report them to the competent
authorities (ministry, protection
committees, courts);
(c) To take the requisite measures to put an end to
any situation placing the child at risk.
174. The measures adopted with a
view to ensuring protection and special support for children who have been
temporarily or definitively
deprived of their family environment or who, in
their own interests, cannot remain with the family, are listed in the programme
of
the 13th Constitutional Government and have already been mentioned
in paragraphs 85 ff.
175. In this respect, the following measures
should also be mentioned:
(a) The collection of data, by the Department
of Social Action, on the situations of children observed by the regional social
security
centres, the Santa Casa da Misericórdia and the Casa Pia in
Lisbon, in 1995 and 1996, disaggregated by causes, case history
and present
situation in terms of the child’s social and family integration. The data
have been collected and are presently
being processed;
(b) The drafting
by the Department of Social Action of a study on “children at risk”.
The study researches the factors
likely to influence the normal development of
children, analyses statistical data with special impact in this area and briefly
reflects
on strategies for action;
(c) The establishment of a working
group to study questions regarding children at risk (joint order of 11 February
1996, published
in the Diário da República, second series,
No. 2, of 3 January 1997); the group has already drafted a systematic report in
three sections:
(i) List of interministerial nationwide programmes on children (characteristics and overall evaluation);
(ii) List of needs and analysis of the main problems affecting children;
(iii) Proposal to create a technical structure able to define, orientate and evaluate policies concerning children.
Temporary family replacement measures
176. Foster families: Families
considered suitable to provide this service, provide transitional and temporary
homes for children and young people whose
natural families are not in a position
to fulfil their social and educational roles. The framework legislation is
decree law No.
190/92 of 3 September. The objective of foster families is to
provide children and young people with a social family environment
conducive to
the development of their personalities, replacing the natural family for as long
as the latter is unable to provide
such an environment.
177. Homes for
children and young people: This is a social facility aimed at giving
children and young people a structure in their daily lives that is as close as
possible
to that of their families, with a view to their overall development.
The framework legislation is decree law No. 2/86 of 2 January
1986. The
objectives of the homes are, first, to enable children to meet all their
essential needs in conditions that are as close
as possible to those of a
family; second, to promote the child’s integration in the family and the
community; and, third, to
provide all the means likely to help children achieve
personal, social and occupational fulfilment.
178. To meet those
objectives, the homes must:
(a) Respect the individuality and privacy of
each child;
(b) Encourage and stimulate children’s physical and
intellectual development and absorption of standards and
values;
(c) Ensure that children receive, through the local health
services, the care needed for a good level of health, in particular with
regard
to the prevention and detection of abnormal situations;
(d) Provide
children with a healthy diet, appropriate in terms of quality and quantity to
their age, without prejudice to situations
in which children require a special
diet;
(e) Provide the means required for children’s personal
development, schooling and vocational training in close cooperation
with the
family, the school and the local vocational training
facilities;
(f) Create, using the resources available locally, the
conditions for leisure activities suiting the interests and potential of
children.
179. Reception centres: These are a social response in
the form of a facility for children in need of urgent, shortterm care. The main
difference between
reception centres and homes is that the reception centres
tend to receive young children in emergency situations requiring rapid
study and
transfer, meaning that stays in the centres are shorter than those in the homes.
The centres are characterized by specialized
personnel, and their operating
costs are higher on average than those of a home. Their objectives are, first,
to enable the children
or young people to meet all their basic needs in
conditions as close as possible to those of the family; second, to promote their
integration into the family and the community; and, third, to provide all the
means likely to enhance their personal and social development.
Definitive family replacement measures
180. National adoption: National
adoption is a relationship legally established between two persons, similar to
natural filiation but independent of blood
ties. The framework legislation is
decree law No. 185/93 of 22 May 1993.
Table 13
Changes in the number of social services and facilities by social response
1994
(Number) |
1995
(Number) |
Increase
percentage |
|
Support for families (foster families)
|
1 537
|
1 563
|
1.7
|
Support for families (natural families)
|
1 332
|
1 611
|
21.0
|
Homes
|
232
|
245
|
0.6
|
Adoptions
|
285
|
262
|
() 0.8
|
Source: DGAS on the basis of Financial Management
Institute (IGF) data.
Table 14
Changes in the number of social development users by social response
1994
(Number) |
1995
(Number) |
Change
percentage |
|
Support in family (foster families)
|
2 067
|
2 135
|
3
|
Support in family (natural families)
|
1 875
|
2 236
|
19
|
Homes
|
9 661
|
10 210
|
6
|
Adoptions
|
395
|
347
|
() 12
|
Source: DGAS, on the basis of IGF
data.
181. International adoption: International adoption is like
national adoption except that it concerns only children for whom no adoptive
family is found within
the country. The framework legislation is decree
law No. 185/93 of 22 May 1993.
Paragraph 81 of the 1996 guidelines
182. There is nothing special to report with regard to the measures taken
to ensure continuity in children’s upbringing, taking
account of their
ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background, given Portugal’s
specific size and homogeneity, which
have already been mentioned.
Paragraph 82 of the 1996 guidelines
183. The joint order of the Minister of Justice and the Minister of
Solidarity and Social Welfare, published in the Diário da
República, second series, No. 92, 19 April 1997,
accurately reflects the concern of the Government to change the present
situation.
184. The Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that
the States shall make available alternative forms of protection for children;
these can, in certain conditions, include adoption.
Decree law No. 185/93 of 22 May 1993 institutionalized close
cooperation and
coordination between the services of the Ministry of Justice and
what was known at the time as the Ministry of Employment and Social
Security.
The decree’s underlying philosophy was to avert situations presenting a
serious risk for the child, by trying first
to find solutions within the family
itself and only subsequently indicating the means of replacing it. It also
defines the order
of preference, going from direct family members to national
adoption and, lastly, to intercountry adoption as a subsidiary measure.
The
amendments to the decree cover both substantive and procedural aspects, concern
the administrative field and have led to amendments
to the Civil Code and
the Minors’ Guardianship Regime and to the abrogation of decree
law No. 274/80 of 13 August 1980. The
decree aims to
standardize the entire system, with regard to both court and administrative
procedures.
185. The changes introduced have given the social security
services greater responsibility in respect of adoption, in that they have
paved
the way for broader intervention and more strictly defined conduct in all the
phases of the process in cases of both national
and intercountry adoption.
Those responsibilities concern the activities of the regional social security
centres, the Santa Casa
da Misericórdia (for the city of Lisbon) and the
Department of Social Action, which has been designated as the central
body.
186. The social security services are obliged to make a thorough
study of all the participants in the process natural family, child,
prospective
parents and all the phases prior or subsequent to the decision. With a view to
ensuring the best possible decision,
several steps have been provided for:
entrusting the minor to administrative wardship, entrusting the minor to the
wardship of the
court, selection of prospective adoptive parents, support
measures during the preadoption period and the establishment of the final
report
to be submitted to the court making the adoption decision. The child’s
participation and preparation with a view to
his or her proper integration into
the new family is ensured by the social security services. Article 1981 of
the Civil Code stipulates
that minors over the age of 14 cannot be adopted
without their consent.
H. Adoption (art. 21)
Paragraph 83 of the 1996 guidelines
187. After 100 years during which the institution of adoption was
totally alien to the Portuguese legal order, the 1966 Civil Code
finally
recognized adoption as giving rise to legal family relationships. It was
chiefly, however, after family law was modified
during the sweeping revision
of 1977, following the instauration of democracy and the approval of the
present Constitution of 1976, that the institution of adoption was
developed in Portugal. Adoption is now understood to be essentially a legal
relationship
similar to filiation; for it to become final, there must be an
emotional bond between the prospective parents and the child allowing
for the
reasonable supposition that there will be a positive development in terms
similar to those of natural filiation.
188. Adoption can be finalized
only by a court, which will always bear in mind the overriding interests of the
child. This is the
most important aspect to consider, not only in the decision
finalizing the adoption, but also in the intermediary steps, which are
sometimes
carried out by the administrative authorities.
189. The Portuguese
Adoption Act decree law No. 185/93 of 22 May 1993 aimed to create a system of
shared responsibility. By institutionalizing
close cooperation between several
services, it endeavours to outline a timely family life project for the child
who has been deprived
of a normal family life in what is considered an
irreversible manner in terms of recovery of the emotional bond with the
biological
parents. The preamble to the Act quotes Council of Europe
recommendation No. 1074 of 1998 regarding family policy, recognizing the
family
as the place in which family relationships are deepest and richest and,
consequently, the best place for educating children.
190. Right from
birth and in particular during infancy, every child needs a balanced
relationship with both parents, a relationship
that must develop without
interruption while the child is a minor, with the changes that arise naturally
during the different phases
of the child’s development.
191. Any
decision, either to place the child with an adoptive family or to finalize the
adoption, must be based on detailed and accurate
information on the situation of
the prospective parents, provided by the relevant social security
services.
192. One of the most important questions to assess in the
adoption process is indeed the psychological relationship with the parents,
whose consent must be given, unless the facts as verified are so serious and
significant that that consent is in no way required
in the view of the judge,
given the breakdown in the emotional bond between the child and the
parents.
193. The child must be heard if he or she has reached the age of
14, although the Government’s proposed amendment to the Adoption
Act would
lower that age limit to 12 years.
194. The process must be based on prior
observation that the conditions for adoption have been fulfilled. However, the
legal relationship
cannot be created unless several things have been
established, namely the age of the adoptive parents, the length of the marriage
and the development of reciprocal emotional ties between the child and the
prospective parents.
195. Once fulfilment of those conditions has been
ascertained, support must be provided throughout the preliminary phase of the
procedure
in order to guarantee accurate information and adequate protection for
the child. This support, followed by an evaluation in the
form of a report
submitted to the judge, is provided by teams made up of specialized personnel
from the regional social security
centres and the Santa Casa de
Misericórdia in Lisbon. However, checks carried out in the past two
years (1996 and 1997) have
revealed several inadequacies in the teams, whose
very limited composition does not give them the interdisciplinary skills
required.
196. The adopted child acquires the status of child of the adoptive
parents, and benefits therefore from all the rights inherent to
his or her new
family relationship. At the same time, there is a break with the biological
family, as Portuguese law does not provide
for the right of the child to know
who his or her biological parents are. Decree law No. 185/93 is clear:
the fact that the child
knows who his or her biological parents are can be
detrimental to his or her development in view of the feelings of ambivalence and
problems of identity such knowledge can give rise to, and of the feelings of
concern of the adoptive parents and the negative consequences
thereof on the
tranquillity of the new adoptive family. The records, however, are not
destroyed, and adopted children can have access
to all the information on their
origins once they reach age 18.
197. In spite of all the measures taken
to encourage adoption, the number of adoptions remains very low, in particular
in view of
the high number of children placed in homes. The Government is
deeply concerned by the situation; a study conducted on the basis
of information
provided by the Social Security Inspectorate revealed that various changes were
necessary, in particular with regard
to the steps to be taken prior to adoption.
198. It also proved necessary to provide the social security services
with interdisciplinary teams for specific duties in the field
of adoption. The
most important step, however, is undoubtedly to define institutionalization of
the child as a measure of last resort.
Preference should be given to the
constitution of an adoptive family while there is still time to establish
emotional bonds on a
par with blood ties and after it has been proven that the
relationship or emotional bond between children and their natural parents
has
been irreparably damaged.
199. The Adoption 2000 Programme was created to
analyse the existing situation in depth and to propose legislative or
administrative
measures to extend adoption to a greater number of situations and
to expedite its finalization. The coordinating group is made up
of
representatives of the Ministries of Solidarity and Justice and the Office of
the High Commissioner for the Promotion of Equality
and the
Family.
200. In view of the importance of the matter, the Office of the
High Commissioner convened a special session of the National Family
Council to
assess proposals, having made a recommendation to the Government on the matter.
It must also be said that Parliament’s
Commission on Parity, Equal
Opportunity and the Family and the Commission on Rights, Freedoms and Safeguards
conducted hearings on
adoption in early 1997. This step gave rise to such
intense attention on the part of the media that it led to the realization of
programmes on the topic. Immediately after the proposed legislative amendment
had been approved, Parliament conducted a second set
of hearings of
professionals and services dealing with adoption, individuals and
nongovernmental organizations, with the aim of familiarizing
itself with their
proposals and suggestions.
201. It must be emphasized that the proposed
amendments are not substantive and that the modifications provided for concern
above
all procedural matters. Indeed, decree law No. 185/93
institutionalized close coordination and cooperation between the services
run by
the Ministry of Justice and what was then known as the Ministry of Employment
and Social Security. In practise, the decree
law did not have the concrete
effects anticipated.
Paragraph 84 of the 1996 guidelines
202. With regard to international adoption, Portugal is above all a
source country for children, although the number of intercountry
adoptions
remains low. The principle of subsidiarity is set forth in the legislation.
The only cases of intercountry adoption concern
children who have not found
adoptive parents nationally and they are, in general, “children with
special difficulties”
(older children, handicapped or seriously ill
children, children from other ethnic groups and siblings).
Paragraph 85 of the 1996 guidelines
203. Portugal has not yet ratified the Hague Convention of May 1993 on
Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry
Adoption, but
it plans to do so (legislative reform on adoption).
204. The progress
made by the State, the difficulties encountered and the objectives it has set
for the future are discussed below
in paragraphs 217 ff.
205. The data on
children entrusted in 1994 to dualnational emigrants and to nonresident aliens
and whose adoption will be finalized
in the adoptive parents’ country of
residence are given in the table below.
Table 15
Dual national emigrants
|
Nonresident aliens
|
Total
|
|||
Age groups and handicap
|
Through the social security services
|
Directly to the adoptive parents
|
Through the social security services
|
Directly to the adoptive parents
|
|
Under one year
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
2
|
Without a handicap
|
|
|
1
|
|
1
|
With a handicap
|
|
1
|
|
|
1
|
From 1 to 3 years old
|
|
|
7
|
|
7
|
Without a handicap
|
|
|
4
|
|
4
|
With a handicap
|
|
|
3
|
|
3
|
Over 3 years old
|
3
|
|
9
|
2
|
14
|
Without a handicap
|
3
|
|
5
|
2
|
10
|
With a handicap
|
|
|
4
|
|
4
|
Total
|
3
|
1
|
17
|
2
|
23
|
Source: IGF and 1994 social security statistics.
Source: DGAS, on the basis of IGF
data.
I. Periodic review of placement (art. 25)
Paragraphs 86 and 87 of the 1996 guidelines
206. This is
undoubtedly one of the rights recognized by the Convention which have been most
difficult to put into effect. The fact
is that children who have been placed in
care often have to wait indefinitely for their situation to be reviewed. Where
placement
has been decided by a court, the law provides for a compulsory
periodic review, both in cases where children have been placed in
an institution
for their safety and in cases where they have been admitted to secure
rehabilitation institutions. The problem is
more serious and very worrying in
the case of placements that are outside judicial control. The placement of
children in homes and
shelters is governed by rules and regulations, but these
do not have the force of law.
207. With regard to the interaction between
public and private services, the Adoption 2000 programme envisages practical
rules to
improve coordination between social security services
and:
(a) Health services, to ensure that abandoned children are taken
into care quickly;
(b) Courts, to make their proceedings less
forbidding;
(c) Minors’ protection boards, to take children at
risk into care quickly;
(d) Emergency shelters, to ensure that children
only stay in them for short periods;
(e) Children’s shelters and
minors’ protection bodies, to boost the realization of the rights of the
child, the prompt
detection and identification of risk situations and the
periodic review of custody decisions (art. 4, para. 1, of decree law No.
185/93,
of 22 May 1993, and art. 25 of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child).
In this way, the necessary procedures for detecting and
identifying children at risk and for taking them into care will be drawn up,
enabling steps to be taken to have the child placed in a family or institution
or adopted as quickly as possible.
208. It is hoped that the reform of the
legislation on children at risk, referred to in Cabinet decision No. 193/97
of 3 November
1997, will establish an effective monitoring system that ensures a
frequent periodic review of placement.
J. Abuse and neglect (art. 19), including physical and
psychological
recovery and social reintegration (art. 39)
Paragraph
88 of the 1996 guidelines
209. Generally speaking, the information given in the initial report
(CRC/C/3/Add.30, paras. 118124) still applies. However, the
1982 Penal
Code has been the subject of a major reform which, while preserving its core
philosophy, has introduced amendments to
provide better protection for
nonproperty interests, among other things. In this context, sentences for
crimes against the person,
especially against children, have generally been
increased. Thus, in the reform passed into law by decree law No. 48/95, of 15
March
1995, the crime of illtreatment of minors, as laid down by article 152 of
the Penal Code, is now punishable with 15 years’
imprisonment.
It should be pointed out, moreover, that it is no longer necessary to prove that
the illtreatment was inflicted with
cruelty or selfish intent, but only that it
was violent. This requirement in the previous legislation had been criticized
not only
by nongovernmental organizations but also by childcare professionals,
in view of the obvious problems it caused in ensuring that
the perpetrators of
these crimes were punished. This offence mostly concerns violence inflicted on
a child by parents or the person
bringing the child up.
210. Similarly,
there are situations in which minors are physically overloaded or employed in
dangerous activities; it is now expressly
established that an offence of this
kind can be committed by a person with a subordinate working relationship with
the minor.
211. For more on the system of penalties for sex offences
against children, see paragraphs 536 ff. below.
212. With
regard to civil measures to protect children, the legal framework described in
paragraphs 118120 of the initial report is
still valid. It should be mentioned,
however, that the reform of the legislation on children at risk (analysed above)
is certain
to be introducing significant changes soon. This reform is basically
aimed at expediting, with due respect for the strict criteria
that are
applicable, a decision on the future of children who have been illtreated,
abandoned or sexually abused, once they have
been rightly taken away from their
parents in their own best interests.
Paragraphs 8991 of the 1996 guidelines
213. The physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of
child victims of violence, abandonment or neglect required
by article 39 of the
Convention are taken care of by public services and private institutions. The
references in the initial report
are for the most part still valid. The
official organizations set up to provide support for child victims of violence
the Family and Children’s Support Project (PAFAC) (see paras.
172173) and the Children’s
Department of the Office of the
Ombudsman have already been mentioned in the initial report. They both
have emergency helplines; that of the Office of the Ombudsman is called
the
“Green Line Children’s Messages”, which shows the
importance attached to it.
214. The major legislative and administrative
reform announced recently by the Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security will
have
farreaching consequences on psychological support for child victims of
physical and mental illtreatment. It is expected that the
methods, organization
and effectiveness of PAFAC will be improved and that the structure and scope of
the minors’ protection
boards will be reconsidered.
215. The
“SOS for Children” telephone line established in 1988 by the Child
Support Institute also does outstanding work
in the area of prevention, support,
information, guidance and handling of these situations. The work in this area
of the Portuguese
Association for the Support of Victims and the Portuguese
Association for Child and Family Law should also be highlighted, as these
two
associations take a keen interest in the social rehabilitation of child victims
of neglect, exploitation or abuse.
216. It is also important to mention
the Children’s Emergency Service, the body which organized the World
Children’s Forum,
held in Faro from 6 to 10 October 1997, on the theme
of Children’s Safety. The Forum was attended by representatives of
nongovernmental
organizations from around 100 countries and issued a
declaration, the Faro Declaration, listing a series of measures that
nongovernmental
organizations and Governments could take to make the world safer
for children, including:
(a) Endeavouring to interest communities in
development programmes and to encourage them to become
involved;
(b) Establishing a system whereby schools and kindergartens
contribute to the development of community and social networks for
children;
(c) Rethinking existing funding mechanisms, particularly that
of the World Bank.
While seeking to systematize the concerns of
nongovernmental organizations, the Forum encouraged them to form alliances so as
better
to influence Governments, and to help promote the use of information
technology as a learning tool and information source and as
a means of
publicizing and raising awareness of the rights of the child, and also as a way
of letting children speak up on matters
affecting them.
VI. BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
A. Disabled children (art. 23)
Paragraph 92 of the 1996 guidelines
217. The data on the child population with disabilities or special needs
may not appear absolutely clear. In 1996, a survey on disabilities
was
published under the auspices of the Department of Rehabilitation. The survey,
which took the form of a household questionnaire,
covered 142,114 individuals,
or 47,020 families. Sampling was probabilitybased, using the area frame
sampling method and following
a twofold process (because the final sample of
housing units was obtained in two stages). This technique is commonly used in
family
surveys and is widely used in epidemiology (especially in health surveys)
and the data it provides are used as a reference in planning
services.
Table 16
Number of people with disabilitiesa
Age groupb
|
Total population with disabilities
|
||||
02 years
|
35 years
|
615 years
|
1624 years
|
||
Mental
|
1 447
|
1 076
|
18 092
|
17 680
|
127 228
|
Sensory
|
473
|
1 700
|
11 208
|
10 299
|
219 311
|
Physical
|
4 149
|
7 881
|
20 279
|
24 177
|
571 652
|
Multiple
|
413
|
649
|
2 719
|
2 079
|
25 352
|
Total
|
6 482
|
11 306
|
52 298
|
54 235
|
943 543
|
Source: Department of Rehabilitation, National Survey of
Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps.
a
“Disability” is understood to indicate a high probability of
“impairments” with regard to spatial orientation,
physical
independence, mobility, occupational capacity, social integration and financial
independence.
b In Portugal, the available statistical
data on disabled children or young people cover the age group from birth to age
24.
Table 17
Number of people with disabilities, by sex
|
Total population with disabilities
|
||||
02 years
|
35 years
|
615 years
|
1624 years
|
||
Male
|
2 920
|
5 532
|
19 932
|
23 661
|
479 555
|
Female
|
3 572
|
5 501
|
31 832
|
30 427
|
425 932
|
Total
|
6 492
|
11 033
|
51 764
|
54 088
|
905 487
|
Source: Ibid.
Table 18
Permanent disability
Age group
|
||||
02 years
|
35 years
|
615 years
|
1624 years
|
|
Mental
|
915
|
567
|
11 613
|
15 571
|
Sensory
|
250
|
679
|
7 966
|
10 417
|
Physical
|
1 768
|
4 265
|
13 337
|
19 242
|
Multiple
|
342
|
615
|
2 609
|
1 869
|
Total
|
3 275
|
6 126
|
35 525
|
47 099
|
Source: Ibid.
Table 19
Probable cause of disability (as a percentage)
Common disease
|
Heredity
|
Childbirth
|
Pregnancy
|
Domestic accidents
|
Road accidents
|
Other accidents
|
Other causes
|
|
Mental
|
25.8
|
14.3
|
11.5
|
14.4
|
2.18
|
2.48
|
2.08
|
18.9
|
Sensory
|
33.3
|
12.1
|
4.7
|
4.6
|
3.6
|
2.1
|
2.7
|
15.2
|
Physical
|
34.1
|
11.4
|
3.6
|
4.4
|
3.3
|
4.3
|
2.0
|
14.3
|
Combination
|
17.4
|
9.2
|
13.0
|
4.8
|
1.3
|
0.6
|
1.2
|
22.2
|
Source: Ibid.
218. Some definitions related to the survey
carried out:
(a) Heredity: this term covers all genetic transmission
deficiencies, chromosomal anomalies and hereditary diseases that run in
the
family;
(b) Pregnancy: this term covers all deficiencies caused during
the gestation period as a result of toxaemia of pregnancy, infections
during
pregnancy, chronic illness in the mother or the Rhesus
factor;
(c) Childbirth: this covers all deficiencies caused at
childbirth, or injuries suffered by the child as a result of, for example,
the
use of forceps or suction, a long labour or anoxia;
(d) Accidents: all
deficiencies resulting from road accidents, accidents at work (or those
occurring on the way to work, in accordance
with the law) or in the home and
others.
Table 20
Type of disability
|
Total population with disabilities
|
||||
02 years
|
35 years
|
615 years
|
1624 years
|
||
Blindness
|
0
|
0
|
507
|
463
|
14 959
|
Visual impairment
|
254
|
535
|
3 251
|
4 434
|
103 065
|
Deafness
|
0
|
100
|
1 651
|
1 337
|
21 004
|
Hearing impairment
|
0
|
516
|
3 411
|
3 059
|
75 691
|
Speech defect
|
219
|
527
|
2 843
|
1 363
|
15 229
|
Source: Ibid.
219. With regard to diagnosed conditions,
it is possible to extrapolate data from studies carried out in other countries,
particularly
in Scandinavia. According to this study, the incidence and
prevalence of diseases can be estimated for the population in the age
group from
birth to age 17 as follows:[*]
Table 21
Incidence (per thousand)
|
New cases in Portugal
|
|
Cerebral palsy
|
3
|
360
|
Spina bifida
|
1
|
130
|
Down’s syndrome
|
1.5
|
200
|
Serious mental retardation
|
3
|
360
|
Moderate mental retardation
|
2
|
230
|
Hydrocephalus
|
3
|
360
|
Slight mental retardation
|
3
|
360
|
Minimal brain dysfunction
|
40
|
4 000
|
Source: Kohler, L. and G. Jakobsson, Health in the Nordic
Countries, 1995.
Table 22
Prevalence for population aged 018
|
|
---|---|
Serious mental retardation
|
6 000
|
Slight to moderate mental retardation
(Ditto, with major handicap) |
10 500
(2 000) |
Serious learning difficulties
|
6 000
|
Moderate learning difficulties
|
40 000
|
Physical disability
|
6 000
|
Serious visual impairment
(Ditto, with major handicap) |
4 000
(1 650) |
Congenital cataract
|
825
|
Optic atrophy
|
400
|
Retrolental fibroplasia
|
400
|
Retinoblastoma
|
200
|
Congenital glaucoma
|
200
|
Serious hearing loss
(Ditto, with major handicap) |
3 300
(1 150) |
Serious deafness
|
2 000
|
Child psychosis
|
1 150
|
Autism
|
790
|
Total locomotive ataxia
(Ditto, with major handicap) |
7 900
(2 640) |
Cerebral palsy
|
5 000
|
Down’s syndrome
|
2 000
|
Epilepsy
|
7 900
|
Minimal lesions syndrome
|
40 000
|
Source: Ibid.
In summary, it can be stated that 9 out of
every 100 children have some form of disability or handicap.
220. It is
the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Solidarity
and Social Security to attend to the situation
of children with disabilities.
Act No. 9/89 of 2 May (prevention, rehabilitation and integration of disabled
persons) promotes and
guarantees the exercise of constitutional rights in this
area.
221. Early technical support of a social and educational nature is
provided to disabled children and young people; it includes a range
of measures
specially for children up to age 6 who are in highrisk situations or who have a
disability, and for their families.
This support is available in the places
where the children spend most of their time, that is, at home, with a
childminder or in the
crèche or kindergarten, and is
designed:
(a) To create conditions that facilitate the learning process
for the children, so that their development matches as far as possible
the
phases characteristic of their particular age group;
(b) To reduce to a
minimum the problems arising from risk situations and/or the disability, by
stopping them from getting worse and
forestalling
side effects;
(c) To facilitate the development of parenting
skills;
(d) To help create optimal conditions for their
integration;
(e) To encourage research and action.
222. Joint
order 554/SEED/SES/SESS/94, issued on 30 August, set up a working group
involving the ministries of health, education,
and solidarity and social
security to study and report on the situation. Its report, submitted in August
1995, contains not only
a survey of existing bodies, the preferred theoretical
framework for early intervention, organizational terms of reference and
guidelines
for action, but also a proposal for the preparation of a legal
text.
223. In February 1996, the working group defined the concept,
nature and objectives of early intervention and highlighted its guidelines
for
action, as well as its structure, organization and operation. It also laid down
rules for funding and cooperation:
(a) The emphasis is on the family,
which now has a fundamental role in any intervention, as the family environment
and the relationship
of trust between families and professionals are of the
greatest importance;
(b) The therapeutic, medical or psychological model
fits into the social model that places the child in the context of the family
and the family in the context of a broader environment;
(c) The
preventive nature of this action is stressed so that its full benefits can be
reaped, as it is in the first years of life
that basic learning processes, which
are decisive in the development of appropriate models for parentchild
interaction, are established.
224. The Ministry of Solidarity and Social
Security and the private social welfare institutions under its supervision run a
network
of services and facilities to support children and young people with
disabilities.
225. The rehabilitation master plan devised by the former Department for
Rehabilitation, now the Department for the Rehabilitation
and Integration of
Disabled Persons (SNRIPH), in collaboration with official bodies and with
associations, which applies to all organizations
working in the rehabilitation
system, was the subject of Cabinet decision No. 51/88. The Minister of
Employment and Social Security
was given the task of ensuring coordination
between the various ministries. The plan has become the prime management tool
for enhancing
crosssectoral cooperation in the rehabilitation
system.
226. In order to take this process forward and flesh out
government policy, a commission was set up in 1994 to prepare and follow
up a
plan of action for rehabilitation up to 2000, by joint order of 12 September
1994 of the ministries of education, public works,
transport and communications,
health, and employment and social security, chaired by the head of the
Department of Rehabilitation.
227. In working towards the goal of a
“society for all in the twentyfirst century” set by the United
Nations, efforts
are being made to define sectorwide operational measures as
part of an eventual comprehensive policy for disabled persons. An agreement
has
been reached with the Higher Institute of Labour and Business Sciences (ISCTE)
on providing technical and scientific assistance
in the preparation of an
analytical study on the state of the rehabilitation system in Portugal and on
monitoring implementation
of the plan of action.
228. SNRIPH is running a
number of programmes, projects and activities aimed at all age groups; given
their great impact on children
and young people, these are described in more
detail below.
Research support programme
229. Given the progress
made in research into rehabilitation in recent years, it has been found
necessary to establish a coordinated
system that can ensure that the sector is
supervised methodically and resources used rationally. Thus, with a view to
establishing
a national system to supervise research and development in
rehabilitation and to encourage project work in this field, SNRIPH has
finalized
a programme to coordinate research and development in rehabilitation which
includes the following projects:
(a) The ATINOVA project: part of the
“Employment/Horizon” initiative and cofinanced by the European
Social Fund, this
project aims:
(i) To create a network of pilot technicalsupport centres with expertise in all phases of research, information, assessment, prescription, allocation, training, monitoring, maintenance, recovery and technical support;
(ii) To promote the implementation of a nationwide system;
(iii) To design an online distancelearning system for disabled persons and rehabilitation professionals, using technical support, support technologies and innovative methodologies;
(b) The Commission on Equality in
Employment (CITE) programme: this was set up to encourage research into
rehabilitation through
project support, research grants and awards for
scientific merit. In June 1995, the CITE network project, which also operated
at
the community level, was started up to support networking between
rehabilitation research institutions and to ensure that experience
was shared
and full use made of findings.
Development of a specialized information system
230. In February 1992,
under the agreement reached with the Employment and Occupational Training
Institute, a nationwide network of
Handynet centres was set up to provide
information and advice on technical support. The network, which consists of 142
centres,
is spread out over the whole country and operates in the offices of
ministries of health, employment, solidarity and education, and
also in the
Secretariat of State for Youth (Portuguese Youth Institute and its branches), as
well as some nongovernmental organizations.
231. A science and technology
information network has recently been established which gives online access to
several databases in
Portugal and Europe, bringing together a vast amount of
information needed for planning and carrying out science and technology research
projects in the field of rehabilitation.
Technical
support
232. The technical support that is vital in the
rehabilitation process for developing the personal independence of the
disabled person
is receiving special attention from the relevant authorities.
In June 1995, the abovecited Handynet project was finalized, as was
the ATINOVA
project mentioned earlier. The latter is basically active in the field of
technical support and aims to forge links
between the regulatory and financial
bodies, existing information and advice centres and technical support research
centres. It
is also responsible for publicizing updated scientific and
technical information and innovative methodologies in the area of technical
support.
Personalized reception, information and support
233. The QUALI project,
which receives community funding, was finalized in 1995. It was designed to
reorganize, revamp and improve
the performance of the personalized reception
service for disabled persons and their families, including through the
installation
of the “Direct line for the disabled”.
234. The
Reception and Accessibility Centres Network (RENAACE), launched in 1996 with
support from the Horizon initiative, is intended
to set up local reception
services capable of giving information and analysing and assessing the needs of
disabled persons, by identifying
and mobilizing resources available locally and
by paying special attention to accessibility in towns, buildings and transport,
as
crucial factors in integration.
Accessibility
235. With regard to
accessibility issues, in 19931995, SNRIPH worked on the communityfunded
PROACESSE project with the main objective
of alerting all the bodies concerned
and the public at large to the need to remove physical obstacles, especially
those affecting
the use of buildings, open spaces in cities and public
transport, as a precondition for improving the quality of life of persons
of
limited mobility. This project has made a great contribution to raising
awareness among all social actors, particularly local
community leaders and
professionals in the construction, public works and transport
industries.
236. In the context of the RENAACE project, attention is
drawn to decree law No. 123/97 MESS, of 22 May 1997, on technical
standards
for improving accessibility for persons of limited mobility to public
buildings, community facilities and streets.
International cooperation
237. Cooperation is
gradually being stepped up, as more technical information becomes available and
advantage is taken of access to
knowledge of good practice in the area of
impairment and rehabilitation. In this area, work is systematically carried out
together
with the Council of Europe, the United Nations, the European Union and
Rehabilitation International. With regard to action taken
to guarantee equal
opportunities to disabled persons and their right to be involved in protecting
their own interests, the European
Community launched the HELIOS programme in
1988, followed by HELIOS II (19931996). The areas in which the HELIOS programme
is being
implemented and action taken are: functional rehabilitation,
integrated education, training and economic integration, and social
integration
and independent living. The aims of HELIOS II are, first, to develop a
policy of cooperation at the community level
on the basis of best practice and
innovative and efficient practices in member States and, second, to cooperate
with nongovernmental
organizations working at the European level and those which
see themselves as representing member States.
Sport, culture and recreation
238. Sporting, cultural,
recreational and tourist activities are an integral part of the rehabilitation
process and, as such, should
be encouraged and supported by the Government,
either through the Department of Tourism, the Portuguese Youth Institute and the
Sports
Institute, or through the Department of Rehabilitation. Since the sports
vacation programme was launched in the 1980s by the Portuguese
Youth Institute
(see chap. VII, sect. C, “Leisure and cultural activities”,
para. 439), the Department of Rehabilitation
has made available funds that have
helped provide sports activities for disabled persons, particularly children and
young people.
239. In order to allow as many people as possible to
benefit from projects in these areas, a national sports, culture and recreation
programme was launched in 1995, with funding of 50 million escudos.
The programme complements and is coordinated with the work of
the Sports
Institute and the Ministry of Education, giving priority to artistic, cultural
and recreational activities. Around 73
per cent of the institutions receiving
support under the programme are especially for children and young people.
Table 23
Activities
|
No. of NGOs
|
No. of persons concerned
|
|
1995
|
Recreational activities
|
12
|
3 369
|
|
Artistic/cultural activities
|
17
|
6 786
|
|
Holiday camps
|
40
|
2 518
|
|
Sports activities
|
16
|
1 510
|
|
Total
|
85
|
14 183
|
1996
|
Recreational activities
|
19
|
4 442
|
|
Artistic/cultural activities
|
43
|
2 870
|
|
Holiday camps
|
65
|
3 965
|
|
Sports activities
|
39
|
2 495
|
|
Total
|
166
|
13 772
|
Source: Department for the Rehabilitation and Integration of
Disabled Persons (SNRIPH).
Support for nongovernmental organizations
240. The Ministry of
Education provides financial support to 85 nongovernmental organizations working
in the area of special education
for disabled children and young people up to
age 18. In 1997, funding exceeded 2 billion escudos. SNRIPH gives financial
support
to a wide range of nongovernmental organizations, including 205 that
work directly and exclusively with the youngest age groups.
Most of the others
deal with all age groups.
Table 24
Subsidies for running costs (escudos)
|
Subsidies for projects (escudos)
|
|
1995
|
175 000
|
15 000
|
1996
|
190 000
|
15 000
|
Source: SNRIPH.
Special education for disabled
persons
241. In accordance with article 17 of the Education Act,
special education is aimed at the social and educational rehabilitation and
integration of individuals with special educational
needs resulting from
physical or mental impairments. The process of reform initiated by the Act is
characterized by the introduction
of a large body of legislation designed to put
its general principles into practice.
242. The issuance of decree law No.
35/90, of 25 January, was an important step; it stipulates that no child,
whatever the nature
or degree of his or her impairment, is exempt from
compulsory schooling. Until then, all the relevant legal texts contained norms
that, in one way or another, exempted disabled pupils from compulsory
schooling.
243. Another legislative landmark for special education was
decree law No. 319/91, of 23 August 1991, on the educational system
for
pupils with special educational needs. This decree makes ordinary schools
responsible for their education and for providing suitable
educational responses
to the particular problems of the disabled. The schools’ management and
administration bodies are responsible
for implementing the special education
system, by making use of a combination of mainstream and special education
teachers or, as
appropriate, psychological and guidance services. The decree
also has a provision to the effect that, where the measures provided
for under
the special system prove to be clearly inadequate, because of the type and
degree of the pupil’s impairment, the
pupil may be placed in a special
school.
244. The recently issued joint order No. 105/97, of 1 July 1997,
changed the regulatory framework for educational support. The order
is based on
a conceptual and organizational model that recognizes the needs of the school
and of the ordinary teachers and their
responsibility towards pupils with
special educational needs. This new piece of legislation thus represents a step
forward in educational
policy, including with regard to:
(a) The role
and responsibility it attributes to the school in the education of all
pupils;
(b) Its approach to the education of pupils with special
educational needs in relation to that of pupils in general;
(c) Its
recognition that support measures are part of the interaction between the
school’s needs and pupils’ various
needs;
(d) The integrated
and interactive organization of the various forms of educational support in
school.
245. Responsibility for administering, managing and funding
special educational services currently lies with two ministries: the
Ministry
of Education and the Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security. The current
educational facilities for children and young
people of school age with special
educational needs are basically of two kinds: first, special schools in the
public and private
sectors and, second, the network of official services
provided by the Ministry of Education, consisting of special educational teams
that support integrated education.
246. Special schools: These
schools, which have various types of legal status, fall into one of the
following categories:
(a) Private and cooperative schools under
the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, which are divided into two main
groups:
(i) Nonprofit schools: schools run by cooperatives and associations which may or may not have the status of private social welfare institutions, the largest group being the teaching and rehabilitation cooperative associations (CERCIS), whose support from the Ministry of Education is defined by ministerial order and spelled out in cooperation agreements with the Department of Basic Education (DEB);
(ii) Forprofit schools: schools whose maximum monthly fees are set by the Government as the costs have a direct impact on social security expenditure, via special education grants, and which usually have contracts with DEB;
(b) Officially recognized schools, falling under
the responsibility of the Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security. Regional
social security centres have the sizeable
task of ensuring the provision of
services in State schools, homes and occupational support centres and providing
financial support
in the shape of grants to private social welfare institutions.
The latter, of which the largest is the Portuguese Association of
Parents and
Friends of Mentally Disabled Citizens (APPAEDM), account for a large proportion
of social and educational institutions.
The Ministry of Education has also made
a significant contribution to these institutions by seconding teachers, granting
support
for school welfare and paying families’ contributions to
fees.
247. Integrated education: Support for the integration of
pupils with special educational needs into ordinary schools is given by special
education teams. These
communitybased teams can be found all over the country.
Each team may include teachers for different educational levels; their
composition
is variable, depending on the needs of the geographical area which
they cover. A coordinator is responsible for their performance.
248. The
teams’ work mostly takes the following forms:
(a) Permanent
support classes: these take place in a specially equipped classroom in an
ordinary school. Pupils with severe mental
impairments, multiple impairments or
serious problems in communicating are usually put in these classes. The
children attend the
classes fulltime, and thus take part in the life of the
school during breaks, in the canteen and on special occasions and
trips;
(b) Support units for children with hearing impairments: these
are special classes for pupils with severe or profound hearing difficulties,
held in ordinary schools at all stages of compulsory education. They usually
have special equipment, a customized classroom and
specialist teaching and
auxiliary staff;
(c) Support classes: these take place in ordinary
schools and are for pupils experiencing learning difficulties in ordinary
classes.
The pupils are taken out of lessons and given support individually or
in small groups, for a certain amount of time every week,
depending on the
individual case. This is the support strategy most frequently followed by
special needs teachers;
(d) Support in the classroom: here, the special
needs teacher works on a onetoone basis with the pupil while the class teacher
is
giving a lesson. This kind of support is provided for one or two hours a
week;
(e) Support for the class teacher: the special needs teacher
attends meetings with the class teacher to discuss individual pupils,
supply
supporting materials, suggest teaching strategies, help adapt courses, do some
smallscale training in schools, etc.
249. The data presented below are
for the 1996/97 school year. Of the 45,915 children with special needs,
79.6 per cent are integrated
into ordinary schools, while the
remaining 20.4 per cent attend special schools.
Table 25*
Number of children attending school who have
special educational needs
Number of pupils: 45 915
|
|
Integrated education
|
Special education
|
36 519
(79.6%) |
9 396
(20.4%) |
Source: DEB; Assessment and Forward Planning Department (DEPP);
Financial Management Office (CGF).
Table 26[*]
Pupils with special educational needs in mainstream
schools,
by type of impairment
Pupils in school
|
||
No.
|
Percentage
|
|
Hearing impairment
|
2 101
|
5.7
|
Visual impairment
|
981
|
2.7
|
Mental impairment
|
8 246
|
22.6
|
Motor impairment
|
2 543
|
7.0
|
Specific learning difficulties
|
16 793
|
46.0
|
Emotional disturbances
|
4 201
|
11.5
|
Multiple impairments
|
491
|
1.3
|
Chronic illnesses
|
1 163
|
3.2
|
Total
|
36 519
|
100
|
Source: DEB and the Regional Directorate of Education (DRE) of
the Ministry of Education.
Note: See also table 29 below.
Table 27
Pupils in mainstream schools, by educational level
No. of pupils
|
Percentage
|
|
Secondary
|
1 293
|
3.5
|
Third cycle
|
3 867
|
10.6
|
Second cycle
|
6 455
|
17.7
|
First cycle
|
21 234
|
58.1
|
Preschool
|
2 913
|
8.0
|
Support at home
|
757
|
2.1
|
Source: DEB and Ministry of Education.
Note: See
also table 26 above and table 29 below.
Clearly, there is a need for
considerable investment in educational support at the level of compulsory basic
education.
Figure B
Number of pupils attending special schools
Source: Ibid.
Of the 9,396 pupils attending special schools,
52.4 per cent attend schools that come under the Ministry of Education and the
remaining
47.6 per cent are in social or educational institutions within the
social security system.
250. Human resources deployed in integrated
education: There are 228 special education teams in support of integrated
education (see para. 247). A total of 2,815 teachers, most of whom
are primary
school (“first cycle”) teachers, have been allocated to the
teams.
Table
28[*]
Number of
teachers in the special education teams, by educational level
First cycle
|
Second and third cycles and secondary
|
Total
|
|||||
C/ESP
|
S/ESP
|
C/ESP
|
S/ESP
|
C/ESP
|
S/ESP
|
C/ESP
|
S/ESP
|
278
|
359
|
676
|
1 122
|
85
|
285
|
1 039
|
1 776
|
647 (23%)
|
1 798 (64%)
|
370 (13%)
|
2 815
|
Source: DEB and Ministry of Education.
Of the 2,815
teachers, 37 per cent have had training in special education. In addition to
the teachers, special schools have other
specialized staff, including
specialists in the areas of augmentative and alternative communication and new
technologies, signlanguage
interpreters and trainers, psychologists and
therapists.
251. Human resources in special schools: For the
1995/96 school year, special schools were distributed as
follows:
(a) Private social welfare institutions: 41 per
cent;
(b) Cooperatives and associations: 38 per
cent;
(c) Schools: 13 per cent;
(d) Institutions under the
Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security: 8 per cent.
In 1996/97, 981
teachers were posted to these schools; 512 to those run by cooperatives and
associations and 469 to those run by private
social welfare institutions. The
85 schools run by cooperatives and associations have 76 psychologists, 99
therapists and 336 special
education teaching auxiliaries. The 30 schools have
416 teachers, 30 psychologists, 80 specialists
and 271 auxiliaries.
252. The various schools are funded as follows:
Table 29[*]
|
(thousands of escudos)
|
1. Operational budget
|
|
A. Costs borne by the Department of Basic Education
(including school welfare costs in the institutions covered by ministerial orders Nos. 994/95, of 18 August 1995, and 1095/95, of 6 September 1995) |
3 707 747
|
(i) Grants to private schools (30 schools, 2 484 pupils)
|
2 005 842
|
(ii) Grants to teaching and rehabilitation cooperative
associations (CERCIS) and associations (85 CERCIS and associations, 2 443 pupils) |
1 627 905
|
(iii) Grants to private social welfare institutions (family contribution) |
74 000 |
B. Costs borne by regional departments of education (DRE) |
515 250 |
Special education teams |
238 480 |
School welfare (State schools and private social welfare institutions) (food, financial assistance and school insurance) |
231 770 |
School welfare in private social welfare institutions (DRE budget) (food, teaching materials and transport) |
|
C. Costs borne by schools providing basic and secondary education
|
12 978 839
|
3 327 Stateschool teachers allocated to the special education teams, cooperatives and associations, and private social welfare institutions. |
|
Wages of teachers allocated to the special education teams
|
9 624 735
|
Wages of teachers allocated to special schools
|
1 750 562
|
Wages of teachers allocated to private social welfare
institutions
|
1 603 542
|
2. Civil service integrated investment plan (PIDDAC)
|
290 000
|
A. Department of Basic Education
|
28 600
|
B. Regional departments of education
|
261 400
|
Source: DEB/CGE 1995 figures.
As there are as yet no
figures available, it remains to be seen what costs will result from the
reduction in the number of pupils
per class (decree law No. 319/91), the
reduction in the school component of special education teachers, and the costs
of the facilities,
equipment and communications needed by special
schools.
253. Production of teaching materials: The resource
centre of the Ministry of Education’s Department of Basic Education is the
largest centre for the computerized
production of school textbooks in Braille.
It also coordinates the nationwide production of these textbooks. In the
current school
year, 123 school textbooks will be published in Braille. The
resource centre also produces audio books (textbooks and children’s
books), and has eight voice artists permanently working on them.
254. In
the 1995/96 school year, 36,519 pupils were taught by education teams (228) or
in 115 special schools coming under the Ministry
of Education (85
institutions run by cooperatives and associations and 30
schools).
255. Resources are not distributed evenly throughout the
country; for example, almost all (83 per cent) of the schools are in
Lisbon,
whereas the vast majority (80 per cent) of schools run by cooperatives
and associations are on the coast. Moreover, as initiatives
to establish the
various institutions have never been coordinated, the distribution of schools
does not match actual needs.
256. Pupils covered by the special education
services provided by the Ministry of Education with the support of the Ministry
of Solidarity
and Social Security were distributed as follows
in 1995/96:
Pupils supported by special education teams 36,519
Pupils in
special schools: Cooperatives and associations 24,443
Schools
2,272
Table 30[*]
Number of pupils taught by special education teams, by
educational level
and type of impairment
Hearing impairment
|
Visual impairment
|
Mental impairment
|
Motor impairment
|
Specific learning difficulties
|
Emotional disturbance
|
Multiple impairment
|
Chronic illnesses
|
Total
|
|
Support at home
|
58
|
26
|
520
|
136
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
17
|
757
|
Preschool: kindergarten
|
162
|
56
|
1 782
|
388
|
323
|
90
|
59
|
53
|
2 913
|
First cycle
|
750
|
298
|
4 367
|
987
|
11 497
|
2 606
|
304
|
425
|
21 234
|
Second cycle
|
387
|
190
|
1 130
|
387
|
3 156
|
895
|
59
|
251
|
6 455
|
Third cycle
|
445
|
227
|
409
|
408
|
1 536
|
522
|
50
|
270
|
3 867
|
Secondary
|
299
|
184
|
38
|
237
|
281
|
88
|
19
|
147
|
1 293
|
Total
|
2 101
|
981
|
8 246
|
2 543
|
16 793
|
4 201
|
491
|
1 163
|
36 519
|
Source: DEB, DRE/Ministry of Education.
Note:
See also table 26 above.
257. With the aim of developing suitable policies
and devising effective strategies for special education, the following action is
being undertaken in different areas:
(a) With regard to special
schools:
(i) Study and analysis of the situation of these schools;
(ii) Standardsetting to establish conditions for their operation;
(iii) Promotion and development of administrative and technical measures;
(iv) Design, adaptation and production of special teaching materials;
(b) With regard to psychological and guidance
services:
(i) Reorganization of the operations of the services and network respectively, with a view to integrated management;
(ii) Resizing, redefining and reorganization;
(iii) Definition of the functions corresponding to the various skills areas in these services;
(iv) Pooling psychological and guidance services experts with other services, bodies and experts so as to make full use of resources;
(v) Analysis and study of the various regulations governing the services and their activities;
(c) With regard to children’s
support units:
(i) Children with a hearing impairment:
(ii) Children with a visual
and hearing impairment:
(iii) Children with a visual impairment:
(d) With regard to teaching materials for
children with special educational needs:
(i) Improving the design, adaptation, production and reproduction of textbooks and other publications adapted for those with visual impairments;
(ii) Coordination of production with other services;
(iii) Support for Braille publications by means of the cooperation agreement signed with the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Porto, which publishes books in Braille specially for blind students;
(iv) Activities conducted by the learning materials centre of the regional social security centre for Lisbon and the Tagus valley, which not only produces play and learning materials for children with special educational needs but also distributes books in Braille;
(e) With regard to teacher
training, the following should be mentioned:
(i) National plan for training primary school teachers of pupils with special educational needs;
(ii) Inservice training of teachers and technicians;
(iii) Training teachers to deal with multiple impairments;
(iv) Special training for teachers supporting pupils with slight visual or hearing impairments;
(v) Training for teachers in special schools run by cooperatives and parents’ associations;
(vi) Training in the area of educational software;
(vii) Special training for teachers on the use of telecommunications networks (including the Internet);
(viii) Online distance training (the RACE programme);
(ix) Training teachers and technicians in the use of new technology.
258. In accordance with the Education Act, the
Ministry of Education is responsible for activities relating to special
education. The social security system also gives considerable
support to the
private and public bodies providing special education.
259. The Ministry
of Solidarity and Social Security maintains special schools that are integrated
in the regional social security
centres and enters into cooperation agreements
with social welfare institutions on the provision of technical and financial
support
for special education activities. Nevertheless, in pursuit of its
integration policy, the Ministry also involves all public facilities
and
services provided for children (childminders, family crèches,
kindergartens, leisure centres, holiday camps, homes and
shelters, as well as
host families and adoption).
260. Early technical support and early
intervention: This refers to a social and educational response comprising a
range of actions aimed at children up to age 6 who are in highrisk
situations or
who suffer from an impairment, and their families. This mobile support is
provided wherever the child is generally
to be found, that is, at home, with a
childminder or at the crèche or kindergarten. It includes the
distinctive “early
stimulation” approach, applied in addition to
other techniques, as well as support for integration. The objectives of this
early technical support are:
(a) To establish conditions to
facilitate the children’s learning process, so that their development
matches as closely as
possible the “phases” typical of their age
group;
(b) To reduce to a minimum the problems caused by risk situations
and/or impairment, by preventing side effects from appearing or
growing any
worse;
(c) To facilitate the development of parenting
skills;
(d) To help optimize conditions for integration;
(e) To
boost research and action.
261. Social and educational support
centres: These aim to support children and young people aged between 6 and
18 who have special educational needs and who, for lack of means,
cannot be
integrated in ordinary schools. The centres’ activities are very varied
and focus particularly on educational aspects,
including individual curricula.
By joint order No. 238/96, of 14 November 1996, of the Ministry of
Education and the Ministry of
Solidarity and
Social Security, a working group has now been set up to prepare
proposals for transferring to the Ministry of Education responsibility
for the
special education activities carried out by the private social welfare
institutions, a draft ministerial order to this effect
having been submitted by
the Department of Social Action.
262. Support units: These are
intended to take care of children and young people aged between 6 and 16 (or 18)
who have to attend particular support
institutions far from their usual place of
residence or who need, for compelling family reasons, a temporary change of
regime. They
tend to be smallscale units that are part of the community. The
units are provided by private social welfare institutions and cooperatives,
with
technical and financial support from the DirectorateGeneral for Social Action on
the basis of cooperation agreements.
263. Hostels: These provide
lodgings for young people and adults over the age of 16 who have disabilities
and who are unable, either temporarily
or definitively, to live in their usual
home. They focus on the individual needs of the young adults. They tend to be
smallscale
units that are part of the community.
264. For young disabled
people over age 16, the Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security proposes two
options:
(a) Occupational activity centres, which help young adults with
serious disabilities who are unable to enter the labour market.
These centres,
which foster the individual’s ability to perform socially useful tasks and
develop vocational skills, cooperate
with sheltered workshops;
(b) The
Benfica occupational support centre (CALB), an occupational training school for
disabled young people, which aims to integrate
them in the labour
market.
265. The three figures below show the amounts spent by welfare
and social security systems (in 1994 and 1995) on the provision of
support to
disabled children and young people.
Figure C
Source: DirectorateGeneral for Social Action, based on data from the
Financial Management Institute.
As percentages, these amounts are as
follows:
Figure D
100 % = 40,807,205,112.00 Esc. in 1994.
Source:
Ibid.
Figure E
100 % = 45,856,941,475.00 Esc. in 1995.
Source: Ibid.
266. The table below shows the
percentage of disabled persons who benefit, or have benefited, from medical or
functional rehabilitation,
special education, vocational training and
rehabilitation, integration in the labour market, social integration,
etc.
Table 31
Age group
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
02 years
|
35 years
|
615 years
|
1624 years
|
|
Visual
|
51.4
|
50.2
|
44.1
|
31.2
|
Hearing
|
0.0
|
52.6
|
58.0
|
44.2
|
Speech
|
52.2
|
59.7
|
71.3
|
57.8
|
Other forms of communication
|
29.9
|
48.1
|
57.0
|
57.5
|
Personal care
|
71.4
|
78.2
|
62.6
|
64.9
|
Locomotion
|
68.8
|
59.4
|
64.5
|
88.2
|
Daily tasks
|
83.9
|
46.9
|
58.8
|
62.0
|
Facing situations
|
39.2
|
30.3
|
38.2
|
35.8
|
Behavioural
|
0.0
|
52.4
|
49.9
|
51.5
|
Source: Department of Rehabilitation, National Survey of
Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps, 1996.
267. Specific
projects and actions relating to impairment: Some progress has been made in
prevention and rehabilitation, particularly with regard to disabled children and
young people, in
relation to the development of specific new activities such as
the early intervention programmes, provision of home help, development
and
rehabilitation consultations and monitoring consultations, and rehabilitation
training programmes for technicians. These activities
are also carried out at
the regional level.
268. Given the increase in the number of people,
including children and young people, who are suffering from chronic illnesses,
and
the growing demand for quality care and support for disabled persons, the
Ministry of Health team responsible for children’s
and young
people’s health sees it as crucial to reorganize services so as to be able
to provide, at the least cost, a high
level of care from both a scientific and
an ethical and human viewpoint.
B. Health and medical services (art. 24)
Paragraph 93 of the 1996
guidelines
269. The following paragraphs provide information on measures adopted to
guarantee children’s right to life and to the enjoyment
of health care,
ensuring their survival and development to the maximum extent possible.
Promoting the health of children and young
people is one of the priorities of
the Ministry of Health. In addition to the Division of Mother and Child and
Adolescent Health,
a National Commission on Women’s and Children’s
Health has been established in the Department of Health to assist the
Minister
of Health. The current health system is organized in accordance with the
Constitution and all existing legislation, including the basic law on health,
the Department of Health Act, the Regional and Subregional Health
Administrations Act and the Medical Profession Act, and in compliance with the
principles established therein.
270. In a document entitled
“Mission and leadership”, prepared in March 1997, the Department of
Health defines its functions
as follows:
(a) To promote Portuguese
people’s health by improving their physical, mental and social wellbeing
in order to provide a better
quality of life;
(b) To develop a
citizencentred health system by promoting coordinated approaches
that will
contribute to the coherent structuring of the health system and its main
actors;
(c) To influence the integrated development of the health system by
establishing specific mechanisms to promote proactive behaviour
and alternative
scenarios, which may be able to influence political decisionmaking and the
implementation of appropriate strategies
and standards in developing the
national health service;
(d) To take a lead at the national level with
regard to healthrelated values, ideas, events and forms of
action.
271. The National Commission on Women’s and
Children’s Health is the successor to the National Commission on Child
Health,
which was created by order of the Secretary of State for Health on
7 September 1992 and, since January 1994, has reported directly
to the
Minister of Health. The Commission’s task is to assist the Minister
in all areas relating to women’s, children’s
and adolescents’
health, and particularly to establish and propose priority operational
programmes, to promote the coordination
of the various activities of the
Ministry of Health, to monitor their development and evaluate them,
and to promote crossdisciplinary
coordination between the services of the
various ministries, nongovernmental organizations, etc. The Commission is also
expected
to propose specific measures and monitor and evaluate their
implementation. It acts as a driving force and catalyst and is intended
to
motivate health professionals and services, through integrated operational
programmes, to become agents of change and thereby
exert a decisive influence in
the improvement of health and the promotion of wellbeing among Portuguese
children and young people.
272. The following factors are of key
importance in developing an appropriate, effective health policy: political
will, the level
of participation of those involved, the extent of
responsibilities, the implementation of measures and, lastly, changes in
attitude
and behaviour. To date, priorities have been established with regard
to children’s health needs and a number of courses of
action have been
proposed that could be developed within operational programmes; the priorities
relate to the various levels at which
care is to be provided (primary health
care and hospital care), postgraduate training for doctors, nurses and other
health technicians,
and medical research.
273. The following are some of
the key ideas making up the framework for action regarding children’s and
young people’s
health:
(a) Setting the paediatric age limit at
18;
(b) Recognition of the competence of community paediatricians;
training and placement of community paediatricians in health
centres;
(c) Establishment of hospital paediatric services and
departments for the care of children and young people, including those that
are
currently being attended to in adult services, and recognition of
children’s and young people’s right to enjoy an
atmosphere
responsive to their needs, particularly when in hospital;
(d) Improving
the working conditions, and thereby the performance, of specialist
paediatricians, particularly those working in intensive
care
sectors;
(e) Reorganizing health services dealing with children and
young people, particularly emergency reception and certain sectors of
hospital
and surgical paediatric services;
(f) Promoting coordination between the
various levels of health care and between health services and related services
such as education,
social security and local authorities;
(g) Improving
communications and the dissemination of information;
(h) Extension of
the experiment in maternal and neonatal coordinating groups to child and
juvenile health;
(i) Organizing nursing care services for children and
adolescents, with a particular emphasis on training and on development of a
special nursing field of paediatrics and child health, by placing specialist
nurses in health centres and community health teams;
(j) Establishment
and continuity of care for all children with disabilities or chronic illnesses,
including through the regional
and district development centres and through
nursing liaison projects that will make the best use of resources and optimize
the response
to the health needs of children with disabilities or chronic
illnesses, thereby promoting their wellbeing and quality of
life;
(k) Provision of resources for clinical genetics that will make it
possible to meet the enormous challenges arising in this area
of
health;
(l) Development of a national programme for the prevention of
accidents and the promotion of child and youth safety, focusing on
training,
action and research, using a broad multidisciplinary approach with wide
community participation, in order to create a safe,
healthy
environment;
(m) Inservice training for health professionals
specializing in adolescent health and organization of reception services for
this
age group, with links to paediatric services in the hospital sector and to
the health centres’ health teams in the primary
health care
sector;
(n) Closer ties between the child health and paediatric sector
and mental health care for children and young people;
(o) Development of
a national oral and dental health programme which is coordinated by the
Department of Health and has as its aim
the extension throughout the country of
useful experience in this area already gathered in a number of
municipalities;
(p) Recognition of the importance of research into child
health and paediatrics, and support for practical research
projects.
274. With regard to maternal health, the following broad action
has been taken:
(a) Promotion of preconception advice and provision of
appropriate antenatal care for pregnant women;
(b) Maintaining the quality
of supplementary diagnostic examinations, in particular ultrasound scans, and
adequate transport for
pregnant women in labour or emergency
situations;
(c) Provision of antenatal tests for all pregnant women aged
35 or over;
(d) Promotion of responsible sexual behaviour in order to
reduce the number of unwanted adolescent pregnancies, particularly in girls
aged
under 16;
(e) Strengthening of general and specialist perinatal hospital
care, in particular by providing adequate technical and human
resources;
(f) Research into the causes of maternal and perinatal
mortality.
Paragraph 94 of the 1996 guidelines
275. Portugal’s health system is currently undergoing a number of
changes. Essential background documents have been issued
by the Ministry of
Health, and the Department of Health, which describe the changes to be made in
the system in order:
(a) To focus health policies on the individual and
the citizen;
(b) To reorganize the administration of health care in
order to meet the challenges and needs more effectively;
(c) To optimize
resources and reduce waste;
(d) To evaluate the impact of actions in
terms of health gains;
(e) To analyse the system, taking account of its
various components, and in particular care providers, the national health
service,
subsystems and private services;
(f) To increase and improve
the ongoing provision of care and to encourage users to seek such
care;
(g) To identify priorities.
Health system support structures
276. The structures that deliver health care to
children and young people are central hospitals, district hospitals, level 1
hospitals
(health centres with hospital beds), private hospital structures,
health centres, private doctors’ surgeries, health subsystems
and, lastly,
other structures such as trusts, associations, etc.
277. In hospitals,
there are paediatric services that specialize in reception of children and, more
recently, of young people also
(order 24/87, published on 2 January 1988). The
central hospitals are making efforts to develop certain areas of paediatrics,
including
surgery, nephrology, gastroenterology, immunologyallergology,
endocrinology, neuropaediatrics, developmental paediatrics, genetics,
oncology,
haematology, metabolic disorders, traumatology and intensive care, infectious
diseases, pneumology, etc. Despite the lack
of any specific training for the
effective application of order 24/87 of 2 January 1988, the situation is
improving, particularly
in the district hospitals. It is to be hoped that that
will also be the case in the central
hospitals, particularly university
hospitals, in the near future.
Table 32
Paediatric services
|
District hospitals
|
Level 1 hospitals
|
|
North
|
6
|
10
|
4
|
Centre
|
1
|
12
|
3
|
Lisbon/Tagus Valley
|
6
|
10
|
0
|
Alentejo
|
0
|
3
|
1
|
Algarve
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
Azores Autonomous Region
|
0
|
4
|
0
|
Madeira Autonomous Regions
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
Total
|
14
|
41
|
8
|
Source: Department of Health, Ministry of Health.
Health care providers
278. For primary health care, Portugal’s
national health service relies on general practitioners and family doctors.
This service
is complemented at the State level by a number of paediatricians
working in health centres in the major towns. There are also consulting
paediatricians who provide support for primary health care doctors, and a
significant amount of work is done by private paediatricians.
Some subsystems
also offer a consulting service in the area of primary health care, and this is
generally provided by paediatricians.
279. In hospitals, children and
young people are treated by paediatricians (in the paediatric
services), but
also by many other doctors specializing in areas of “adult
medicine”.
Table 33
Number of paediatricians in hospital paediatric
services (1995)
|
District hospitals
|
Level 1 hospitals
|
|
North
|
180
|
104
|
18
|
Centre
|
53
|
79
|
3
|
Lisbon/Tagus Valley
|
333
|
115
|
0
|
Alentejo
|
0
|
29
|
1
|
Algarve
|
0
|
15
|
0
|
Azores Autonomous Region
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
Madeira Autonomous Regions
|
18
|
0
|
0
|
Total
|
584
|
345
|
32
|
Source: Human Resources Department, Ministry of
Health.
280. The nurses who provide care for children and young people are
nearly all generalists, although it is possible to specialize in
child health
and paediatric nursing. Permanent placement of nurses in paediatric services
allows them to acquire additional competence
in treating children and young
people.
281. As regards other health professionals, senior staff in some
hospitals and health centres include psychologists, child psychiatrists
and
social service experts, educators, physiotherapists and speech, occupational and
other therapists. There are still not enough
of them to meet the demand. A
more efficient approach is currently being tried, however, involving a broader
use of resources at
the healthcentre level.
Hospital care
282. Conditions in Portugal still do not allow
all children to receive hospital care in what might be called a
“paediatric environment”.
In particular, in the surgical and
orthopaedic departments, children are placed in adult wards, with all the
attendant psychological
problems. Most hospitals are also still not in a
position to receive adolescents in a way that takes account of the particular
characteristics
of that age group. The law allows parents or their legal
representatives to accompany a child in hospital and there has been an
enormous
effort to “humanize” hospital services.
Table 34
Number of beds in paediatric services
(1995)
|
District hospitals
|
Level 1 hospitals
|
|
North
|
181
|
234
|
45
|
Centre
|
100
|
314
|
37
|
Lisbon/Tagus Valley
|
192
|
212
|
0
|
Alentejo
|
0
|
59
|
3
|
Algarve
|
0
|
40
|
0
|
Azores Autonomous Region
|
0
|
55
|
0
|
Madeira Autonomous Regions
|
65
|
0
|
0
|
Total
|
538
|
914
|
85
|
Source: Department of Health, Ministry of Health.
283. A
Department of Health study has shown that, in paediatric services only, some
40,000 children under the age of 10 (excluding
the year of birth) are
hospitalized every year, and that nearly a quarter of the cases involve repeated
hospitalization for the same
children (recurring acute illnesses or aggravation
of chronic illnesses).
284. There is still a large number of children who
are hospitalized in nonpaediatric wards (probably more than 50 per cent of the
total). Adolescents are still placed in “adult” wards (probably
more than 60 per cent in the 1014 age group and more
than 90 per cent in the
1519 age group).
285. A high proportion of hospitalizations (nearly
80 per cent) still occurs through the emergency service (i.e., are unplanned),
which runs counter to the principles that should govern the programming of
hospital work.
286. The most common reasons for hospitalization are
injuries and lesions of various kinds, including those caused in accidents,
followed
by surgical interventions (including ear, nose and throat), respiratory
conditions (including asthma), infectious diseases and gastroenterological
conditions.
287. A number of special interest areas and specialized
paediatric fields have developed within the various hospital services and
in
terms of material and human resources, particularly in intensive care. The
concept and practice of the day hospital is also being
developed.
Outpatient consultations
288. As regards hospital consultations for
children and young people, the following can be said:
(a) The exact
number of outpatient consultations by children and young people is not known
(although it is known that in 1994 there
were 333,289 specialist paediatric
consultations, of which a quarter were initial consultations); the reasons for
consultation are
also not known. However, as shown by a number of studies,
outpatient consultations, unlike emergency consultations, are becoming
more
frequent, either on the advice of the attending doctor or by decision of
families themselves;
(b) The number of paediatric outpatient
consultations has increased sharply in recent years, particularly within the
various paediatric
specialized fields both in the district hospitals and in
highly specialized areas in the central hospitals;
(c) A national
“charter” is currently being drawn up, establishing the standards
that should govern the various services,
including those administered by the
“adult” services (orthopaedics, ear, nose and throat, ophthalmology,
dentistry, physical
medicine, etc.). The charter is intended to cover medicine
practised in the subsystems and in the private sector, and aims to create
conditions under which it can be practised properly.
Emergency services
289. There is a great demand for emergency
services in Portugal. The primary healthcare services (health centres,
subsystems and
private doctors) are inadequate and inspire little confidence in
many parents, who turn instead to the emergency services. Only
10 per cent of
the cases taken by hospital emergency services warrant emergency treatment in
clinical terms.
290. This excessive demand means that the emergency
services are overstretched, to the detriment of both users and staff. The facts
are as follows:
(a) Sudden illness accounts for some two thirds of cases
and accidents and accidental injury for around one third;
(b) Only
4 per cent of emergency hospital consultations result in
hospitalization;
(c) Emergency consultations are twice as frequent as
other hospital consultations;
(d) One third of children go more than
once a year to an emergency service.
291. Any reorganization of emergency
services will require a coordinated, integrated programme at all levels of care
and throughout
the public and private systems and the subsystems, and an
enhancement of parents’ skills in coping with illness. A national
commission for the restructuring of emergency services has been established and
has prepared a number of proposals, including a chapter
devoted entirely to
children and adolescents.
Paragraph 95 of the 1996 guidelines
Births
292. In 1996, there were 110,261 live births in
Portugal. Although this figure is slightly higher than those of previous years,
it
is still not possible to state that the steady, decadeslong downward trend
has been reversed. In fact, taking into account the legalization
of a large
number of African immigrant families and the total number of women of
reproductive age, this slight increase is of no
significance.
Table 35
Source: National Statistical Institute and Department of
Health.
Table 36
Births by region
1992
|
1996
|
|
North
|
39 807
|
37 878
|
Centre
|
25 137
|
23 985
|
Lisbon/Tagus Valley
|
34 721
|
34 280
|
Alentejo
|
4 319
|
3 835
|
Algarve
|
3 851
|
3 690
|
Azores Autonomous Region
|
3 673
|
3 554
|
Madeira Autonomous Region
|
3 406
|
3 021
|
Total
|
114 924
|
110 261
|
Source: Ibid.
293. Hospital births (both public and private)
have fortunately become the rule and, given all that that implies, this is
one of the
most important indicators of child health. In Portugal today, 99 per
cent of children are born in hospital and 6 per cent of these
deliveries
take place in private institutions. Figure F shows the trend in
hospital and unassisted deliveries. The proportion of
hospital births
increased from one quarter of the total in 1965 to
nearly 100 per cent in 1995, while the proportion of unassisted
births (without help from a doctor, a nurse or a midwife) declined from 40 per
cent to practically zero.
Figure F
Source: National Statistical
Institute: Statistical Yearbook and Demographic
Statistics.
294. As can be seen from figure G, Portugal’s birth
rate fell markedly between 1886 and 1996.
Figure G
Source: National Statistical Institute:
Statistical Yearbook and Demographic Statistics.
The birth rate
remained more or less stable until the period before the Second World War, when
it declined; although it recovered
slightly during the 1950s, it has since
fallen steadily and the current rate is around one third of the rate 100 years
ago. Of the
European Union countries, only Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain
have a lower birth rate than Portugal (Eurostat 1995).
Family
295. The trend as regards the child and
adolescent population is slightly downwards. The 09 and 1019 age
groups are currently each
the same size as the over65 age group. Taken
together, these two youngest age groups account for more than one third of
Portugal’s
population. Overall, the country is young, but it is ageing,
with marked imbalances at the district level.
296. Families are becoming
smaller and smaller as a direct result of Portugal’s falling birth rate.
In 1995, more than half
of all newborns were first children and around
one third were second children. Analysis of the available figures shows a
greater
decrease in the numbers of mothers aged 35 and over than in the numbers
of adolescent mothers and suggests that family planning measures
initially had a
greater impact on older age groups and only more recently on younger
groups. Also in 1995, the number of deliveries
recorded for girls aged up
to 19 was 7,740, while, significantly, the total number of adolescent
fathers was 1,935. A casebycase
analysis the sort of exercise now being
conducted in some areas will provide a more scientific picture of the
situation of adolescent
pregnancy and, therefore, a better indication of the
problems that arise and appropriate solutions to apply.
297. This
analysis shows that, in 1995:
(a) Both parents were under 20 in 1,316
cases;
(b) There were 366 deliveries involving adolescents aged under
16;
(c) The total number of births to women aged 40 or over was
1,930;
(d) The statistics for the last 10 years show a decline in
percentage terms of cases of adolescent girls who have more than one fullterm
pregnancy:
(i) In 90 per cent of cases, the delivery was the first child;
(ii) In 10 per cent of cases, it was the second child;
(iii) The number of cases of adolescents delivering their third child has fallen from 5 per cent to 1.5 per cent in the last 20 years.
298. All the available data seem to confirm that,
despite certain identified and recognized gaps, the family planning measures are
highly effective. The number of pregnant adolescents is not known, but since
there is no evidence of an increase in voluntary termination
of pregnancy in
this age group or of a drop in the average age when sexual activity begins, it
is likely that the decline in the
number of births is directly linked to the use
of contraceptive methods.
299. As regards Portuguese families, the
following may be said:
(a) An understanding of the family structure and
other related data is of fundamental importance, given the influence of the
family
on children’s and young people’s wellbeing and quality of
life, in physical, psychological, moral, social and cultural
terms;
(b) According to data from the National Statistical Institute, 65,776
marriages took place in Portugal in 1995, of which 161 were
between blood
relatives;
(c) These marriages involved 8,356 children from previous
unions, 35.8 per cent of whom were children of the couple getting married,
although there were significant differences from region to
region;
(d) In nearly half these families, the children live with the
mother or the father alone, with no other adults;
(e) Less than half the
families (some 40 per cent) have one child or more; most of them consist of two
adults (plus the child);
(f) There has also been a significant decline
in the number of large families, even in rural areas: barely 38 per cent of
families
with children include any other person apart from the parent or
parents;
(g) Over the last 100 years the percentage of children born out
of wedlock (previously described as “illegitimate” in
the
statistics) initially decreased to virtually negligible levels in the 1910s and
1920s and remained stable until the 1980s, when
a gradual but significant
increase was observed;
(h) The increase in the number of singleparent
families varies from region to region: nearly 3.5 per cent of families with
children
are singleparent families, that parent being the mother in the vast
majority (91 per cent) of cases. There are also regional differences
with
regard to singleparent families;
(i) There has also been an increase in
the number of twin households, reconstituted families and other family
structures: for example,
in 1991, there were 18,034 families where children
aged under 15 were living only with one or two
grandparents;
(j) According to data from the latest census, 1,235,948
families (of various kinds) had at least one child, around one fifth (21.5
per cent) of the child population (aged under 15) lived in towns of more
than 20,000 inhabitants and two fifths (42.6 per cent) lived
in small
villages of less than 1,000 inhabitants, although this varied from region to
region;
(k) A worrying problem is the increasing
social isolation of families (particularly in periurban areas), which is
frequently associated
with situations of social disadvantage: according to the
latest census, in 1991 there were 8,616 children living in dwellings described
as “shacks”, particularly in the vicinity of large
towns;
(l) The fact that parents have less and less experience to draw
on (coming from smaller or nuclear families separated from their
social and
cultural origins) may also be partly responsible for increased tensions;
(m) Parents have become more vulnerable in their role: they have problems
of availability and their life is more disorganized, which
produces stress, yet
at the same time society often demands that they should be “perfect
parents”, which produces feelings
of guilt and anxiety;
(n) The
level of education of parents of young children has increased sharply, and one
particularly important point that emerges
from the 1995 data is that both
parents often have the same educational level;
(o) Families’
expectations or demands with regard to health are different now, as a result of
changes in social standards and
the increasing recognition that parents are
partners in health and essential to the process of negotiating attitudes,
intentions
and behaviours; however, parents’ rights and responsibilities
have still not been fully established.
Adolescents
300. The following can be said with regard to
adolescents:
(a) Portuguese adolescents are on the whole
healthy;
(b) There is a growing problem of adolescents with chronic
illnesses;
(c) The biggest health problem for this age group is caused
by accidents and accidentrelated injuries, which are responsible for
more than
half the deaths of adolescents;
(d) The use of harmful substances and
the choice of highrisk lifestyles, involving experimentation and even suicidal
or parasuicidal
behaviours have led to an increase in certain pathologies and
require innovative approaches: a number of such approaches are being
developed
and implemented;
(e) The health services, and in particular hospital
services, are illprepared for dealing with adolescents.
301. Specific
programmes are currently being developed to study and highlight the factors that
protect young Portuguese people and
contribute to their resilience, so that
these factors are better understood and protected, with a view to implementing
them within
health units, in a multidisciplinary perspective and in cooperation
with civil society and in conformity with the priorities established
in the
Basic Health Act.
Infant and child mortality
302. Infant mortality, i.e., mortality during
the first year of life, has declined steadily since records began in Portugal.
The
same applies to mortality for other age groups of children and young people
and to maternal mortality. The decline observed in Portugal
over the last 20
years is genuinely significant. Deaths from nonpreventable infectious diseases
have also declined, in particular
pneumonia and acute
gastroenteritis.
303. Disaggregation of child mortality rates by level of
mother’s education and by father’s occupation shows that less
educated mothers are more disadvantaged in relation to the total sample of
mothers and fathers who have had children during these
years (the rate is 2.9
for mothers with higher education as compared with 24.1 for illiterate mothers
or mothers without primary
education); the same applies to fathers with less
specialized occupations. Improvements in living standards housing, nutrition,
hygiene and education have been a key factor in the decline in infant mortality
rates.
304. In Portugal, as in most Western countries, sudden infant
death syndrome and accidents were practically the sole causes of death
during
this period.
305. In 1995, life expectancy for age groups between 0 and
19 was as follows:
Table 37
Source: Health Department, Ministry of
Health.
Caesareans accounted for 24.3 per cent of all births. Some
6 per cent of babies born in 1995, or 6,446, were low birth weight
infants
(weight at birth less than 2.5 kg). The proportion of premature
births (less than 37 weeks) was 6.4 per cent in 1995, or 6,794 babies.
Monitoring of child and youth health
306. For prevention purposes, children’s
and young people’s health is monitored, first, in the public health
system, chiefly
in health centres (by family doctors or paediatricians), second,
in the various health subsystems and, third, in the private
system.
307. Portugal has a widelyimplemented child and youth health
monitoring programme, achieved through a combination of scientific rigour
and
widespread endorsement, which has the following features:
(a) New
approach to monitoring whereby the vaccination schedule is adjusted to the
“key age” concept, to ensure more
thorough coverage of the child
population;
(b) Discussion at each consultation of instructions and
guidelines regarding preventive care and the medical procedures to be carried
out at each key age;
(c) Gaps in coverage as currently estimated: it is
not known, for example, how many children receive regular care in the private
health system and in the subsystems, how many use a combination of systems and
how many receive no attention at all;
(d) Great shortage of nurses and
other specialists (psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists,
speech therapists,
etc.) in primary health care;
(e) Problem of lack of
monitoring, connected with problems of accessibility: this is more severe in
periurban areas and rural areas
in the interior of the country.
The
programme includes a number of scientifically proven measures for the early
detection of illness at certain key ages. These have
been widely approved and
meet internationally accepted criteria.
Health booklet
308. The child and youth health booklet is an
important means of communicating and sharing medical information. It is given
to parents
when the child is born and contains advice and information on the
main features of children’s and young people’s development
and
growth and on some of the problems most frequently encountered. It also
contains a list of preventive measures to be taken during
the key ages and a
list of things to be done at each health check, in accordance with the framework
programme of action of the Department
of Health.
309. Under Department of
Health regulations, the health booklet must be filled in and kept up to date and
its use is governed by certain
basic principles: first, that the information
belongs to the child or young person and the family, i.e. it is they who own the
information;
and, second, that information needs to be shared in order to
improve continuity of care, to avoid duplication of procedures and unnecessary
examinations, and to provide precise, appropriate and easily accessible
information.
310. Studies show that the health booklet is still somewhat
underused by health professionals, particularly in hospitals. More and
more
effort is being made, however, to complete it correctly. According to
information from various studies, the booklet is given
to 99 per cent of
parents, of whom two thirds take it with them to consultations and half
take it in cases of emergency, while 60
per cent of professionals in
primary health care and 16 per cent in emergency services ask to see the
booklet; the number of professionals
who complete it satisfactorily is probably
lower.
Vaccination
311. Portugal has a national vaccination
programme and current data show that the vaccination rate is around 95 per cent.
Most children
in Portugal are vaccinated properly and at the right time, and as
a result the incidence of diseases such as measles, infantile paralysis,
diphtheria, etc. is declining rapidly. The national vaccination programme, now
under review by a working group, includes BCG and
vaccinations against
diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, polio and measlesmumpsrubella. Besides
these, other, new vaccinations
are also available, including hepatitis B and
haemophilus influenzae.
312. Vaccination must, however, be provided
for the entire community, and particularly for groups at risk (socially
marginalized,
ethnic minorities, etc.), where vaccination rates are markedly
lower; innovative strategies in that regard are currently being
developed.
313. Deaths from preventable diseases have declined
significantly, despite the constant threat that any drop in the vaccination rate
may cause an epidemic such as the 19891990 measles outbreak, which caused a
number of deaths.
314. With regard to nonpreventable diseases, the
following can be noted:
(a) Tuberculosis among children and young people
has not declined as it had been hoped;
(b) AIDS and other emerging
diseases, such as sexually transmitted diseases, present new challenges because
they require different
strategies (targeting behaviour
patterns);
(c) Improper use of antibiotics with children is a worrying
problem.
Oral and dental health
315. The national oral and dental health
programme is directed jointly by the National Commission on Women’s and
Children’s
Health and the Department of Health. Dental caries is the
most common chronic disorder among Portugal’s children and young
people.
According to studies carried out in Portugal at the beginning of the 1990s,
caries attacks permanent teeth at the rate of
one tooth per child per year,
which means around 600,000 new cases in the primary school population (aged 69)
and an average of 4
cariesaffected teeth per person by the age
of 10.
316. The objective of the programme, which has already been
tested on children and adolescents and found to work well, is for each
person to
reach the age of 18 equipped with appropriate knowledge and behaviour and free
of caries, or at least with fewer cariesaffected
teeth and for those teeth to
have been treated. Pilot studies carried out in Portugal show that
implementation of the programme
will make it possible to reduce the prevalence
and incidence of caries by some 85 per cent in all the groups
concerned.
317. Other tested and proven programmes cover such areas as
oral hygiene (washing, brushing, flossing), use of fluoride (mouthwash,
gargles), sealing of dental cracks and promotion of measures that help to
rationalize consumption of sugary foods.
Nutrition
318. There has been an increase in
breastfeeding in recent years. According to a Department of Health study, all
mothers understand
the advantages of breastfeeding and try to practise it. When
babies leave the maternity wards, 95 per cent of them are being either
exclusively or partly breastfed. This level starts to drop after 15 days of
life, for technical reasons or because of
insecurity, anxiety or stress. There are some interagency breastfeeding
promotion programmes, notably the “Babyfriendly hospitals”
programme, which essentially focus on professional attitudes and practices and
on support for young mothers during the first weeks.
319. Recent years
have seen a significant decrease in instances of nutritional deficiency among
children. It is now uncommon for
malnutrition to be a cause of hospitalization,
although it persists among certain socially and economically disadvantaged
groups.
Where food quality is concerned, there is a growing trend for children
and adolescents to consume highcalorie foods containing excessive
sugar and fat
between meals and to avoid vegetables and fruits. A detailed survey should be
made of the healthy elements that still
exist in Portuguese families’ diet
and these should be promoted.
Accidents, injuries and accidental injuries
320. Accidents, injuries and accidental
injuries are the most frequent cause of death, illness, hospitalization, use of
emergency
services, and temporary and permanent disability among children and
young people and therefore constitute one of the problems with
the highest
social and economic cost. Accordingly, the Ministry of Health has launched a
number of prevention campaigns in this
area:
(a) This carnage occurs
more because children’s and families’ natural behaviour and
psychosocial tendencies are not properly
suited to their environment, rather
than because of any untoward or unexpected behaviour by children or young
people;
(b) Portugal has an enormous body of legislation, but some of
its laws are not well known or are inadequately
implemented;
(c) Reception of accident victims has improved noticeably,
particularly where evacuation, first aid and health services especially
intensive care are concerned, all of which helps to reduce the mortality
rate;
(d) The agencies and institutions that deal with accidents and
related injuries are still not sufficiently coordinated.
321. Following a
proposal by the National Commission for Women’s and Children’s
Health, a national programme for the prevention
of accidents and accidental
injury is being developed by the Department of Health, in conjunction with
Prevenção Rodoviaria
Portuguesa (PRP) the Portuguese road
safety organization, the Consumer Institute, the Association for the Promotion
of Child Safety
(APSI) and other State and civil society institutions, including
consumer associations. The aim is to mobilize the health sector
and health
professionals by drawing their attention to the problem. The Programme aims to
promote safety for all citizens, using
a multidisciplinary approach to accidents
and accidental injury, involving the ministries of health, education, internal
affairs
and the environment, the police and local authorities, the Consumer
Institute, PRP, etc.
Lifestyles, sport and television
322. Studies of the major
public health problems show that most of them have their roots in particular
habits and lifestyles and that
changes in attitudes and behaviour are needed if
such problems are to be prevented or solved. This is only possible, however,
through
negotiation and by offering alternatives and, in the case of children
and young people, by establishing healthy habits and life choices.
One rather
worrying problem is the increase in violence among children and young people,
not only as victims, but also as perpetrators
of violence.
323. Regular
sporting activity among children and young people is still well below the
desirable level, particularly among adolescents.
There has been a change in
young people’s sporting preferences, with a shift towards sports that
allow them to push their
bodies to the limit and bring them into close contact
with nature. They must be encouraged to take up sport and physical exercise,
including walking. Access to sports centres and classes of various kinds must
be improved and facilitated. There is an urgent need
for a qualitative and
quantitative evaluation of physical education classes.
324. Children and
adolescents as a group spend an average of threefour hours a day in front of the
television. That is the conclusion
of a 1995 doctoral thesis, entitled
“Television in children’s daily life”, by Professor Manuel
Pinto of the University
of Minho Social Sciences Institute. The situation
varies, however, depending on age and school timetable. At the same time, the
study suggests that a significant portion of time is spent watching television
not because of any kind of generalized dependence,
but because of the lack of
attractive alternative pastimes within families and local communities,
particularly physical exercise,
reading, leisure pursuits and creative
activities.
Harmful substances
325. The consumption of
alcohol and drugs is a growing problem among adolescents. This is a major
public health problem and, in the
case of illegal drugs, a social and political
problem as well. The following figures (dependency percentages) emerge from a
1995
study carried out by the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and
Other Drugs (ESPAD):
The
solution to the problem, in the health context, lies in investment to boost
young people’s selfesteem, selfimage and powers
of resistance, and in
offering alternative leisure pursuits and strengthening the protection factors
in the various groups (family,
friends, society at large), including by deciding
on a life plan and sticking to it.
Paragraph 96 of the 1996 guidelines
HIV/AIDS
326. The national
antiAIDS strategy is coordinated on behalf of the Ministry of
Health by the National AIDS Commission, established
by Ministry
of Health order No. 4/92, published in the official gazette No. 7/92 of 3 April
1992. The Commission’s task is
to develop a national antiAIDS
programme, coordinate its implementation in accordance with its basic principles
and evaluate the
results. The Commission is also expected to take part in the
World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiological surveillance programme,
thereby
committing itself to epidemiological surveillance of notified cases of AIDS.
Because of the international aspect of the
HIV/AIDS pandemic, the Commission
also participates in and promotes research and intervention activities, in
collaboration with UNAIDS,
the Commission of the European Communities, the
Council of Europe and other international bodies.
327. The national
antiAIDS programme incorporates a range of health priorities that form part
of Portugal’s current health policy,
in accordance with the general
guidelines issued by UNAIDS and the European Union, and taking account
of Portugal’s specific
circumstances and the organization and
institutional structure of its health services, as well as the overall
context of the AIDS
problem. The approach basically involves reaching
consensus, to the extent possible and desirable, on the content of the
programmes
and the messages to be communicated, through training and the
provision of educational support and other support systems.
328. The
Commission attempts to promote healthy lifestyles and initiate discussion of
sexual and emotional relationships, with all
the sensitivity required by
topics of this nature. It is also in favour of decentralizing the
activities to be developed, using
a crosssectoral and multidisciplinary
approach, by providing the conditions and means for the various agencies
to play an effective
part in those activities. The resources which the
Government has allocated to combating AIDS have been optimized and
prioritized
and their use is strictly controlled.
329. It is not possible
to determine the exact number of HIVpositive individuals, since it is difficult
to organize studies of the
prevalence and incidence of HIV/AIDS. All estimates
therefore include a wide margin of error. Notified cases of AIDS represent
all
those infected between 10 and 12 years ago, i.e., between 1985 and 1987. In
Portugal, cases of AIDS are notified to the centre
for the epidemiological
surveillance of communicable diseases at the Dr. Ricardo Jorge National
Health Institute, with the help and
support of the National AIDS
Commission.
330. The increase in the number of cases notified to the
centre is due chiefly to the number of cases notified by drug addicts
who
became infected in 19851987. A focused riskreduction policy has been
adopted, and the percentage of new HIVpositive cases has begun
to
decline: 17 per cent in 1993, 15 per cent in 1994 and 9 per cent
in 1995.
331. The available indicators on the worst affected population group
intravenous drug users also show a decrease in the number of
HIV
infections. The Centre’s national syringeexchange programme “Say
no to used syringes” launched and maintained
in collaboration with the
National Association of Pharmacies, is the only one of its kind in Europe and
has greatly helped to reduce
the number of cases detected.
332. Studies
of cases where HIV/AIDS has been transmitted by other means heterosexual,
bisexual, homosexual, in utero and by blood
transfusion have shown that the
infection rate is coming under control in these cases as well. The same applies
to paediatric AIDS,
where there has been a noticeable decline in the number of
cases notified. Information campaigns and preventive measures have sharply
reduced the rate of motherchild transmission.
Treatment and management provided in case of HIV infection and AIDS among children and parents, and the coverage ensured nationwide, in urban and rural areas
333. In the area of
social assistance, the National AIDS Commission and the services of the Ministry
of Solidarity and Social Security,
and in particular the Department of Social
Action, analyse the cases requiring intervention and support and attempt to
resolve them.
It is the task of the regional social security centres and their
subregional social security services to provide psychological and
social
support. With regard to social assistance, particularly assistance to the most
disadvantaged and marginalized, use of the
social welfare services of the
regional social security centres expanded by some 50 per cent between 1992 and
1995.
334. In 1995, 941 people were eligible for subsidies, an increase
of 63 per cent from 1994. Of those, 523 people aged between 20
and 34 received
support for the first time and 72.09 per cent of those cases were related to
drug addiction. A proposal has been
made to grant regular financial aid instead
of the current ad hoc handouts to AIDS sufferers in financial hardship who are
not entitled
to social security benefits.
335. As regards access to
treatment and copayment for medication, Portugal has adopted all the necessary
measures as part of its antiAIDS
campaign and is making every effort to provide
the requisite health care, to the extent it is available in Portugal. For
example,
antiretrovirus medication is guaranteed free of charge and available to
all sufferers.
336. On the basis of the recommendations of the National
Commission’s Clinical Group, copayment of 100 per cent is guaranteed
for
any new medication that comes on to the market, under Ministry of Health order
No. 280/96 of 6 September 1996. Tests to determine
the viral dose are also
free; these are required to establish and monitor new
therapies.
337. Health care is a basic component of the antiAIDS campaign
and is therefore given a high priority. An enormous investment is
being made in
improving and humanizing the care provided by covering the expenditure incurred
in the renovation of the various infectious
disease services, the continued
provision of psychological counselling services, the construction of day
hospitals and the establishment
of residential and home support services. Big
investments are being made in building isolation, negative air pressure and air
circulation
rooms for tuberculosis sufferers with HIV, in order to eliminate any
risk of spreading multiple drugresistant tuberculosis.
338. In 1995, the
total financial contribution by the Social Security Sector
was 198,781,600 escudos: 42.7 per cent for food, 31.5
per cent for
medication and 13.9 per cent for accommodation. In 1996, there was an increase
of 60 per cent in the amounts allocated
to this kind of support. In 1995, 152
people received social assistance under cooperation agreements between the
social security
authorities and the private social welfare
institutions.
339. In 19931994, the cost per sufferer per year was
400,000 escudos. In 1995, the cost increased to 840,000 escudos per year. In
1996, the cost per sufferer per year increased by 100 per cent.
Currently, expenditure per month per sufferer can be up to 1,600,000
escudos.
The estimated increase in the cost per sufferer for 1997 is 250 per cent. An
amount of 10 billion escudos (around 1.25
per cent of the total Ministry of
Health budget) is expected to be spent on monitoring and treatment of HIV/AIDS
sufferers alone
nearly 5,700 individuals.
340. These amounts do not
include expenditure on social assistance and all the other antiAIDS projects and
initiatives financed by
the Ministry of Health. Nor do they include the huge
investments in improving and humanizing health care.
Measures adopted to ensure effective protection and assistance to children who are orphans as a result of AIDS
341. The problem of AIDS
orphans is closely monitored by the various competent services. Residential and
home support projects run
by the National AIDS Commission, the
SOL association (support for children suffering from AIDS and for their
families) and the Solidarity
Project of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia in
Lisbon, attempt to provide help for children in need of support from outside
the
family.
342. In the Madeira Autonomous Region, where intervention is also
needed, the “Abraço” association (an HIV/AIDS
sufferers’ support association) is subsidized through an AIDS orphan
support programme under which children whose parents have
emigrated and die
while abroad are sent back to Madeira.
343. The National Commission and
the European Forum on HIV/AIDS Children and Families sponsored a European
symposium in Portugal in
October 1997 on the subject of children’s rights
and needs in a world with AIDS, which formulated global guidelines for all
the
European Union countries. The results of a study of the problems and needs of
children and families affected by HIV in Portugal,
funded by the National
Commission and carried out by the University of Lisbon Social Sciences
Institute, were presented at the symposium.
Representatives of UNAIDS and the
Commission of the European Communities also took part.
Campaigns, programmes, strategies and other relevant measures adopted to prevent and combat discriminatory attitudes against children infected by HIV or with AIDS, or whose parents or family members have been infected
344. One aspect of
Portugal’s antiAIDS programme is the effort to combat discrimination
against any age group; several campaigns
have been carried out on this subject.
In December 1997, a major national campaign was launched specifically
relating to the issue
of HIV/AIDS children.
345. In the area of social
welfare services, between 1995 and 1996 there was a significant increase in
requests for support for children
directly or indirectly affected by
HIV/AIDS.
Table 38
HIV/AIDS children
Distribution
by regional social security centres and subregional
social security
services and by age group
Regional centre and Subregional service
|
Age
|
Total
|
||||
011 months
|
14 years
|
59 years
|
1012 years
|
1314 years
|
||
North
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Penafiel
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Porto
|
1
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
Subtotal
|
1
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
Centre
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aveiro
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
Leiria
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Subtotal
|
1
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
Lisbon and Tagus Valley
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Loures
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Setúbal
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
Sintra
|
0
|
5
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
Subtotal
|
0
|
8
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
11
|
Algarve
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Subtotal
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Total
|
2
|
16
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
21
|
Source: DGAS, on the basis of data from the regional social
security centres.
346. As can be seen from table 38, 76 per cent of the
children supported by these services are in the 14 age group. Of these, 61.9
per cent live in a nuclear family, 33.3 per cent in an extended family and 4.7
per cent in a foster family. The absence of home
care means prolonged stays in
hospital for infected and sick children, which has serious consequences for them
psychologically and
on their families.
347. In addition, the Solidarity
Project of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Lisbon provides support to
25 HIV/AIDS children,
13 girls and 12 boys. These children receive outpatient
treatment or home support, but there are 10 other HIV/AIDS children (5 of
them
in the San Roque Hospital) and 4 HIVpositive children in Santa Casa da
Misericórdia de Lisboa hospitals.
348. The social costs of AIDS
are also felt by noninfected children, in that they suffer hardship and their
opportunities for development
are restricted because, on the one hand, the
nuclear family is likely to disappear and, on the other, they are no longer able
to
remain in an extended family.
349. The measures taken on behalf of
AIDS orphans are part of an overall policy relating to children in need of
an alternative family
environment, i.e., developing forms of social
support designed to keep children in the nuclear family or, if that is not
possible,
in the extended family.
C. Social security and childcare establishments
(arts. 26 and 18, para. 3)
Paragraphs 99 and 100 of the 1996 guidelines
350. The Department of Social Security Systems in the Ministry of
Solidarity and Social Security is the service which plans and coordinates
and provides technical and normative support in social security matters. In the
context of the protection provided by the social
security schemes, mention may
be made of the legislative measures of compensatory financial assistance in
respect of the costs incurred
by the maintenance and education of the children
and young descendants of beneficiaries and those stemming from the need for
specific
types of pedagogical or therapeutic support in the case of
disabilities.
351. Ministerial order No. 54/97 of 22 January 1997 updated
the amount of family benefits for which decree laws No. 160/80 of 27
May
1980 and No. 170/80 of 29 May 1980 provided, backdating the start to January
1997. The benefits are as follows: family allowances,
breastfeeding
bonus, birth and marriage allowance and compensation for funeral expenses
(only in the context of decree law No. 170/80
of 29 May 1980), family
allowance for children and young people, special education establishment
attendance allowance, monthly life
annuity. Attention should, however, be drawn
to the change in the philosophy behind the allocation of these benefits with the
publication
of decree law No. 133B/97 of 30 May 1997, with its implicit
reinforcement of social solidarity in adopting selective criteria for
the
allocation of benefits.
352. The need to enhance the value of family
allowances without jeopardizing the financial equilibrium of the social
security system
has led to the adoption of a policy for rationalizing the
benefits system which has led to the unification of the benefits granted
during
the first year of life. According to the new text, a new benefit has been
created in the form of a family allowance for children
and young people, which
includes family benefits, and breastfeeding, birth and marriage allowances; the
respective amounts are adjusted
according to family incomes.
353. Family
allowances are adjusted according to three grades of income, indexed on the
value of the minimum wage guaranteed to workers
in general, the highest amount
corresponding
to the lowest income grade. This selective criterion does not apply to the
other benefits, either in view of their purpose, in the
case of compensation for
funeral expenses, or because of the nature of the costs in the case of
disability benefits.
354. In accordance with decree law No. 133B/97 of 30
May 1997, the list of benefits is as follows: first, supplementary
allowance
for disabled children and young people; second, monthly life annuity
(only in the context of decree law No. 170/80 of 29 May 1980);
and third, third
person assistance allowance. This lastmentioned benefit, for which decree law
No. 28/89 of 23 January 1989 provides,
is intended to offset the cost of a third
person to provide permanent assistance to the recipients of a supplementary
allowance or
a monthly life annuity when they are in a dependent
situation.
355. The special education allowance is a family benefit for
attending specialized educational establishments, cooperatives and
associations
(non profitmaking establishments) and colleges (profitmaking
establishments), attending regular kindergartens and also for individual
support
from specialist teachers and therapists. During the school year 1996/97,
support in the form of the special education allowance
to children attending
specialized educational establishments in cooperatives, associations and
colleges was limited to pupils between
15 and 18 years of age and children under
6; the Ministry of Education is currently in the process of gradually applying
the principle
of free education to pupils of mandatory school age with special
educational needs.
356. As regards the special education allowance,
including the material aspect which is provided for by decree laws Nos. 160/80
and
170/90 and covered by the regulations contained in regulatory decree
No. 14/81 of 7 April 1981, the instruments listed below for
the school
year 1996/97 were approved with a view to updating the monthly payments for
specialized educational establishments and
family savings, since these are
essential factors in determining allowances for attendance of such
establishments, i.e.:
(a) Order No. 140/97 of 26 February 1997,
specifying the maximum monthly payments to be made by profitmaking specialized
colleges
of education;
(b) Order No. 141/97 of 26 February 1997,
specifying the maximum monthly payments to be made by non profitmaking
specialized colleges
of education;
(c) Order No. 161/97 of 6 March 1997,
establishing the family’s share to be calculated and deducted from the
monthly amount.
357. The supplementary allowance, which was applied
independently prior to the publication of the abovementioned decree, is
replaced
by an insufficiency bonus which is added to the family allowance.
The last three benefits referred to above are granted in situations
of
insufficiency. The updating of the amounts of family allowances is backdated
to 1 July 1997.
Figure
H[∗]
Social
security benefits
100% 1994 = 81,707,245,000 escudos
100% 1995 = 87,080,105,000
escudos
Source: DGAS, on the basis of data from the Financial
Management Institute (IGF).
Table 39*
1994
|
1995
|
|||
Beneficiaries
|
Amounts (thousands of escudos)
|
Beneficiaries
|
Amounts (thousands of escudos)
|
|
CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
|
|
|
|
|
Family allowance
|
1 887 021
|
57 014 225
|
1 866 461
|
60 243 799
|
Birth allowance
|
81 793
|
1 858 557
|
79 633
|
1 874 544
|
Breastfeeding allowance
|
136 150
|
3 485 964
|
129 342
|
3 426 134
|
Supplementary allowance for disabled children and
young people
|
43 201
|
3 663 399
|
44 989
|
4 265 263
|
Third person assistance allowance for descendants
with supplementary allowance
|
5 701
|
1 074 969
|
5 896
|
745 417
|
Special education allowance
|
4 680
|
2 445 658
|
4 518
|
2 279 229
|
Allowance for third person assistance to descendants
with life annuity
|
817
|
249 820
|
1 037
|
170 041
|
ILLNESS AND MATERNITY
|
|
|
|
|
Maternity allowance
|
60 560
|
11 911 477
|
64 037
|
14 072 025
|
Family illness allowance
|
152
|
3 176
|
174
|
3 653
|
TOTAL
|
|
81 707 245
|
|
87 080 105
|
Source: DGAS, on the basis of IGF data.
Paragraph 101 of the 1996 guidelines
358. In accordance with article 18, paragraph 3, of the Convention, the
social security structure ensures a network of services and
equipment for
childcare during the parents’ working hours. The services are as
follows:
359. Infant carer: Person who, on her own account, and
in return for payment, takes into her home one or more children of other
persons, of relatives,
or of persons with links of direct affinity or
relatives in the second degree of collateral line, during the working hours of
the
parents or during such time as they are unavailable. Framework
legislation: decree law No. 158/84 of 17 May 1984; ministerial order
No.
5/85 of 18 January 1985 (supplementing the legal framework established by
decree law No. 158/84 regulating aspects which, according
to the decree
law, would be specified in a separate text); order No. 52/SESS/91
of 4 June 1991 (defining the conditions for the integration
of
disabled children in the care of an infant carer); order No. 10/SESS/96 of 20
May 1996 (updating the monthly contribution and
the food supplement to be
applied in 1997).
360. Familystyle day nurseries: Group of not
fewer than 12 and not more than 20 infant carers, living in the same
geographical area and technically and financially
supported by the regional
social security centres, the Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Lisbon or
private social welfare institutions
with activities among infants and young
children.
361. Day nursery: A social response in the form of
equipment for the reception of children between the ages of 3 months and 3
years, for a daily
period corresponding to the parents’ working day. The
objectives are the following:
(a) Ensuring through personalized care the
wellbeing and full development of children in an emotionally and physically
secure environment
during their partial separation from their family
environment;
(b) Collaborating closely with the family by sharing care
and responsibilities during the children’s developmental
phase;
(c) Collaborating efficiently in the early identification of any
nonadaptation or shortcoming, by ensuring an adequate means of
progression.
362. Kindergartens: Social response in the form of
equipment for the reception of children from the age of three up to basic school
age for part of
the day, with social and educational activities to assist in
their overall development. The social security structures are active
at two
levels in this regard:
(a) Official kindergartens: These
establishments are in organizational and financial terms part of the regional
social security centres, and have extended
working hours; they cover educational
and family support activities, provide meals and have specialized staff, in
particular kindergarten
teachers; and
(b) Kindergartens in private
social welfare institutions: On the basis of cooperation agreements, also
covering aspects of education and family support, they provide meals and have
extended
working hours. The financial contribution granted through cooperation
agreements includes a percentage for the technical personnel,
in particular the
kindergarten teachers.
Table 40
Costs borne by social action
1994
|
1995
|
|||
Day nurseries
|
897 502 719
|
|
890 950 185
|
|
Kindergartens
|
3 374 689 608
|
|
3 803 920 031
|
|
Day nurseries and kindergartens
|
13 373 630 032
|
|
15 224 563 893
|
|
Familystyle day nurseries
|
375 400 119
|
|
419 463 572
|
|
Infant carers
|
611 678 881
|
|
723 644 825
|
|
ATROS[*]
|
22 174 303 753
|
|
24 791 398 969
|
|
Total
|
40 807 205 112
|
|
45 853 941 475
|
|
Source: DGAS, on the basis of IGF data.
Paragraph 102 of the 1996 guidelines
363. For the school year 1997/78 the Government initiated a preschool
education expansion and development programme (see paras. 376
ff.).
D. Standard of living (art. 27, paras. 13)
Paragraphs 103 and 104 of the
1996 guidelines
364. All the measures described above are intended to guarantee an adequate
standard of living for children. Particular mention may
be made, however, of
the programme “What it means to be a child”, in view of its scope;
this is a national programme
the purpose of which is to support projects
aimed at prevention and action in the family and social and educational
integration of
children in a situation of risk or social and family exclusion,
and the promotion of conditions to facilitate the full development
of children
and the exercise of their status as citizens.
365. Decree law No.
314/94 of 23 December 1994 specifies that 30 per cent of the net profits of the
“Instant Lottery”
is earmarked for the support of special projects
for children in need, including children suffering from a disability. Following
this decree law, the Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security published order
No. 26/95 of 6 December 1995 in the official
gazette, No. 298, series II, of 28 December, setting up the “What it
means to be a child” programme. This order makes
the Department of Social
Action responsible for coordinating the programme and defines the competences of
the Department. A committee
with its own powers was also established.
Functions of the programme
366. The “What it means to be a
child” programme provides support for the following
activities:
(a) Action in areas where a number of risk factors
converge;
(b) Implementation of activities in keeping with the express
needs identified;
(c) Improvement of ongoing
activities;
(d) Investigation and research;
(e) Evaluation of
activities.
367. It gives priority to activities
concerning:
(a) The earliest years;
(b) Situations of
predelinquency and marginality;
(c) Reintegration into the family and
society;
(d) Production of information on the topics in
question.
368. The programme’s principles
are:
(a) Participation of its recipients in its
activities;
(b) Commitment of the community, through the activation of
local resources and formal and informal mutual assistance
networks;
(c) Intersectoral and interinstitutional
partnerships;
(d) Innovation in activities and
methodologies;
(e) Knowhow.
369. It has established the following objectives:
(a) To facilitate
children’s harmonious development and improve parent and family
skills;
(b) To promote children’s reintegration into the family and
society;
(c) To improve the self image of children and their
families;
(d) To promote systematic knowledge of the phenomena affecting
children at risk, deficiencies and their causes.
370. Its initial
premises are:
(a) That all children and families have capabilities and
competences or the potential for their development;
(b) That the family
is a functional unit, integrated in an extended social system;
(c) That
activities should take on enabling features to prevent the emergence or the
aggravation of situations.
371. The following bodies may submit proposals
under this programme:
(a) Regional social security
centres;
(b) Private social welfare
institutions;
(c) Nongovernmental organizations;
(d) Santa Casa
da Misericórdia in Lisbon;
(e) Charitable
institutions;
(f) Local communities;
(g) Regional social
security department of the Autonomous Region of Madeira;
(h) Social
Development Institute of the Autonomous Region of the
Azores;
(i) Cooperatives for the education and rehabilitation of
maladjusted children.
372. In 1996, 228 project proposals were sent to
the Department of Social Action, of which 75 were approved by the
Minister for Social
Integration and 14 are being prepared for approval. The
table below gives details of the proposals already approved.
Table 41
Number of projects approved, number of children and families to
which
the activities and financing of the “What it means to be a
child”
programme applies, by region
No. of proposals
|
Target population
|
Financing of “What it means to be a child” for
1997
|
||
Children
|
Families
|
|||
North
|
30
|
5 371
|
3 549
|
303 644 768
|
Centre
|
17
|
1 193
|
982
|
165 022 555
|
Lisbon and Tagus Valley
|
15
|
1 230
|
1 036
|
166 823 519
|
Alentejo
|
4
|
644
|
422
|
61 882 002
|
Algarve
|
2
|
38
|
30
|
10 107 816
|
Autonomous region of Madeira
|
4
|
80
|
49
|
43 083 938
|
Autonomous region of the Azores
|
3
|
651
|
188
|
38 004 044
|
Total
|
75
|
9 207
|
6 256
|
788 568 642
|
Source: DGAS, Ministry of Solidarity and Social
Security.
VII. LEISURE, RECREATIONAL AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
A. Education, including training and vocational guidance (art. 28)
Paragraph
105 of the 1996 guidelines
373. All children and young people have the right to free training based on
equal opportunities of educational access and academic
achievement, without
discrimination as to sex, race, religion or social and economic situation, as
established by the Portuguese
Constitution (arts. 7376).
374. The right
to education takes its material form in the education system, the basic
principles of which can be found in the framework
act on the education
system (Act No. 45/86 of 14 October 1986). The intention is that this
right should be ensured even for children
living abroad. All children with
a Portuguese residence permit are admitted to the national schools. Directive
77/486/EEC, which
encourages support for children who only speak a
foreign language (their mother tongue), is still not in force, however.
The percentage
of total public spending allocated to education in 1996 was
11.45 per cent. In 1997 it was 12.1 per cent.
Paragraphs 106 and 107 of the 1996 guidelines
375. The Framework Act on the Education System concerns three areas of
education preschool, inschool and outofschool (or supplementary)
education.
Preschool education
376. Preschool education, the first stage of basic
education, is intended for children from three to six years of age. This stage
is optional and aims at supporting families in the task of bringing up the
child. In Portugal, only 57 per cent of children attend
preschool education;
this is manifestly inadequate.
Table 42
Preschool education Ministry of Education network
|
Children
|
|||
Public
|
Private/Cooperative
|
Public
|
Private/Cooperative
|
|
1994/95
|
3 153
|
944
|
66 448
|
28 403
|
1995/96
|
3 250
|
1 041
|
68 408
|
30 501
|
Source: Department of Planning and Financial Management (DEPGEF)
Core education
statistics.
377. For the school year 1997/98 the
Government initiated the preschool education expansion and development
programme, the framework
legislation for which is Act No. 5/97 of 10
February 1997 and decree law No. 147/97 of 11 June 1997, which regulates it.
The purpose
of this programme is to support families in the task of bringing up
their children, by providing them with opportunities for independence
and
socialization so as to ensure a balanced integration into life in society and
prepare for a successful school career, particularly
by regarding school as a
place for multiple learning experiences. The Ministry of Education’s
objective in implementing this
programme is to develop quality preschool
education capable of stimulating the participation of families and guaranteeing
genuine
equality of opportunities of access to educational
establishments.
378. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of
Solidarity and Social Security must ensure the necessary links between
institutions
for the expansion and development of the national preschool
educational network, in accordance with the objectives set out in the
framework
act on preschool education, particularly as regards:
(a) Education of
the child and the promotion of quality in the educational services to be
rendered;
(b) Support to families, particularly in the development of social and
educational activities, depending on their needs;
(c) Financial support
to be granted to preschool establishments.
379. In the context of this
programme the following measures should be stressed:
(a) Creation of
1,072 kindergartens in the year 1996/97, in accordance with orders Nos. 648/96
of 21 November 1996 and 17C/96 of
21 January 1996;
(b) Creation under
decree law No. 173/95 of 23 July 1995 of 187 new places in kindergartens, as a
result of contracts with local
communities, private social welfare institutions
and other private bodies;
(c) Drafting of a legal and institutional
order to create a regulatory framework for the national network, involving
the publication
of the framework act on preschool education, Act No. 5/97
of 10 February 1997 and the decree law governing it, decree law No. 147/97
of 11 June 1997. Subsequently, in order to ensure implementation,
legislation was passed covering financial support, timetables,
equipment and
materials, with a view to the expansion and improvement of the quality of
preschool education;
(d) Increase in the preschool education budget of
around 20 billion escudos, in order to bring into existence a plan that had
existed
since 1994 but had never materialized, to increase preschool education,
coverage to 90 per cent. Priority was thus given to questions
of preschool
education which is considered to be the first stage of basic
education;
(e) Increase of 100 per cent in the sum earmarked for each
public network kindergarten for the purchase of teaching
material;
(f) Establishment, under Act No. 5/97 of 10 February 1997, of
the principle of free education for fiveyearolds attending the educational
component of preschool education;
(g) Signature of a protocol between
the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security, the
Union of Portuguese
Charitable Institutions and the Union of Friendly Societies,
with a view to sustained expansion of the national preschool educational
network
and the improvement of the quality of reception.
The main lines of
preschool education curricula were published recently.
380. This
programme also covers the continuity and the expansion of itinerant education
intended for children who live in remote areas
and are too few in number for the
establishment of a kindergarten. The itinerant education project began in
1989/90. According
to the data, the number of children concerned has tripled in
six years.
Table 43
Preschool itinerant education
1990/91 1994/95
(95/96)
1990/91
|
1991/92
|
1992/93
|
1993/94
|
1994/95
|
1995/96
|
|||||||
Educators
|
Children
|
Educators
|
Children
|
Educators
|
Children
|
Educators
|
Children
|
Educators
|
Children
|
Educators
|
Children
|
|
Algarve
|
3
|
40
|
5
|
105
|
2
|
42
|
5
|
70
|
7
|
90
|
5
|
184
|
Alentejo
|
6
|
86
|
9
|
147
|
7
|
107
|
18
|
321
|
19
|
311*
|
24
|
383
|
Centre
|
3
|
47
|
5
|
89
|
5
|
84
|
6
|
97
|
10
|
145
|
13
|
194
|
Lisbon
|
7
|
134
|
9
|
183
|
5
|
98
|
7
|
137
|
|
323*
|
7
|
136
|
North
|
|
|
|
|
2
|
29
|
2
|
34
|
2
|
34
|
2
|
34
|
Total
|
19
|
307
|
28
|
524
|
21
|
360
|
38
|
659
|
|
757*
|
51
|
930
|
Source: DEPGEF Core education statistics, preliminary data for
1995.
381. In 1997, 2.9 per cent of the budget of the Ministry of
Education was allocated to preschool education, representing an increase
of 0.4
per cent over 1996 (2.5 per cent) and of 0.7 per cent over
1995.
Inschool education
382. Basic education which we also call
primary education is compulsory and free for all children. It lasts for
nine years, beginning
at the age of 6 and continuing until the age of 15,
and is organized in three cycles of three years each. In 1996/97, there
were
1,146,810 pupils in regular basic education, distributed as follows:
first cycle: 480,540 pupils; second cycle: 271,659 pupils;
and third cycle:
394,611 pupils. Dropouts and academic failures continue to be a matter for
concern.
Table 44
Repeat rate (1995)
3rd year
|
4th year
|
5th year
|
6th year
|
7th year
|
8th year
|
9th year
|
|
15.2%
|
8.3%
|
15%
|
12.3%
|
11.6%
|
19.4%
|
16.6%
|
13.6%
|
Source: DAPP, Ministry of Education.
Table 45
Dropout rate (1995)
2nd year
|
3rd year
|
4th year
|
5th year
|
6th year
|
7th year
|
8th year
|
9th year
|
|
1.9%
|
1%
|
1.8%
|
0.8%
|
3.4%
|
3.6%
|
6.8%
|
5%
|
5.1%
|
Source: DAPP, Ministry of Education.
383. Several
activities have been undertaken in order to create the conditions for
universally ensuring basic education of quality
and for promoting the
academic success of all pupils, in particular children and young people at risk
of exclusion from society and
education. Particular mention may be made of:
the creation of educational districts for priority action, by three decrees,
alternative
curriculum classes, and education and training courses (joint decree
No. 123/97 of 7 July 1997). These three new components of the
education
system are described below.
384. Educational districts for priority
action: These districts were created by decree No. 147 B/ME/96 of 8
July 1996 and consist of groups of schools of the three primary cycles
and
preschool education working on a common structured project, preferably in close
collaboration with the community. The aim of
the project is to improve the
quality of education, combat academic failure and promote innovation. The
schools which are part of
these districts benefit from special conditions for
initiating a number of activities, including:
(a) Teacherpupil ratio of
1520 pupils in the first and second basic education cycles, and 2025 pupils in
the third cycle;
(b) Appointment of one or more teachers from specific
domains for supplementary educational and curricular
activities;
(c) Appointment of a psychologist;
(d) Possibility
of recourse to support from mediators and
extensionworkers;
(e) Establishment of a district teaching council
comprising several partners (local communities, parents’ associations,
cultural
and recreational associations).
In all, 44 educational districts
for priority action are in operation throughout the country, grouping a total of
284 educational
establishments (kindergartens, first, second and third cycle
schools) with 54,896 pupils and 5,231 teachers.
385. Alternative
curriculum classes: Order No. 22/SEE/96 of 19 June 1996 permits the
creation of alternative curriculum classes in regular or
“continuing”
(i.e., additional) education. These classes are
intended for specific groups of pupils in situations of repeated academic
failure,
who have difficulties of integration into basic education and learning
difficulties and are at risk of dropout. In order to motivate
pupils, and
without prejudice to a core of fundamental learning skills, importance is placed
on the specific characteristics of the
pupils and the development of innovatory
aspects in environmental, arts and technology education and science
teaching.
386. It seems appropriate to include here paragraph 151 of the initial report
in extenso explaining what is meant by “continuing education”
in the sense of repeated or additional education:
“Young persons aged between 15 and 18 years who have not completed
compulsory schooling at the right age or who wish to continue
their studies
beyond that level may take ‘continuing education courses’ which are
a ‘special education modality’
that is also public and free of
charge. With curricula adopted to the students’ needs and on the basis of
a method that guarantees
their participation in the educational process at all
times, this ‘second training opportunity’ is regarded as a very
good
bet that has proved to be highly successful.”
387. In 1996/97,
there were 1,646 pupils in the 135 classes distributed by region as
follows:
Table 46
Number of pupils enrolled
Continuing
education |
4th year
|
Cont.
|
5th year
|
6th year
|
Cont.
|
7th year
|
8th year
|
9th year
|
Total
|
|
North
|
|
|
|
12
|
43
|
|
56
|
|
|
111
|
Centre
|
36
|
|
96
|
118
|
91
|
24
|
97
|
37
|
15
|
514
|
Lisbon
|
94
|
|
93
|
243
|
204
|
17
|
106
|
51
|
|
808
|
Alentejo
|
|
|
26
|
33
|
15
|
|
|
|
|
74
|
Algarve
|
|
12
|
|
26
|
23
|
|
45
|
|
33
|
139
|
Total
|
130
|
12
|
215
|
432
|
376
|
41
|
304
|
88
|
48
|
1 646
|
Source: DAPP, Ministry of Education.
388. Since one of
the social concerns set out in the order is to combat the risk of dropout from
basic education by pupils from lowincome
social groups and ethnic minorities,
data have been collected on the number of dropouts per year of
schooling.
Table 47
Distribution of dropouts
Continuing
(or additional) education |
4th year
|
Cont. (or addit.)
|
5th year
|
6th year
|
Cont. (or addit.)
|
7th year
|
8th year
|
9th year
|
Total
|
%
|
|
North
|
|
|
|
|
4
|
|
8
|
|
|
12
|
10.8
|
Centre
|
3
|
|
16a
|
7
|
13
|
11
|
|
|
|
50
|
9.7
|
Lisbon
|
4a
|
|
32a
|
20
|
20
|
5
|
6
|
|
|
87
|
11.0
|
Alentejo
|
|
|
11
|
10
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
22
|
29.7
|
Algarve
|
|
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
2
|
5
|
3.6
|
Total
|
7
|
|
59
|
38
|
39
|
16
|
15
|
|
2
|
176
|
10.6
|
Source: DAPP, Ministry of Education.
a
Social Rehabilitation Institute establishments.
Table 48
Level of application
High
|
Average
|
Low
|
|
North
|
99
|
|
|
Centre
|
|
464
|
|
Lisbon
|
443
|
210
|
131
|
Alentejo
|
5
|
21
|
26
|
Algarve
|
90
|
44
|
|
Total
|
637
|
739
|
157
|
Percentage
|
43.3
|
50.2
|
10.6
|
Source: DAPP, Ministry of Education.
It can be seen
that the level of application of the majority of pupils is averagehigh.
Table 49
Academic success
No. of satisfactory results
|
Rate (%)
|
|
North
|
94
|
84.7
|
Centre
|
407
|
79.0
|
Lisbon
|
614
|
76.0
|
Alentejo
|
48
|
64.8
|
Algarve
|
101
|
72.6
|
Total
|
1 269
|
77.0
|
Source: DAPP, Ministry of Education.
It can be seen that
the rates of approval according to each department of education and the national
average overall rate are close
to the national success rates obtained for the
regular education curricula.
389. Education and training courses:
Education and training courses have been created in the context of the
programme for the integration of young people into active
life (joint
decree No. 123/97 of 7 July 1997), with the goal of completing basic
education and acquiring a Level II vocational qualification.
These courses
are directed at young people liable not to complete their compulsory education
because they dropout early or give
up, and to young people who do not intend to
go on to secondary education and who, having reached their fifteenth birthday,
can obtain
a vocational qualification enabling them to obtain entry to the
labour market. During the school year 1997/98, 38 education and
training
courses in 34 schools were taken by 535 pupils.
390. Council of Ministers resolution No. 29/91 of 16 May 1991
established the interministerial programme “Education for all”,
and
provided for its implementation in two phases, up to 1994/95 and up to
1999/2000. The second phase of the programme, which is
still being implemented,
has as its mission:
(a) To ensure completion of all 9 years of
schooling and successful access to 12 years of schooling at secondary level
or equivalent;
(b) To mobilize public opinion on the value of full
schooling and the costs of not completing school;
(c) To develop a
culture of an extended period of schooling leading to a
qualification;
(d) To prevent academic failure and early
dropout;
(e) To ensure efficient links between all the participants in
the process of schooling so as to bypass the adverse mechanisms that
cause early
dropout;
(f) To encourage the schoolenvironment link so as to ensure
that education is in line with social, economic, cultural and environmental
reality.
Table 50
Evolution of the programme since 1992 and forecasts
for 1997/98
Budget
|
Project supported
|
No. of
teachers |
|||
No. of projects
|
No. of schools
|
No. of pupils
|
|||
1991/92
|
10 562
|
|
|
|
|
1992/93
|
75 000
|
58
|
68
|
36 969
|
5 704
|
1993/94
|
156 500
|
139
|
152
|
88 598
|
11 600
|
1994/95
|
225 000
|
168
|
341
|
107 083
|
25 300
|
1995/96
|
217 000
|
202
|
411
|
128 755
|
30 494
|
1996/97
|
260 000
|
229
|
777
|
218 351
|
51 714
|
1997/98
|
260 000
|
259
|
1 192
|
|
|
Source: PEPT 2000391.
391. Mention should also be made of
the project “Teaching Portuguese as a second language”, implemented
with the support
of the European Union, as part of the Socrates Programme
(Action 2 Comenius), with a view to:
(a) Supporting pupils from
minority groups attending Portuguese schools, in particular the children of
immigrants from African countries
and returning emigrants, in their integration
(school and society), by means of adequate teaching of Portuguese;
(b) Preparing an initial continuing training model for teachers in this
area.
In 1996/97 10 schools (5 in Lisbon and 5 in Setúbal) took
part in the project, the number of pupils varying according to the
type of
activity.
392. In the intercultural sphere, order No. 170/ME/93 of
6 August 1993 established the intercultural education project, with
the participation
of 52 primary schools with a high rate of academic
failure located in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. During the school
year
1996/97, 22,665 pupils were covered by this project, 5,899 of whom
were of nonPortuguese origin. The aim of the project is:
(a) To
stimulate intercultural education to permit the development of attitudes more
suited to the cultural diversity of Portuguese
society;
(b) To energize
the relationship between school, families and local communities;
(c) To
practise equality in access to and enjoyment of the benefits of education,
culture and science;
(d) To take into consideration and enhance the
value of the different forms of knowledge and the culture of the populations of
the
schools involved in the project;
(e) To support the social and
psychological point of view of the pupils and their families.
393. In
view of the fact that the Gypsy people do not consider the schools of the
majority of persons in their environment to be “useful”
to the
development of their children, the “Going to School” project was
introduced in order to train Gypsy mediators
for:
(a) Building a
“bridge” between the school and the Gypsy
family;
(b) Encouraging the integration of Gypsy children into the
school;
(c) Enabling Gypsy families to become familiar with the
organization of the majority
society by informing the Gypsy community about
the rules by which institutions operate (school, local authority, social
security,
health);
(d) Creating the example of new professions
visàvis this ethnic group.
Since the start of the project in 1995,
six mediators have been trained and incorporated in three first cycle schools in
the Greater
Lisbon area.
394. It is a genuine concern of the Portuguese
Government to improve the professional capability of teachers in the most varied
areas
and to modernize the education system. Order No. 23/ME/95 of
3 April 1995 established a system to encourage the quality of
education.
This is a group of measures to support professionals in education, teams of
teachers, primary and secondary educational establishments
and the educational
community, with a view to recognizing the dynamics of local renewal and
innovation and supporting teaching initiatives
in schools, particularly those
lacking in resources.
395. This system of encouragement comprises the
following measures:
(a) Measure 1: development of projects for
educational innovation in schools;
(b) Measure 2: development of
studies and research or researchaction projects in
education;
(c) Measure 3: organization of exchange activities between
schools with innovation or research projects;
(d) Measure 4:
publication of products of innovation or research projects.
396. The
network of projects “Innovate through educating educate through
innovating” (measure 1) comprises the financing
of 139 projects in
195 establishments: 68 at preschool and first basic cycle level, 59 at second
and third cycle level, 55 at secondary
level, 4 integrated primary schools and 9
private establishments.
Language teaching
397. As regards the development of the
child’s personality, gifts and aptitudes, order No. 60/SEEI/96
of 24 October 1996 establishes
the conditions in which children can
start to learn a foreign language in the first basic education cycle. In
accordance with the
order, a foreign language can be learned in any year of
schooling and be developed in the course of the year by free, optional
supplementary
activities; no child who is interested is excluded. In the school
year 1996/97, some 28,000 pupils in the first basic education
cycle had access
to early foreign language teaching.
398. In accordance with the Directive
of the Council of the European Communities 77/486/EEC of
25 July 1977, on the education of the
children of migrant
workers and the promotion of the teaching of the mother tongue and the
culture of the country of origin, Dutch
and Greek are taught in
Portugal.
399. The purpose of the teaching of Portuguese abroad as one of
the special types of education to which article 22 of the framework
act on the
education system refers is a better integration of Portuguese nationals and
descendants of Portuguese in various countries
throughout the world in an effort
to maintain their cultural and linguistic identity, not only with a view to
preparing in some cases
their possible return to Portugal, but also to ensure
academic success and the integration, in intercultural terms, of the children
of
Portuguese nationals who choose to live in the different host countries.
400. Tuition in Portuguese for Portuguese minorities established in other
countries, with various types of status, emigrants and descendants
of
Portuguese, encompasses various aspects which may be systematized as follows.
In particular, it concerns the distribution, dissemination
and study abroad of
Portuguese language and culture, by a variety of activities and methods such as
the inclusion of tuition in Portuguese
language and culture in the curricula of
the countries of residence of these Portuguese minorities and the maintenance,
creation
and extension of a network of Portuguese language and culture courses
as a supplementary measure. The following initiatives in pursuit
of these
objectives are being implemented during the present school year: the LALO (host
language and language of origin) project,
with the participation of Portugal,
Spain and the Netherlands (Rotterdam); a Portuguese language project in
partnership with Germany
(RhinelandWestphalia) and Luxembourg, and an
intercultural project.
401. The following five tables give statistics for
Portuguese language and culture courses for the school year 1995/96 in various
countries throughout the world.
Table 51
Europe
Official network courses
“Parallel” courses
|
Courses incorporated into the country’s
curricula
|
Pupils
|
|
Germany
|
479
|
|
6 894
|
Belgium
|
28
|
19
|
846
|
Spain
|
|
85
|
4 160
|
France
|
477
|
105
|
15 206
|
Netherlands
|
10
|
|
141
|
United Kingdom
|
88
|
|
1 566
|
Luxembourg
|
195
|
131
|
4 328
|
Switzerland
|
495
|
|
9 914
|
Total
|
1 772
|
340
|
43 055
|
Table 52
Oceania
Private network courses
Table 53
Africa
Courses in the private and official
networks
Table 54
United Arab Emirates
Private network
courses
Table 55
Americas
Private network courses
Official rec.
[*]
|
Official ser. rec.*
|
Pupils
|
|
Bermuda
|
1
|
|
94
|
Canada
|
18
|
21
|
3 370
|
United States
|
49
|
14
|
4 152
|
Venezuela
|
5
|
1
|
56
|
Total
|
72
|
36
|
7 972
|
Source: DEB, Ministry of Education.
Guidance and psychology services
402. Decree law
No. 190/91 of 17 May 1991 established the guidance and psychology
services for the development of competences in the
various types of primary
schools, in three major aspects, namely, school and community relations,
psychological support for pupils
with integration and learning difficulties, and
academic and vocational guidance. The lastmentioned aspect basically concerns
the
third cycle (seventh, eighth and ninth years of school) and consists in
guiding pupils towards the use of appropriate sources of
information and
potential individual vocational projects helping them to know themselves better
(capabilities, interests, etc.) and
supporting them in their decisions to
continue their studies (in accordance with the offers provided by the education
system) or
to enter active life.
403. The guidance and psychology
services are made up of technical teams comprising a psychologist, a technical
expert from the social
services and a teacher acting as a vocational guidance
adviser. These teams collaborate in community activities to eliminate and
prevent avoidance of compulsory education, early dropout and systematic truancy;
they also collaborate with teachers, parents or
persons responsible for
educating children and other persons involved in education in psychosocial
guidance activities.
404. These services are not, however, available in
all schools; where they do not exist, it is the responsibility of the
pupil’s
teacher (in preschool and first cycle basic education) and the
class principal (for the second and third cycles) to play a preventive
role and
to provide the pupil with information on academic and vocational
guidance.
Table 56
Guidance and psychology services in 1997
No. of services
|
No. of schools and pupils
|
|||||||||
Existing services
|
Services created
|
Total for present network
|
||||||||
|
Existing
|
Created
|
Reinforced
|
Total for present network
|
Schools
|
Pupils
|
Schools
|
Pupils
|
Schools
|
Pupils
|
North
|
94
|
52
|
2
|
148
|
125
|
124 790
|
90
|
74 750
|
215
|
199 540
|
Centre
|
80
|
40
|
0
|
120
|
315
|
112 343
|
105
|
37 400
|
420
|
149 743
|
Lisbon
|
118
|
70
|
17
|
205
|
326
|
247 755
|
131
|
67 116
|
457
|
314 871
|
Alentejo
|
16
|
14
|
0
|
30
|
71
|
17 824
|
70
|
14 660
|
141
|
32 848
|
Algarve
|
11
|
11
|
0
|
22
|
24
|
19 264
|
40
|
19 811
|
64
|
39 075
|
Total
|
319
|
187
|
19
|
525
|
861
|
521 976
|
436
|
213 737
|
1 297
|
735 713
|
Source: DAPP, Ministry of Education.
“Continuing” education and outofschool education
405. As we said in paragraph 386 above,
“continuing” education concerns young people from 15 to
18 years of age who have
not completed their compulsory education at the
right age and who wish to continue with their studies beyond this level.
They have
the possibility of access to this additional tuition, which is a
special type of education provided on the initiative of public or
private bodies or cooperatives. In 1996/97, 46,045 primary pupils
and 26,281 secondary pupils participated in “continuing”
education.
406. In 1994, “Measure 3, Activity 3.3 Continuing
Education” of the Programme for the development of education in Portugal,
19941999, was initiated; this is directed at young people from the age of 15 and
any adult who has not completed his compulsory education,
has been out of work
in the long term and requires vocational updating and retraining, has temporary
employment, or is an unskilled
worker requiring recognition, a refresher course
or retraining.
407. In the sphere of “continuing”,
supplementary or outofschool education there are also colleges for reception,
education
and training which take in young people subject to guardianship
decisions, established in accordance with decree law No. 58/95 of
31 March 1995, which reorganized the Social Rehabilitation Institute.
These colleges take in young people up to the age of 18 who
have not had much
schooling, because of early dropout from the school system, truancy or academic
failure. At the present time a
new joint order from the Ministry of Justice and
the Ministry of Education is in the process of approval, providing for the
extension
of education in the reception, education and training colleges up to
the third cycle of basic education and introducing some innovations
in the
organization of curricula.
Secondary education
408. After obtaining their basic education
certificate, young people can go on to secondary education. This is optional
and lasts
three years; it offers a vast range of general and technological
courses which are given in secondary schools or in vocational training
schools,
established under decree law No. 70/93 of 10
March 1993.
409. The network of secondary establishments is large
and offers a range of training in secondary schools (general and technical
subjects),
vocational schools (vocational courses) and schools specializing in
the arts. The first of these take in approximately 91.4 per
cent of the total
number of pupils enrolled in secondary education, the second approximately 5.9
per cent and the lastmentioned 2.7
per cent.
Table
57[*]
Public
education and private and cooperative education
(Provisional data)
|
No. of pupils enrolled
|
|
General courses
|
|
216 856a
|
Technical courses
|
670
|
73 427a
|
“Continuing” education
Evening classes Twelfth year |
11 184
52 393 56 393 |
|
Vocational courses
|
163b
|
26 347
|
Arts courses
|
77
|
12 000c
|
Source: DEPGEF, Ministry of Education.
a
1995/96.
b Single subject schools not
included.
c 1993/94.
The allocation for secondary
education from the overall budget of the Ministry of Education for 1996 was
17.6 per cent.
Table 58
Access to higher education
Number of candidates accepted by sex and percentage (1995 and 1996)
Sex
|
Candidates
|
Percentage
|
Accepted
|
Percentage
|
Female
|
48 093
|
60.1
|
18 638
|
55.7
|
Male
|
31 916
|
39.9
|
14 835
|
44.3
|
1996
|
||||
Female
|
38 255
|
61.4
|
18 883
|
57.4
|
Male
|
24 052
|
38.6
|
13 990
|
42.6
|
Source: Department of Higher Education, Ministry of
Education.
Paragraph 108 of the 1996 guidelines
410. As stated in paragraph 373 of this report, all children and young
people have the right to education. In addition to the measures
already
mentioned to diversify education so that the school can fulfil its functions of
training, social integration and education,
there are others which should be
mentioned in the context of social action in schools and health in the
school.
411. Social action in schools, which covers all pupils in
official basic and secondary education, ensures school transport (the
responsibility
of the town council), the daily distribution of milk to all
children in preschool education and the first primary cycle, meals in
school
canteens, accommodation of pupils in residences and school insurance. For
lowincome pupils, social action in schools contributes
in full or in part to the
purchase of books and school equipment, food, transport and accommodation; this
contribution is updated
every year by order of the Ministry.
412. No
categories or groups of children or young people are excluded from school. The
Ministry of Education, in collaboration with
the Ministry of Health, has made a
national survey of all cases of pupils with serious illnesses requiring
hospitalization. The
publication of an order is expected establishing the
conditions for access to education of children in hospital or confined to their
homes because of illness. A class for children who spend long periods in
hospital has, however, existed for several years now in
a paediatric hospital
(Estefânia district, Lisbon); it is taught throughout the year by a first
cycle teacher.
Paragraph 109 of the 1996 guidelines
413. As regards school discipline, taken here in the sense of social
behaviour (relations with others), the legislation in force should
be rewritten
and adapted to our times; this is why a draft decree law on the subject
will be made open to public discussion.
414. Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in general and the
rights of the child in particular is embodied in the framework
act on the
education system. Decree law No. 286/89 of 19 August 1989, in article 7,
established an area for individual and social
training to be developed in school
curricula. However, the subjects included in the discipline “Individual
and social development”,
especially human rights and the rights of the
child, respect for the environment, education for peace and tolerance, sexual
education
and the promotion of health and intercultural education, are generally
dealt with in an interdisciplinary manner at school. Although
the curriculum
gives this discipline as an option, it has still not become generalized for lack
of teachers with specific training
to teach it.
415. The possibility has
also been established in the context of the abovementioned decree law of
including cultural and training
activities in school curricula as part of the
“Areaescola” (schoolarea) project. This is a compulsory school
activity
developed in the form of educational projects which link the school
community with the family and the surrounding community. Each
school prepares
an educational project on a completely independent basis, taking into account
the socioeconomic context of the region
in which it is located. Mention should
be made of the quality and quantity of projects prepared as part of the
“schoolarea”
project, contributing to the cultural and training
capital of the communities concerned.
416. The “Think environment
in Portugal” project exists to encourage children to respect the
environment. Its aim is
above all to promote cooperation and respect for
synergies between second and third cycle schools and town councils. In 1996, an
educational game was presented to teachers and pupils. In addition, training
activities, seminars and exhibitions take place locally,
with the participation
to date of 188 schools, 602 teachers and 50 town councils.
417. The
exercise of the pupils’ right of association is governed by act No. 33/76
of 11 July 1976.
418. Although health in schools is the
responsibility of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education is
implementing the programme
“Health education and its promotion”
created by order No. 172/93 of 13 August 1993. This country level programme for
primary and secondary school pupils aims at ensuring health education and
promotion activities such as the prevention of drug addiction
and AIDS, and at
promoting links with the other government departments and civil bodies
conducting projects in this area. In 1997,
293 educational establishments
(kindergartens, first, second and third cycles of basic education and secondary
education) took part
in the project “Long live school”, as part of
the above programme.
Paragraph 110 of the 1996 guidelines
419. Generally speaking, the majority of bilateral agreements refer to
education. The Ministry of Education and experts have participated
in the
texts for joint commissions and subcommissions along with the following
countries: Slovakia, Czech Republic, China, Luxembourg
(joint subcommission),
Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Poland (programme project), Belgium and Tunisia. In
1997, joint commissions were
being set up with France and Germany
and Portugal participated in the preparation of texts for the agreements with
Poland, Morocco,
Uruguay and Argentina. A bilateral exchange project was
established with the Ministry of Education of Brazil on alternative programmes
for a public in difficulties, preschool education and teacher training.
Paragraph 111 of the 1996 guidelines
420. We do not have the data to reply to this request for
information.
B. Objectives of education (art. 29)
Paragraph 112 of the 1996
guidelines
421. The objectives set out in paragraphs 161166 of the initial report are
still valid. We should, however, say that all the projects
and measures
described presuppose compliance with article 29 of the Convention.
Paragraph 113 of the 1996 guidelines
422. The legal system governing teacher training is established in a
decree law which defines the administration and support coordination
system. The goals and principles of the system were set out in the initial
report (paras. 158 and 159). Where continuing training
for teachers is
concerned, there are some 220 training centres throughout the country. During
the year 1995/96, 42,271 teachers
received training under the
“Focus” programme.
423. A collegiate reflection project is
currently in progress on curricula for basic education, with the participation
of all persons
concerned in the education and training of children and young
people. This nationwide process of reflection began during the school
year
1996/97 and took the form of a concerted group of activities and the sending of
a set of documents to all schools; the intention
of the analytical proposals
contained in them was to initiate discussion on the efficient and flexible
management of curricula involving
the following
aspects:
(a) Identification of a competences profile for pupils leaving
basic education;
(b) Definition of learning processes and nucleated
acquisitions in terms of this profile, by cycle, area and discipline, to be
guaranteed
nationally;
(c) Anticipation of flexible and more adequate
modes of curriculum management by schools or school groups, ensuring the
incorporation
of learning processes and essential acquisitions, but enabling
flexible projects more suited to the situation and needs of each school
or group
of schools to be drawn up.
The aim is to ensure, through discussion of
all the documents by the teachers and schools of all the cycles, an overall and
not a
fragmented view of basic education.
424. Similarly, a collegiate revision of curricula for secondary education is
currently in progress.
425. The management and administration models in
force in schools enable parents and those responsible for education and other
persons
involved (if the case arises) and the pupils themselves (depending on
their age) to participate in all educational matters, except
for those
concerning evaluation.
Paragraph 114 of the 1996 guidelines
426. The freedom of individuals, institutions or social groups to promote the
establishment of schools on their own initiative and
under their guidance is a
recognized right and includes the principle of the freedom to learn and to teach
embodied in the Portuguese
Constitution.
Paragraphs 115 and 116 of the 1996
guidelines
427. Private and cooperative education is governed by its own statutes
decree law No. 553/80 of 21 November 1980 which defines its
statutory
framework and direction, while safeguarding, as its preamble states, the
embodiment of aspects essential to freedom to
establish, manage and guide
educational establishments and responsibility in that regard, and ensuring equal
opportunities of access
to education.
428. It should, however, be noted
that the framework act for the education system gives private and cooperative
educational institutions
the opportunity to follow the plans and the curricula
of public education or to adopt their own plans and curricula, which will not
be
incorporated into the school network.
429. Decree law No. 35/90,
which establishes that compulsory basic education is free of charge, also states
that implementation of
the provisions of this decree in private and cooperative
education will be progressive, depending on the financial resources
available.
430. In the context of its competences as regards private and
cooperative education, it is the responsibility of the State:
(a) To
approve the creation of private educational establishments and authorize them to
function;
(b) To furnish the necessary teaching and technical support to
enable them to function properly;
(c) To guarantee the teaching and
scientific standard of the curricula and methods;
(d) To grant subsidies
and draw up contracts to enable private and cooperative schools to
function.
431. The State may conclude various types of contract:
(a) Contracts
with private schools located in areas where there are too few public
schools;
(b) Contracts of association permitting attendance at private
schools under the same conditions of free tuition as for public
schools;
(c) Simple contracts to establish special conditions for
attending private schools by means of State participation in the fees
established
by the schools;
(d) Sponsorship contracts to stimulate and
support areas of education not covered (or covered under strict conditions) by
official
education, in particular, arts education (schools of music and
dance).
Over and above these contracts, the State may also grant duly
justified special subsidies to private schools, enabling them to start
up,
making them financially viable, expanding their facilities, and equipping or
reequipping them.
C. Leisure and cultural activities (art. 31)
Paragraph 117 of the 1996
guidelines
432. The basic education system act establishes activities to supplement the
curriculum, including the enrichment of cultural and
civic life, physical
education and sports, arts education and the integration of pupils into the
community. They should enhance
the value of the participation of children and
young people and their commitment to their organization, development and
evaluation.
433. In this context, most schools offer pupils various
supplementary activities such as workshops, clubs, multimedia reference
libraries
and games libraries. Provision is made for these activities in the
annual activities plan/educational project, with a view to individual
training,
incorporation of knowhow and respect for civic and cultural
values.
434. The programme of health education and its promotion
mentioned above (para. 418) finances recreational projects proposed for
summer
holidays. At the present time, nearly 398 schools have holiday
projects.
435. As regards sport at school, the schools are involved in
activities both within and between schools and communities in various
spheres; sports activities are aimed at the pupil’s overall development
and seek to encourage a taste for good physical health
and a contact with
nature.
Table 59
School sport 1996/97 (second and third basic cycles and special
education)
Indicators of extramural activitiesa
No. of classes participating
|
No. of pupils involved
|
No. of groups/ teams in national competition
|
No. of groups/ teams outside national competition
|
No. of groups/ teams with special projects
|
No. of federated groups/teams
|
No. of teachers taking part
|
|
North
|
369
|
28 640
|
1 002
|
309
|
81
|
40
|
1 399
|
Centre
|
266
|
23 360
|
908
|
203
|
25
|
32
|
940
|
Lisbon
|
342
|
30 720
|
937
|
542
|
31
|
26
|
1 471
|
Alentejo
|
87
|
7 200
|
223
|
102
|
28
|
7
|
307
|
Algarve
|
51
|
440
|
117
|
100
|
0
|
0
|
235
|
Total
|
1 105
|
94 260
|
3 187
|
1 256
|
165
|
105
|
4 352
|
Source: Office of the school sports
coordinator.
a The estimated overall number of pupils
participating in extramural activities, holiday camps, special sports training
centres and
crosscountry events is 600,000.
436. Physical education is a
curricular discipline and is therefore compulsory at all levels of education,
from the first cycle of
basic education to the end of secondary education.
Budgetary problems make it impossible for there to be regular, systematic and
directed physical activity in the first cycle. In order to remedy this
situation, the office of the schools sports coordinator,
in collaboration with
the department of basic education, is in the process of preparing a project to
be known as the programme for
the development of physical education and school
sport in the first cycle of basic education; this programme is aimed at
procuring
conditions to ensure that all first cycle pupils will be able to have
at least two or three 30 to 45minute sessions of motor physical
education per
week, under the guidance of their teacher, in their school and in conformity
with the curricular objectives of this
discipline.
437. Recreational
activity centres, encouraged by the social security, are establishments with
legal support from public and private
profitmaking or non profitmaking bodies,
proposing recreational activities to children over 6 and young people up to the
age of 30,
of both sexes, in their free time. The framework legislation is
ministerial order No. 96/89 of 21 October 1989, governing the conditions
for the
installation and operation of profitmaking recreational activity centres. Their
objectives are the following:
(a) To offer every child or young person
an opportunity for integration into society through group
participation;
(b) To contribute to each group’s achievement of
its objectives, according to the needs, aspirations and specific situations
of
each participant and his social group, by encouraging support of freely selected
aims;
(c) To create an environment for the individual development of each
child or young person in order to make him capable of finding
and expressing
himself in an atmosphere of understanding, respect and acceptance of
others;
(d) To encourage interrelations between and among families,
schools, communities and establishments with a view to making good and
profitable use and enhancing the value of all the resources of the
environment.
438. Holiday camps, organized for the most part by the
social security and by nongovernmental organizations and private social welfare
institutions, are a social response of vital importance for the physical,
psychological and social balance of their users, particularly
those who are most
vulnerable, children, for example, often prevented by the difficulties of
everyday life from being in a situation
in which they can enjoy holidays.
Holiday camps are intended for all age groups of the population and the family
in general and
are intended to meet the need for recreation and a break in
routine, of vital importance for the physical, psychological and social
balance
of their users. They may be of two types: the open holiday camp and the
residential holiday camp. They have the following
objectives:
(a) Periods spent away from the usual living
environment;
(b) Contacts with other communities and
areas;
(c) Group living as a form of social
integration;
(d) Promotion of the development of a spirit of mutual
aid;
(e) Stimulation of creative capacity and spirit of
initiative.
Regulations exist regarding the general conditions for the
establishment and functioning of holiday camps.
Figure 17
Users of recreational activity centres and holiday camps
Source: DGAS on the basis of data from the Financial Management
Institute.
439. The State Secretariat for Youth initiated two programmes in
1996 for the healthy occupation of young people’s free time:
occupation of free time and sports
holidays:
(a) The
occupation of free time programme is aimed at stimulating direct contact between
young people and nature and at improving
their knowledge of the world around
them, particularly in terms of history, culture, society and sport, and
inculcating in them values
such as mutual aid and availability for others.
Approximately 45,000 young people, involved in 4,400 projects, have
taken part in
this programme;
(b) The sports holiday programme is aimed
at contributing to the characterbuilding of young people through the discovery
and practice
of sport. Some 53,000 young people in 701 projects took
part in this programme, with the collaboration of the State Secretariat
for
Youth and Sport.
440. Mention should be made of the activity of the Child
Support Institute, which for 15 years has been devoting a great
deal of attention
to activity through play and supporting institutions
throughout the country in setting up hundreds of games libraries, by organizing
and conducting encounters, seminars, training activities and technical support
for projects.
Paragraph 118 of the 1996 guidelines
441. No change has taken place since our last report was written
(para.171).
VIII. SPECIAL MEASURES FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN
A. Children in emergency situations
1. Refugee children (art. 22)
Paragraphs
119 to 122 of the 1996 guidelines
442. The mechanisms and statutory provisions applicable to the granting of
asylum mentioned in the initial report (CRC/3/Add.30, paras.
173 to 175)
are still in force.
2. Children in armed conflicts (arts. 38 and 39)
Paragraphs 123 to 131 of the 1996
guidelines
443. The legal framework mentioned in the initial report (paras. 176 to 180)
has remained unchanged.
B. Children in conflict with the law
1. Administration of juvenile justice (art. 40)
Paragraph
132 of the 1996 guidelines
444. The principal features of the system of administration of juvenile
justice (organization of guardianship for minors, sanctioned
by decree laws
314/78 of 27 October 1978 and 189/91 of 17 May concerning
minors’ protection boards and the enforcement of the
measures decreed)
have already been described in the initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.20, paras.
181201).
445. To ascertain the present situation in the country in this
field it will suffice to update the statistical information on the
work of the
minors’ protection boards, the role of the juvenile courts and minors in
custody in the reeducation institutions
of the Ministry of Justice. Mention
must also be made of decree law 58/95 of 31 March 1995, which
completed the reform of the Social
Rehabilitation Institute. This institute
forms part of the Ministry of Justice; it was established under decree law
319/82 of 11
August 1982 to provide technical support for the administration of
justice and to supervise execution of noncustodial sentences.
In implementation
of that decree it absorbed the minors’ guardianship services in the same
ministry, taking over all the functions
previously performed by those services
both in the provision of support for the juvenile courts and in the enforcement
of the measures
handed down by those courts. Following that change in the law
the Social Rehabilitation Institute is now responsible for the management
of the
guardianship establishments of the Ministry of Justice, which have been renamed
“reception, education and training colleges”
(they were formerly
known as reeducation establishments and medical and psychological institutes) or
“autonomous residential
units” (formerly known as
“homes”) (see also para. 491 below).
446. The Committee on
the Rights of the Child did not consider Portuguese legislation on juvenile
justice satisfactory and placed
on the agenda of the meetings scheduled for
consideration of the initial report (250th, 251st and 252nd meetings, held on 9
and 10
November 1995) the following items:
(a) Position
of the Government with regard to the granting to children of the procedural
guarantees provided for in article 40, paragraph
2 (b), of the Convention;
and
(b) Position of the Government with regard to providing for
different forms of judicial action applicable respectively to children
who have
committed criminal offences and to those who need protection and assistance on
account of having been victims of illtreatment
or of abandonment or
negligence.
447. During the meetings at which the report was considered,
the Portuguese delegation informed the Committee on the Rights of the
Child of
the intention of the Government, which had just come into power, to review the
law applicable to juveniles with a view to
ensuring conformity of the latter
with the Convention and other international legal instruments on the
administration of juvenile
justice which were binding on the country. In its
concluding observations on the implementation of the Convention, the Committee
restated its concern that that reform had still not been implemented in the area
of the administration of juvenile justice
and specifically recommended that adequate measures be adopted to guarantee
the compatibility of legislation and judicial and administrative
practices with
the principles and provisions of the Convention.
448. In accordance with
the foregoing, the Minister of Justice instructed the Reform Commission
established by order No. 20/MJ/96
of January 1996 to begin the reform
of the system of postsentencing dispositions, to carry out preliminary studies
for the revision
of the legislation on the administration of juvenile justice
and to make all proposals for legislative and institutional measures
deemed
relevant.
449. In August 1996 the Commission submitted an initial report
to the Minister of Justice analysing the shortcomings and anachronisms
in the
current legislation and the lack of conformity between that legislation and
international instruments on juvenile justice
and the principal instruments of
Portuguese legislation, in particular the Constitution. (The Constitutional
Court had already declared unconstitutional the provision in the minors’
protection regime which did
not allow minors to be assisted by a lawyer, except
in cases of appeal, and the negative effects of its enforcement.) A second
report,
laying down guidelines for new legislation, was submitted in
December 1996. The orientation proposed by the Commission received
the
support of the Minister of Justice, and the draft reform is at present being
disseminated and is under public discussion.
450. The Commission proposed
the separation of judicial action relating to children who were victims of
illtreatment or negligence
or had been abandoned (referred to hereinafter under
the global appellation of “children at risk”) from that relating
to
children aged between 12 and 16 years who had committed criminal offences,
proposing a system of “protection” for
the former and one of
“education” or “training” for the latter. The two forms
of action were to be separate
and governed by different legislation; however, in
the view of the Commission, responsibility for both should lie with the juvenile
courts (while maintaining, for children at risk, the subsidiary nature of court
action in relation to administrative action, which
is already present in current
legislation), and the safeguarding of the higher interests of the child should
be the paramount criterion.
451. Under the guidelines proposed for
juvenile justice, a child who has committed a breach of criminal law or is
suspected of having
done so will be treated as a subject of law and an actual
participant in the trial proceedings. The purpose of this step is to strengthen
the feeling of selfrespect and of respect for the rights of others and the
demands of life in society, and also to promote the child’s
integration
into society, the latter being understood as the absorption of the values and
legal standards governing life in a community.
The proposals formulated comply
fully with the principles and provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child; they also
comply with the other international instruments on juvenile
justice which are binding on Portugal (Beijing Rules, Riyadh Guidelines,
United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their
Liberty, Council of Europe resolution R (87) 20). The
subsections
which follow contain a detailed analysis of the compliance of the
draft reform plan with article 42 of the Convention in accordance
with the
guidelines proposed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Paragraph 133 of the 1996 guidelines
452. Like current legislation, the draft reform plan is based on the
principle of exemption of minors under the age of 16 from criminal
liability.
Thus one cannot, strictly speaking, refer to a “presumption of
innocence”, since up to the age of 16 minors
are never considered
“guilty” of any offence against the Penal Code committed by
them. The Commission asserts, however,
that that does not mean that proof of
any illicit acts ascribed to a child need not be obtained. On the contrary,
proof of the facts
is considered to be an essential condition for any decision
on the measures to be taken.
453. Once the trial proceedings have begun,
the child must be brought as soon as possible before the government procurator,
who will
inform and listen to him or her on the subject of the acts he or she is
alleged to have committed. In addition to this compulsory
hearing, at which the
minor must be assisted by a lawyer, the government procurator must grant the
minor a hearing whenever necessary
or at his request. The right to be heard on
request is a specific right of minors. When juveniles are arrested, judges must
accord
them a hearing on the facts attributed to them and any other circumstance
of relevance to forming a judgement on their case.
454. Minors have the
right to be assisted by defence counsel at all stages of the trial proceedings
and in connection with every procedural
step; they must be informed of that
right as soon as possible. The presence of counsel is compulsory in
certain situations, namely
at the obligatory hearing (by a government procurator
or a judge where the minor is being held in custody) and also:
(a) At
all hearings during the decisionmaking phase;
(b) At the court sitting
itself;
(c) In appeals;
(d) At all procedural acts if the minor
is blind, deaf or dumb and manifestly has difficulty in understanding the
Portuguese language,
or when the question arises of whether he or she has the
ability to understand the meaning of the trial proceedings or of the procedural
steps in which he or she is required to participate.
455. Apart from
these situations, and in cases where no lawyer has been appointed, it is the
responsibility of the government procurator
(during the investigation stage) or
the judge (during the decisionmaking stage) to appoint defence counsel for the
minor if the latter
so requests or, even in the absence of such a request, when
the circumstances of the case make it necessary or reasonable that the
minor
should be assisted by defence counsel. For legal purposes no provision is made
for any type of assistance other than that
of a lawyer. It is recognized,
however, as a procedural right specific to children, that they may be
accompanied by their parents
or a legal representative at every procedural step.
These persons cannot be debarred from attending unless special circumstances,
and in particular the interests of the child, justify such a measure.
456. Under the legislation currently in force the guardianship procedure
comprises a single stage, directed by a magistrate, who is
responsible for
ordering production of all evidentiary material he or she considers relevant
and, once the magistrate considers himself
or herself sufficiently
wellinformed, for pronouncing the final decision. The Reform
Commission considers that this system is of
a nature adversely to affect
the independence of the decisionmaking body and recommends that the
procedure should comprise two stages.
457. The first stage the
investigating stage is conducted by the government procurator and designed to
investigate the crime. At
the end of this stage the government procurator
should announce the final conclusions of the investigation; those conclusions
should
include the facts ascribed to the child, the relevant legal provisions
and the evidence gathered. The second stage the decisionmaking
stage would be
presided over by a judge. During that stage the judge would be able, if
desirable, to order further evidence to
be sought. The minor could also request
measures to seek evidence. In his or her order the judge would fix the date of
the court
sitting and list the facts ascribed to the minor. If the latter had
no lawyer, the judge would appoint one. The judge’s order
would be
communicated to the minor, to the parents or legal representatives and to the
defence counsel, all of whom would be summoned
to the court sitting. The minor
would also be allowed to be accompanied by a person whom he or she trusts; this
would be a right
specific to minors.
458. The court sitting would take
place in the juvenile court. That court is of specialized jurisdiction and
generally consists of
a single judge. In particularly serious cases it is
already accepted that the court should be made up of a professional judge and
two social (lay) judges. The evidence on which the decision of the court would
be based must be produced or assessed at the court
sitting, at which both
parties must be heard. The minor could demand the production of any evidence he
or she considered necessary.
As stated earlier, the child would have to be
assisted by a lawyer at the court sitting.
459. To enable the case to be
dealt with as quickly as possible, time limits are proposed for both the
investigating and decisionmaking
stages. The time limit for completion of the
inquiry would be three months; where the case presents particular difficulties
or there
is difficulty in obtaining evidence, the government procurator would be
able to extend the duration of the investigation stage by
not more than two
months. The maximum duration for the decisionmaking stage would be three
months.
460. As an expeditious and equitable manner of dealing with cases
which are not particularly serious, the Commission proposes that
the government
procurator should be able to order provisional suspension of the proceedings at
any time during the investigation
stage. That procedural step would have to be
resorted to whenever the necessary conditions for the application of a measure
had
been met (i.e., when conclusive proof existed that the minor had committed
the acts ascribed to him or her and the minor’s
personality was such as to
need education in respect for the law) and the specific need for judicial action
could be met by imposition
on the minor by the government procurator of certain
obligations or standards of conduct with which he or she would have to comply
for a period not exceeding four months. At the end of that period, if the
minor had complied with the obligations or standards imposed,
the case would be
definitively dropped.
461. This mechanism is designed not only to deal
expeditiously with less serious cases but also to create more room in
proceedings
involving minors for mediation and consensus between children
committing criminal offences and their victims. For that reason, before
the
measure can take place, not only is the assent of the minor required (and, in
the case of a minor under age 14 and where the
suspension may lead to a
restriction of his or her fundamental rights, the consent of the parents or
legal representatives as well)
but in addition the victim must expressly state
that he or she does not object.
462. Minors may through their defence
counsel lodge an appeal against the decision handed down by a court at the final
hearing. The
appeal may relate either to the proof advanced or to the measure
ordered. They may also appeal against the entire sequence of decisions
taken by
the judge or the government procurator during the proceedings. The appeal will
be submitted to the court of second instance,
which will issue final rulings on
questions of law and substance. In appeal proceedings, as stated earlier, the
minor must be assisted
by counsel.
463. Once the proposal for the
subsidiary application of the Code of Penal Procedure comes into effect, the
provision in that text,
already referred to in the initial report, to the effect
that an interpreter must be appointed in all proceedings involving a person
who
has no knowledge of the Portuguese language, or has insufficient command of it,
will become applicable to minors. In such cases,
as mentioned earlier, the
assistance of counsel will be compulsory.
464. The draft reform plan
reaffirms that proceedings involving minors must be confidential in order to
safeguard their private lives
and to avoid the stigma and marginalization which
may result from the illicit acts committed becoming public knowledge. In the
minor’s
own interests, however, certain limitations would be imposed on
the absolute nature currently attaching to that principle. Thus
when the
interest of the minor justifies such a step the judge may authorize the presence
at the hearing of persons other than those
required by law to be present or read
the decision publicly. The minor may also request that the decision be read
publicly. If
a decision is not read publicly the judge must, at the end of the
hearing, make a statement on the facts proved and the decision
taken if
requested to do so by any person having a legitimate interest in knowing the
decision or by the media. The minor and his
or her friends and relatives may
not be identified, and no item of information permitting their identification
may be supplied.
When the media report illicit acts committed by minors, they
may not identify the latter, even to their friends and relatives, and
may not
transmit any data permitting their identification.
465. The Commission
has given much thought to the question of the interference in private life to
which welfare reports may give rise.
On the one hand, it has taken into account
the fact that in a procedure involving minors the welfare report is generally an
important
element in the search for an individualized decision fully matching
the actual situation of the child; on the other hand, it has
not forgotten that
a risk of a violation of the right of the child and his or her parents to
respect for their private lives often
arises as a consequence of social
investigations which are useless, disproportionate or pry into intimate aspects
of personal or
family lives, or aspects knowledge of which is of no importance
for purposes of reaching a decision on the case. The draft reform
plan
therefore states that a report may only be requested by the judge during the
final stage and when the ordering of measures of
some gravity is under
consideration and, where
appropriate, if a report is actually necessary. During the investigation
stage the government procurator may seek a welfare report
only in cases where
provisional suspension of the proceedings is under consideration.
Paragraph 134 of the 1996 guidelines
466. The draft reform plan states that children under the age of 12 are
deemed to be incapable of infringing penal law. Thus the
fact that a child
under the age of 12 commits an illicit act does not of itself give rise to
judicial action. If children are at
risk because of the absence of the
educational care necessary for their development, support in the forms provided
by law for minors
in that situation can and must be afforded them; if this is
not the case, the act will have no consequences.
467. As was stated in
the initial report (paras. 193 ff.), protection for children at risk is provided
essentially by the protection
boards, the constitution, composition and methods
of operation of which were described. If the persons exercising parental
authority
object to action by the Board and also in areas not yet covered by
boards, the action taken can only be judicial. The work of the
protection
boards is considered positive; they are therefore being set up throughout the
country. As a rule they succeed in obtaining
support for their work from the
parents of the children concerned; consequently referrals to the courts in the
absence of agreement
are relatively rare.
468. According to the last
evaluation report on the activity of the boards, concerning the year 1995,
during that year the activities
of the 118 boards already established were
extended to an additional 3,500 children; in most cases the situations of
those children
had been reported by schools or health centres. In most of the
cases reported the children concerned were being neglected or illtreated
or were
at serious risk on account of the economic or educational inadequacies of their
families. In practically every case the
parents of the children reported were
illiterate or had very low levels of schooling, were without any vocational
training, frequently
had problems of physical or mental health, alcoholism or
drug addiction and were living in dwellings unfit for human habitation and
in
slum districts. In financial terms, the families were far below the poverty
threshold and were having difficulties in the management
of the meagre resources
available to them and were incapable of providing their children with essential
health care, hygiene and
nutrition.
469. It is hoped that this situation
of penury will soon change as a result of the extension next July to the entire
country of the
Minimum Guaranteed Income Programme. These hopes are enhanced by
the fact that its award will be paralleled by a social integration
programme,
one element in which is the care to be given to children. The minimum
guaranteed income, which has been successfully
applied on an experimental basis
in a number of concelhos, will probably give rise to a significant change
in the activity of the protection boards. This subject has already been studied
by the interministerial commission responsible for coordination between the
Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Solidarity and
Social Security; one of
its conclusions was the need to establish in future years formal structures for
coordination between the
local committees responsible for monitoring the minimum
guaranteed income and the protection boards.
470. The Reform Committee
favours the maintenance of the protection boards and even proposes the extension
of their competence to
children who have difficulties in adjusting to social
life or who are in marginalized situations (begging, vagrancy, prostitution,
debauchery, alcohol abuse or illicit use of narcotics), who would thus no longer
be subject to the same forms of judicial action
and the same measures as minors
who commit crimes. At the same time, it recommends a number of legal measures
or guidelines for
action designed to strengthen the rights and safeguards of the
child and its parents visàvis the boards. It proposes in
particular:
(a) That, before the board can act, there should be a
requirement, not only of the consent of the legal representatives of the child,
but of the child himself or herself if aged 14 or over (otherwise the
matter will be dealt with by the courts);
(b) That the child be given a
hearing at every stage as soon as his or her age allows this;
(c) That
the principle of minimum intervention should be respected in welfare
investigations, the gathering of information and the
application of
measures;
(d) That the persons who have the custody of the child (in
particular the parents) and the children themselves (provided that their
level
of discernment permits) should be associated in the choice and enforcement of
the measure; there should be express recognition
of their right to make
suggestions for courses of action they consider more appropriate, which would be
given due consideration;
(e) That the measures ordered should be deemed
to be of limited application in time, should be reviewed periodically and should
be
rescinded once no longer necessary.
471. The reform of the legislation
on juvenile justice should be preceded by substantial reforms at the level of
the Ministry of Solidarity
and Social Security to provide the latter with the
structure and resources necessary for the assumption, in coordination with local
authorities and private social welfare institutions, of support for marginalized
children or children having difficulties in adapting
to social life; those tasks
are currently handled through the Ministry of Justice.
472. In October
1996, by joint decision of the Minister of Justice and the Minister of
Solidarity and Social Security, a joint committee
was established to coordinate
the work of the two Ministries in this field. In July 1997 it produced a
report defining the principal
difficulties and shortcomings in the social
protection of children at risk, having difficulties of adjustment to social life
or in
marginalized situations. The committee proposed legislative and
institutional reforms which it considered essential to deal with
these problems,
including the following:
(a) Improvements in the legal framework
governing the protection boards to enable them to function more efficiently, to
coordinate
their activity more adequately with that of public and private bodies
concerned with children and to regulate certain areas in which
confusion exists,
such as the rights of children placed in institutions and of their
families;
(b) The adoption of measures permitting the provision of
effective assistance and guidance to children in their natural living
environment
with a view to keeping to a minimum separation from the family in
situations where a decision to that effect is inevitable;
(c) The
improvement of the educational skills of foster families and the development of
experimental projects concerning foster families
specializing in children with
more difficult problems or behaviour patterns;
(d) A general and
judicious evaluation of public and private institutions receiving children,
bearing in mind their geographical
locations, the objectives pursued and the
educational methods utilized, with a view to providing the country with a
network of institutions
with high educational standards located in suitable
geographical areas and adapted to the difficulties actually experienced by
children;
(e) Incentives for the creation of innovative educational
projects to deal with specific problems (in particular for children suffering
from drug addiction, with long experience of street life, with emotional
disturbances or particularly aggressive, for whom existing
responses are
inadequate) to be developed in both institutional and natural living
environments;
(f) Incentives for the creation of emergency shelters to
handle crisis situations;
(g) A judicious evaluation of the situation of
children placed in families or institutions with a view to ascertaining whether
in
specific terms their situation is more favourable than it would be if they
were returned to their natural families;
(h) The adoption of procedures
for the removal of children who are victims of illtreatment, at risk or in
situations of social maladjustment
or marginality from the institutions of the
Ministry of Justice in which they are detained at present, arranging where
possible for
their return to their families or transfer to other forms of
placement in the social sector.
Paragraph 135 of the 1996 guidelines
473. In accordance with the report of the Committee
on the reform of the juvenile justice system, the measures applicable to minors
between the ages of 12 and 16 who have committed illegal acts should be
educational in character in the sense of education to inculcate
a sense of duty,
the endpurpose of which is the integration of the child into society, that aim
being understood as the absorption
of the values and legal provisions which
regulate life in society. In selecting the measure to be adopted the judge
must take into
account, first, the need to correct the personality of the
minor (a need which must be apparent in the act committed and still be
apparent when the decision is taken) and, second, the level of seriousness of
the act committed. In fact, the measure must be commensurate
with the need to
correct the personality without being out of proportion to the gravity of the
act committed. The court must choose
the measure ensuring the lowest possible
level of judicial action while complying with those principles.
474. A wide range of measures, set out in ascending order of the degree of
restriction of liberty which each implies, are proposed.
Specifically, the
following measures are proposed: caution, compensation of the victim, community
work, participation in training
programmes, educational support, placement with
an individual or an appropriate institution in the social sector and placement
in
a semicustodial or custodial institution of the Ministry of
Justice.
475. The draft reform plan attaches special importance to
measures providing for effective or symbolic reparation of the prejudice
caused
by the offence, given that these decisions are intended to serve as lessons.
The reparation can take the form of an apology
to the injured party, payment of
a sum not exceeding half the minimum national wage, or performance of an
activity for a period not
exceeding 35 hours. Community work can also take
the form of payment or performance of an activity, within the abovementioned
limits,
for a public or private entity doing work of a social
nature.
476. The measures providing for educational followup and
placement with an appropriate person or institution in the social sector
must
have a tangible educational effect, as reflected in the imposition by the court
of rules of conduct or duties (for example,
regularly to attend a school or
recreation centre, to follow the instructions of a child guidance institution),
the fulfilment of
which is monitored by the Social Rehabilitation Institute
or by an institution appointed by the court for that purpose. Such measures
will apply for a period established by the sentencing court but not longer than
the legal maximum (two years). Should they be applied
for longer than
one year, they must be reviewed after the first year; the court can
order that they be terminated.
477. The terms and implementation of the
measures of placement in Ministry of Justice custodial or semicustodial
institutions are
discussed in paragraphs 489491 and 496500
below.
Paragraph 136 of the 1996 guidelines
478. As was stated in the initial report, the
law applicable to children is covered in the initial training programme for
judiciary
magistrates and public prosecutors run by the Centre for Judicial
Studies. The most important international legal instruments in
the field of
juvenile justice, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child, are
studied throughout that programme.
479. All the major international legal
instruments in the field of juvenile justice, in particular those mentioned
in paragraph 136
of the Guidelines (Beijing Rules, Riyadh
Guidelines and United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles
Deprived of their Liberty)
have been published in Portuguese in the journal of
the Social Rehabilitation Institute,
Infância e Juventude. The journal has also published the
text in Portuguese of the Convention, the report on its implementation in the
country and the
concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the
Child thereon. Not only is the journal sold at a reasonable price;
it is also
distributed free of charge to the Ministry’s services, the juvenile courts
and entities dealing directly with the
protection of children. It can thus be
said that all professionals involved with the administration of juvenile justice
have easy
access to all those texts.
Paragraph 137 of the 1996 guidelines
480. Tables 60, 61 and 62 below
provide all the available data on the administration of juvenile justice; they
have been drawn up
on the basis of the data published by the Justice Statistics
Service.
Table 60[*]
Situations in which court action was taken
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
1996
|
|
Illtreatment, abandonment, risk |
320 13.2% |
600 21.6% |
386 16.9% |
587 21.1% |
682 24.3% |
763 28.3% |
Maladjustment to society
|
213
8.8% |
327
11.7% |
233
10.2% |
262
9.4% |
263
9.4% |
276
10.2% |
Begging, vagrancy, prostitution, debauchery, alcohol abuse, use of illicit
drugs
|
627
25.8% |
574
20.6% |
486
21.3% |
594
21.3% |
484
17.2% |
453
16.8% |
Criminal offences
|
1 351
55.7% |
1 351
48.6% |
1 257
55.1% |
1 434
51.5% |
1 519
54.1% |
1 317
48.9% |
Total |
2 425 |
2 777 |
2 278 |
2 780 |
2 808 |
2 693 |
The total amounts to more than 100 per cent because some minors
were probably in several of the situations.
481. The data confirm that
the number of minors under 16 brought before the courts for having
committed crimes is tending to stabilize,
as mentioned in the initial report.
Situations of social maladjustment and of begging, vagrancy, prostitution,
debauchery, alcohol
abuse and use of illicit drugs also stabilized and even
decreased in numbers. The number of court cases involving illtreatment,
abandonment
or risk situations increased considerably, however (representing
28.6 per cent of the total in 1996). At present, criminal acts
are the source of less than half of juvenile court proceedings. Minors are most
frequently brought before the courts for theft,
causing of damage, bodily harm
and driving without a licence, as revealed in the table below.
Table
61[*]
Offences for which the courts had to intervene most frequently
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
|
Theft
|
893 66.1%
|
860 63.7%
|
824 65.6%
|
939 65.5%
|
1 013 66.7%
|
Damage
|
122 9.0%
|
169 12.5%
|
157 12.5%
|
163 11.3%
|
182 12%
|
Bodily harm
|
96 7.1%
|
94 7.0%
|
92 7.3%
|
118 8.2%
|
109 7.2%
|
Driving without a licence
|
52 3.8%
|
53 3.9%
|
60 4.8%
|
66 4.6%
|
29 1.9%
|
Total
|
1 351
|
1 351
|
1 257
|
1 434
|
1 519
|
482. There has been no significant change in recent years in the age of
minors brought before the courts for having committed a criminal
offence, and
the statistics reflect no increasing precocity in delinquent activity.
Table 62
Ages of juveniles to whom measures were applied for
having
committed a criminal offence
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
|
Under 13
|
324 24%
|
359 26.6%
|
266 21.1%
|
279 19.4%
|
336 22.1%
|
Aged 13
and 14 |
393 29%
|
365 27%
|
371 29.5%
|
440 30.7%
|
458 30.1%
|
15 and over
|
634 47%
|
627 46.4%
|
620 49.3%
|
715 49.9%
|
725 47.7%
|
Total
|
1 351
|
1 351
|
1 257
|
1 434
|
1 519
|
2. Children deprived of their liberty, including any form of
detention,
imprisonment or placement in custodial settings
(art. 37 (b)(d))
Paragraph 138 of the 1996 guidelines
483. Under
the terms of the legislative reform plan submitted by the Reform Commission, a
minor under the age of 16 can only be arrested
in flagrante delicto or
on the order of a judge. Before the minor can be arrested on the order of
a judge, the parents or legal
representatives must have been informed, unless
doing so will render the order unenforceable. In any event, the police unit
making
the arrest must act with all discretion and communicate the fact
immediately to the minor’s parents, legal representatives
or
guardians.
484. The arrested minor must be brought before the judge
immediately so that he or she can be heard. If it is not possible to do
so, the
police unit making the arrest must hand the minor over to the parents, legal
representatives or guardians, or to the establishment
in which he or she is
interned, for the length of time strictly necessary to have the juvenile heard
by the judge, and in no case
longer than 24 hours. If doing so does not
ensure that the minor will be brought before the judge or heard, the minor must
wait,
for a period not exceeding that mentioned above, in a nearby Ministry of
Justice reception, education and training centre or in the
facilities of the
police unit with an appropriate room. During that period, the minor may be
visited by parents, legal representatives
or guardians and by his or her defence
counsel.
485. At the end of the hearing (or at any subsequent time in the
proceedings), the judge can order that the minor be held in a reception,
education and training centre but only in cases in which there is serious reason
to suspect that the minor will run away or commit
other offences and if there
are strong indications that he or she has committed an offence the penalty for
which is a prison sentence
of over five years.
486. In order to make sure
that the system works, the Commission provides that the reception, education and
training centres must
be duly prepared immediately to admit minors arrested by
the police who cannot be brought before the judge forthwith and those whom
the
judge sends them for holding in custody. The treatment granted to the children
during their stay in the centres must take account
of the general principles of
the Convention (see paras. 496 ff. below).
Paragraph 139 of the 1996 guidelines
487. Custody in a reception, education and training centre is considered the
most serious of all control measures and is used only
in cases in which all
the abovementioned extreme circumstances have been met. When those conditions
have not been met, the child
awaits the outcome in the custody of the parents or
legal representatives or in the care of a suitable person or social institution.
Of the range of measures which the court can apply, internment in a Ministry of
Justice institution comes last on the list, meaning
that it is considered as the
last resort and is only possible in cases in which the minor cannot be
socialized by other means.
488. The statistical data on the measures applied to juveniles who have
committed offences (table 63) confirm the trends mentioned
in the initial
report: a decrease in the number of cases in which the proceedings were handled
with dispatch, the minor receiving
a simple caution or being handed over
unconditionally to his or her parents; the infrequent use of followup measures
in the normal
environment and of placement with a family or a social
institution; and the steady number of placements in a Ministry of Justice
establishment. The trend towards more frequent use of suspension of the
proceedings (in principle, included among the “Other
decisions” in
table 63 below) has also held steady and even picked up. The practical
effect of suspension is simply adjournment
of the decision, the minor remaining
in an undefined situation for a long time (often for years) with no
tangible educational support.
Table
63[*]
Measures
applied to minors under 16 having committed offences
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
|
Caution, handed over to the parents
|
919
|
886
|
826
|
875
|
883
|
68%
|
65.6%
|
65.7%
|
61%
|
58.1%
|
|
Followup in the normal environment
|
45
|
71
|
53
|
86
|
141
|
3.3%
|
5.3%
|
4.2%
|
6%
|
9.3%
|
|
Placement with families or in social institutions
|
13
|
8
|
26
|
14
|
21
|
1%
|
0.6%
|
2.1%
|
22.2%
|
1.4%
|
|
Placement in Ministry of Justice institutions
|
66
|
34
|
71
|
63
|
71
|
4.9%
|
2.5%
|
5.6%
|
4.4%
|
4.7%
|
|
Other decisions
|
337
|
392
|
307
|
410
|
442
|
25%
|
29%
|
24.4%
|
28.6%
|
29.1%
|
|
Total
|
1 351
|
1 351
|
1 257
|
1 434
|
1 519
|
Source: Justice Statistics Service.
The fact that the total
percentage of measures exceeds 100 per cent is probably due to the possibility
that several measures have
been applied to the same person.
Paragraph 140 of the 1996 guidelines
489. As has already been mentioned, the draft reform plan continues to
consider deprivation of liberty as a solution of last resort.
In addition, the
possibility of depriving a child of liberty for an indeterminate period is
absolutely ruled out. The child can
therefore be ordered to be held in a
reception, education and training centre for a maximum period of three months,
renewable once
for a further three months. The length of custodial placement in
a reception, education and training centre is decided by the court
with regard
for the legal limits applicable (the Commission has proposed a maximum of
two-three years, depending on whether the institution
is custodial or
semicustodial, except in the cases of minors having committed a crime against
persons, in which case the Penal Code
provides for a sentence of imprisonment
not exceeding eight years; in such cases the period of custodial placement may
be extended
to four years). The length of the placement period can be reduced
during the review procedure, if justified by changes in the minor’s
behaviour, but in no event can it be increased.
490. So that children are
not “forgotten” while serving terms of custodial placement in
institutions, the Commission considers
that the implementation of custodial
placement measures must be monitored by the courts, and therefore proposes a
third phase, enforcement,
in proceedings concerning minors. It will be up to
the judge of the court that decided on the measure, or the court that has
jurisdiction
in the area in which the establishment in which the minor has been
placed is located, to carry out that phase. In addition, the
phase will be
implemented in accordance with an individual educational plan (see paras. 496
ff. below) drawn up by the technical
team at the institution where the minor has
been placed and approved by the judge. The institution must periodically inform
the
court on how the plan is being implemented and of any circumstance that
could lead the measure to be reviewed.
491. The custodial measure can be
reviewed every three months at the request of the minor or the parents, or at
any other time by
decision of the court. The court review is obligatory every
year and even every six months if the minor has been placed in a custodial
institution with special security conditions (see paras. 496 ff. below). The
review can result in the measure being upheld, replaced
by another, less
restrictive measure, reduced or immediately lifted.
Paragraph 141 of the 1996 guidelines
492. According to the information provided by the Social Rehabilitation
Institute, on 31 December 1996 875 minors were being held
at
institutions for minors run by the Ministry of Justice, 785 of them in
reception, education and training centres and 90 of them
in independent
residential units (see para. 444 above). In accordance with decree law
689/95 of 30 June 1995, both kinds of institution
are multipurpose,
their role being both to provide technical support to the courts, in particular
in terms of observing and holding
minors subject to court proceedings, and to
implement the placement or internment measures handed down by the
courts.
493. The percentage of minors placed in Ministry of Justice
institutions by situation is given in table 64.
Table 64
Situations resulting in the
placement of minors
(December 1996)
Illtreatment, abandonment, lack of assistance
|
24.9%
|
Social maladjustment, begging, vagrancy, prostitution, debauchery, alcohol
abuse, use of illicit drugs
|
35.6%
|
Criminal offences
|
37.8%
|
Source: Social Rehabilitation Institute.
These figures
bring to light the high percentage of “juvenile victims” placed in
Ministry of Justice institutions, whose
aim is to receive children with serious
behavioural problems, in particular criminal offenders. This “perverse
effect”
of the present juvenile justice system is often highlighted, and
was also underscored in the abovementioned report. It must be added
that a high
percentage (over 50 per cent) of minors held in the institutions are there
on a temporary basis (custody, observation);
this can be considered as a second
dysfunction of the system.
494. The ages of the minors held in these
institutions (boys and girls) is given in table 65.
Table 65
Age and sex of minors held in
institutions
(December 1996)
|
Boys
|
Girls
|
Total
|
Up to 12
|
71
11.5% |
24
8% |
95
10.4% |
13-15
|
281
45.4% |
113
38% |
394
43% |
16 and over
|
261
42.2% |
157
52.7% |
418
45.6% |
Total
|
613
|
294
|
907
|
Source: Social Rehabilitation Institute.
These data
reflect a trend towards an increase in the age of the minors concerned. In
past, the percentage of young people 16 years
or older was 36.5 per cent (1991),
40.7 per cent (1992), 38.7 per cent (1993), 36.5 per cent (1994) and
34.5 per cent (1995). The
data also reveal the significant presence of girls
among the minors held in institutions. This state of affairs is not
new and is the result of the fact that young girls are often
institutionalized to protect them from situations or behaviour considered
to be
socially deviant, since they rarely take part in delinquent
activities.
495. All the institutions attach great importance to
schooling, since the children almost invariably have had very little schooling.
According to the data published by the Justice Statistics Services, on 31
December 1995 a total of 666 of the 955 children interned
at the time were being
schooled in one way or another. By the same token, certified vocational
training, which gives access to the
labour market, is proceeding well and
gradually replacing the uncertified training given previously. According to the
Social Rehabilitation
Institute, certificated training has developed as
follows:
Table 66
Development of certified vocational training
|
1993/4
|
1994/5
|
1995/6
|
1996/7
|
|
Number of courses
|
6
|
8
|
14
|
10
|
26
|
Number of students
|
75
|
91
|
159
|
86
|
312
|
Source: Social Rehabilitation Institute.
Paragraph 142 of the 1996 guidelines
496. In order to protect the dignity and meet the special needs of children
being held in reception, education and training centres,
the draft reform plan
provides that those centres should not only have adequate material conditions to
house the children but also
the means of providing them with emergency support,
in particular psychological, medical and health support, and of running
programmes
adapted to the specific nature of their situations.
497. With
regard to minors held in the reception, education and training centres under
custodial placement measures, the Commission
proposes that the centres be
specialized within reasonable limits, so that they provide a better quality
service and are better adapted
to the problems faced by the minors in their
charge. Their classification should take account both of the degree to which
they are
open to the outside (the distinction being made between custodial and
semicustodial institutions), and the specific problems which
each one is able to
deal with. They should be organized on a regional basis (the country being
divided for that purpose into as
many geographical zones as necessary), so that
the children are not held too far from their families.
498. No matter
what kind of establishment the minors have been placed in, the Commission
considers that an individual educational
plan for implementation of the measure
imposed should always be drawn up, insofar as possible with the help of the
minor and the
parents or legal representatives; its execution, as has already
been stated, will be monitored by the juvenile court.
499. The Commission
believes that minors interned in semicustodial institutions should be able to
take part in daily activities outside
and to spend holidays and weekends with
their parents, relatives or other suitable persons. In custodial institutions,
daily activities
will take place within the institution. This should not,
however, absolutely preclude the minors from attending school, receiving
vocational training, working or taking part in leisure activities outside. They
could also spend holidays with their parents, relatives
or other suitable
persons.
500. The court can only decide to place the child in a special
security establishment in extreme cases, either for exceptional and
clearly
identified security reasons (when the minor is aged 14 or older and has
committed an offence for which the Penal Code provides
a prison sentence of over
five years or three or more offences for which the maximum sentence provided for
in the Code exceeds three
years). In an establishment of that kind one small
unit is planned all activities would take place inside, at least during the
initial period of the custodial measure. When it orders that the custodial
measure be served in an institution of that kind, the
court should reexamine the
situation every six months and as soon as possible take the decision to transfer
the minor to a more open
institution.
Paragraph 143 of the 1996 guidelines
501. The Reform Commission agrees that young people over the age of 16, who
may be held accountable for criminal offences, be subject
to standard
punishment. It also provides, however, for the creation of a specific penalty
for young people aged between 16 and 21:
placement in a detention centre, under
a full custody, semicustodial or weekend custody regime. These detention
centres are to
be small institutions functioning along the lines of the
reception, education and training centres, in particular with regard to
the
educational and training nature of the programmes to be developed and their
openness to the outside.
502. The Commission further proposes that
persons under 18 sentenced to imprisonment should always serve their sentences
in penal
establishments designed specially for young people or in sections of
ordinary penal establishments set aside for that purpose. Proposals
for the
rules to be adopted by such establishments and sections are currently being
finalized, in particular with regard to the ways
in which they should differ
from adult prisons. The subject of detainees under the age of 18 was expressly
studied by the Commission,
which will draw up proposals based on that rather
particular situation.
503. In order to guarantee that the detainees have
access to an independent entity, decree law 78/76 of
29 October 1976 provides for
the direct intervention by the court
while the prison sentence is being served, obliging the judge to visit the penal
establishments
at least every month and to meet the detainees who have signed up
for such meetings. The same judge must also take part in meetings
of the
establishment’s technical council at which decisions of particular
importance for the detainees are evaluated. The
Reform Commission’s
mandate also covers the study and review of the Code of Penal and Penitentiary
Procedure with a view to
extending the scope of court intervention in the
execution of prison sentences. The Commission can also suggest other,
independent
mechanisms to follow up on the conditions under which sentences are
served.
504. The Justice Ombudsman’s Office, to which the detainees
can apply without restriction when their rights are not respected
by the prison
administration, pays particularly close attention to prison conditions. It
published an extensive report on the subject
in 1996, following visits carried
out to all penal establishments.
Paragraphs 144 and 145 of the 1996 guidelines
505. The exercise of the right to be assisted by counsel in criminal
proceedings was mentioned in the initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.30,
para. 210).
The same holds true for the Reform Commission’s proposals (see
paras. 481484 above) with regard to recognition
of the rights of minors
faced with the prospect of detention, including the obligation to bring them
immediately before the court
so that they can be heard by the judge in the
presence of counsel.
506. The Reform Commission is currently finalizing
its proposals to reform the right of detainees (children or adults) to be
assisted
by counsel with regard to execution of the penalty. That assistance
will cover not only court execution proceedings, (which take
place, as has been
stated, before the court responsible for postsentencing dispositions), but also
life within the prison itself,
in particular the administrative procedure for
applying disciplinary sanctions. In that respect, the Commission considers that
those
under 18 must have the assistance of counsel throughout the period during
which the prison sentence is being executed.
Paragraph 146 of the 1996 guidelines
507. While the number of convicted prisoners under 18 is not a source of
concern, the opposite holds true for the number being held
on remand, as shown
in table 67.
Table 67
Detainees aged between 16 and 17,
by prison situation and sex
|
Boys
|
Girls
|
Total
|
On remand
|
92
|
11
|
103
|
Convicted
|
7
|
1
|
8
|
Total
|
99
|
12
|
111
|
Source: Department of Prison Services. |
508. As mentioned in the initial report (para. 208), it is very difficult
in practice to separate young people being held on remand
from adults in the
same situation, as stipulated by the Custodial Measures (Enforcement) Act. A
greater effort has been made, however,
to separate young convicted prisoners
under 21 (in some cases 25) years of age from adult convicted prisoners. The
special penal
establishment of Viseu, created by decree law 190/97
of 29 July 1997, was recently added to the establishments used
for the execution
of prison sentences mentioned in the initial report. This
special prison has been located in a building occupied until recently
by a
rehabilitation establishment for girls set up in the 1950s and considered
inappropriate in terms of modern methods of receiving
and educating
minors.
3. The sentencing of children, with particular reference to the prohibition
of capital punishment and life
imprisonment (art. 37 (a))
Paragraphs 147 and 148 of the 1996 guidelines
509. The information contained in the initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.30,
paras. 212217) remain valid; it is supplemented with the information
set forth
in the preceding sections.
4. Physical and psychological recovery (art. 39)
Paragraphs 149 and 150 of the 1996 guidelines
510. These issues have already been covered in previous sections.
C. Children in situations of exploitation
1. Economic exploitation of children, including child labour (art. 32)
Paragraph 151 of the 1996 guidelines
511. Although the legal framework mentioned in the initial report (paras.
218 ff.) remains valid, it must be emphasized that the Portuguese
Constitution
explicitly prohibits schoolage children from working. The recent revision of
the Constitution, referred to throughout the present report, refers to that
prohibition not only as a means of guaranteeing the right to an education,
but
also as a general norm for the protection of children.
512. That
prohibition, which since 1986 had been included in the section on cultural
rights and is now contained in the section on
social rights, has had a major
impact, given that there have been nine years of compulsory schooling since 1986
(law 46/86 of 14
October 1986), since 1 January 1997 it has not been
possible to employ anyone under age 16. The first pupils to have benefited
from
the system were those who started their compulsory schooling in
the 1987/88 academic year. Those pupils will have finished their
9 years
of compulsory schooling in the 1996/97 academic year. This being the case, it
was considered that the conditions for ratification
of ILO Convention
No. 138 had been met. In July 1997, the ratification proposal was
published in the official gazette, and the process
of ratification is expected
to be completed shortly.
Paragraphs 152 and 153 of the 1996 guidelines
513. Generally speaking, the same legislation still applies, namely
decree law 396/91 of 16 October 1991 mentioned in the
initial
report (paras. 218 ff.). Article 152 of the Penal Code,
ratified by decree law 48/95 of 15 March 1995, explicitly
establishes and
punishes the offence of illtreatment or overwork of minors.
Under this provision, anybody who employs a minor in dangerous, inhumane
or
prohibited activities or overburdens him or her with work is liable to a prison
sentence of between one and five years. Under
article 152,
paragraph 3, this
sentence is aggravated in the event of serious harm to the minor’s
health or the death of the minor. In such cases, the penalty
is between 2 and 8
years’ or 3 and 10 years’ imprisonment respectively.
514. The
Office of the High Commissioner for the Promotion of Equality and the Family has
informed the Ministry of Justice that, in
its opinion, any revision of the Penal
Code should separate child labour and the crime of illtreatment, given the
enormous importance
of the two prohibitions and the wide range of components
making up each of those acts. In addition, children are usually illtreated
within the family, whereas overwork occurs in the context of a subordinate
working relationship; the perpetrators, the circumstances
and the acts involved
therefore differ widely, making it entirely justified, for systematic reasons,
to have two separate provisions.
515. The “Time to Grow”
campaign referred to in the initial report was extended throughout 1994 and
1995. Children and
young people were invited to contribute drawings, essays or
poems on the topic proposed. Very many did, and in several parts of
the country
the Institute for the Improvement and Inspection of Working Conditions (IDICT)
published their most representative work
with a view to heightening the
awareness of the general public. The campaign had a great impact on public
opinion; several nongovernmental
organizations participated, among them the
National Federation for Action on Child Labour, the umbrella organization for
several
nongovernmental organizations including the Portuguese central trade
union organizations: the General Workers Union (UGT) and the
General Federation
of Portuguese Workers/InterUnion (CGTP/IN).
516. In February 1996 a
report on child labour in Portugal was published by a working group coordinated
by the Child Support Institute
and the National Federation for Action on Child
Labour; the report is the result of contacts established with International
Working
Groups on Child Labour, the Defence for Children International movement
and the International Society for the Prevention of Child
Abuse and Neglect
“with a view to analysing and discussing the complex reality of child
labour in Portugal”. Representatives
of trade unions, IDICT, the
education ministry and the Ombudsman’s Office also took part in the
working group.
Paragraph 154 of the 1996 guidelines
517. The struggle against child labour is of major concern to the public
authorities. The ministries of justice, education, training
and employment, and
solidarity and social security issued joint orders, published in the official
gazette, second series, of 2 April
1996, establishing an interministerial
working group for the purpose of drawing up an integrated operational plan to
fight the phenomenon
and to study and propose legislative measures aimed at
eliminating child labour. The working group sought to establish an unequivocal
definition of child labour, since it can be confused with the work of minors;
the two concepts therefore had to be unified. It was
considered that child
labour should be defined as, on the one hand, the activity carried out by
children in the context of a subordinate
working relationship and likely to harm
their physical or psychological development in that it prevents them from
acquiring knowledge
and thus from developing their intellectual capacities and
aptitudes and, on the other hand, the activity preventing children from
taking
advantage of childhood in play.
518. Some of the working group’s
proposals were accepted, and on 10 September 1996 the National
Commission to Combat Child Labour
was founded. The Government, through the
Ministry of Training and Employment, has shown great interest in the
Commission’s
work and expressed the wish to do everything it could to
guarantee its success. The Commission is made up of representatives of
the
ministries for training and employment, solidarity, justice and education, of
the Office of the High Commissioner for the Promotion
of Equality and the Family
and of representatives of the social partners (joint orders published in the
official gazette, second
series, on 27 November 1996).
519. The
Commission’s work is aimed above all at establishing teams working with
the concelhos to promote direct intervention, namely in the schools,
since prevention is fundamental; specific cases of failure and dropout are
listed for two purposes: first by means of concerted action by different
technicians and services, to prevent pupils whose performance
is inadequate from
dropping out, and second, to induce young people who have left the school system
before finishing their compulsory
schooling to return.
520. At the same
time, the General Labour Inspectorate (IGT), whose director is a member of the
National Commission to Combat Child
Labour, has set as a priority objective the
control of the illegal use of child labour. The nature of the phenomenon in
Portugal
is revealed by IGT statistics. The districts of Braga, Porto and
Aveiro are those with a specially high incidence of child labour,
representing
80 per cent of the cases ascertained; almost all of those cases were found in
small businesses whose organization is
usually minimal or nonexistent. The
economic sectors with the greatest number of illegal situations included the
garment, footwear,
hotel and construction industries.
521. It must
nevertheless be pointed out that since 1992, the year in which the minimum
legal age was set at 15, there has been a
significant decrease in the
number of cases in which 1012yearolds have been employed; between 1992 and
1995, that age was between
13 and 14. In most cases, the minors were
working at light and simple tasks that were repetitive and not likely to prepare
them
to enter the labour market. Between 1993 and 1995, about 85 per cent of
those minors had finished their compulsory schooling.
522. According to
Portugal’s report on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, a steady shift of
child labour has been observed towards
familycentred or homebased work, thereby intensifying the clandestine nature of
that kind
of work and making it more difficult to detect.
523. In those
conditions, child labour in the context of subordinate working relationships is
currently limited in scale and falling
in Portugal. A trend has also been
observed towards a decrease in the phenomenon, which is currently limited to
marginal and clandestine
sectors of the economy and survives only in certain
poorly organized and small businesses and in domestic work carried out to
augment
the household income.
524. It is therefore difficult to fight child labour only through the General
Labour Inspectorate, and preventive measures have proved
to be more effective,
above all those affecting the root causes of child labour; equally effective
have been the combined efforts
of education, social security and youth policies.
525. The National Commission to Combat Child Labour, because of its
diversified composition, can act as a catalyst and thereby enable
the teams in
the concelhos to establish partnerships, in particular with the local
committees for followup on the minimum guaranteed wage and the minors’
protection boards, under the auspices of local communities and in close
cooperation with the schools, with a view to uniting and
coordinating the
abovementioned efforts.
526. It should also be underscored that the
National AntiPoverty Programme, adopted in order to guarantee respect for the
general
principles of the Convention, in particular nondiscrimination, the
higher interests of the child, the right to life, to survival
and to
development, is the source for a range of social support projects that take the
tangible form of integrated action plans helping
to limit the scope of the
phenomenon.
527. The National Commission to Combat Child Labour has an
action programme comprising quarterly activity plans that are being developed
as
pilot projects in nine concelhos in the northern region and in two in the
Lisbon area. The programme’s main objectives are to detect, identify and
define situations
and causes of child labour and to develop the activities
required to bring a halt to a situation of risk to the child. Under the
programme, the measures foreseen are to be applied on the basis of a strategy of
intersectoral coordination, in view of the great
variety of situations giving
rise to the phenomena; the programme’s target institutions are
enterprises, the family and schools.
528. The Commission has an
intervention model which was the product of a long process of planning,
protracted debate and several field
tests (in the north of the country) and is
based on a number of assumptions. On the basis of the tests, and following
numerous contacts
with those in charge of local communities and other entities
(again, it must not be forgotten that the model concerns only the
concelhos of the country’s northern region), the decision was taken
to establish:
(a) A team acting at the level of the freguesia or
parish, the smallest administrative division in Portugal, made up of its
president, first cycle school principals and the parish
priest;
(b) A
team acting at the level of the concelho, essentially technical in nature
and made up of representatives of the local community concerned and the
different government sectors.
The aim is to give impetus to activities to
eliminate child labour throughout the concelho, in particular support and
solidarity with the freguesia teams.
529. The tables below show the changes in the child labour situation in
Portugal in the 1990s, and refer to the inspections carried
out.
Table 68
1990
|
%
|
1991
|
%
|
1992
|
%
|
1993
|
%
|
1994
|
%
|
1995
|
%
|
1996
|
%
|
|
10
|
1
|
0.3
|
3
|
1.0
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1012
|
15
|
5.0
|
10
|
3.5
|
9
|
3.2
|
4
|
1.2
|
2
|
1.7
|
3
|
4.0
|
2
|
1.6
|
1213
|
54
|
18.0
|
61
|
21.3
|
26
|
9.2
|
22
|
6.5
|
9
|
7.4
|
8
|
10.8
|
4
|
3.3
|
1314
|
230
|
76.7
|
212
|
74.2
|
123
|
43.6
|
94
|
27.6
|
37
|
30.6
|
25
|
33.8
|
34
|
28.1
|
1415
|
|
|
|
|
124
|
44.0
|
221
|
64.7
|
73
|
60.3
|
38
|
51.4
|
81
|
67.0
|
Total
|
300
|
100
|
286
|
100
|
282
|
100
|
341
|
100
|
121
|
100
|
74
|
100
|
121
|
100
|
Source: General Labour Inspectorate.
Table 69
1988
|
1989
|
1990
|
1991
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
1996
|
|
No. of specific visits
|
|
|
4 861
|
4 876
|
2 147
|
3 666
|
5 514
|
2 537
|
4 090
|
No. of workersa
|
|
|
114 917
|
111 924
|
38 824
|
64 250
|
97 749
|
46 713
|
67 081
|
No. of establishmentsb
|
228
|
235
|
254
|
222
|
212
|
261
|
93
|
62i
|
106l
|
No. of workersc
|
5 538
|
5 494
|
5 671
|
5 122
|
3 957
|
5 528
|
1 548
|
1 015j
|
1 674m
|
No. of minors under 15
|
290
|
296
|
330
|
286
|
282
|
341
|
121
|
74k
|
121
|
Incidenceh
|
|
|
|
0.3
|
0.7
|
0.5
|
0.1
|
0.2
|
0.2
|
Total number of inspectionsd
|
111 450
|
108 519
|
111 109
|
100 865
|
98 517
|
87 456
|
85 201
|
71 228
|
62 255
|
Total number of establishmentse
|
84 804
|
80 292
|
91 309
|
65 522
|
82 019
|
76 311
|
69 529
|
53 773
|
46 824
|
Workersf
|
2 176 565
|
2 211 396
|
2 037 183
|
1 830 027
|
1 816 090
|
1 364 043
|
1 231 227
|
886 447
|
803 912
|
Minors under 18
|
83 113
|
76 789
|
62 905
|
57 732
|
40 780
|
25 849
|
15 416
|
7 872
|
6 393
|
Minors under 15g
|
339
|
296
|
324
|
295
|
282
|
394
|
124
|
103
|
198
|
Incidence (under 18)
|
3.8
|
3.5
|
3.1
|
3.2
|
2.3
|
1.9
|
1.3
|
0.9
|
0.8
|
Incidence (under 15)
|
0.4
|
0.4
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.7
|
1.5
|
0.8
|
1.3
|
3.1
|
Total number of warnings
|
21 275
|
17 651
|
21 999
|
23 607
|
21 898
|
21 120
|
17 591
|
15 878
|
15 414
|
Total number of warnings: minors
|
340
|
339
|
387
|
294
|
252
|
352
|
164
|
103
|
173
|
Minors’ incidence
|
1.6
|
1.9
|
1.4
|
1.2
|
1.2
|
1.7
|
0.9
|
0.6
|
1.1
|
Source: General Labour Inspectorate.
a
No. of workers covered by the specific visits.
b No.
of establishments in which minors under 14 were found (from 1992 onwards, under
15).
c No. of workers in those
establishments.
d Total number of inspections carried out
in all IGT areas of competence.
e Total number of
establishments.
f Total number of
workers
g Total number of workers under 14 (from 1992
onwards, under 15).
h Incidence = (No. of unlawful
situations/No. of workers covered) X 100 of the total of workers covered by the
specific visits.
i Includes four businesses reported for
a second offence.
j Includes 61 workers in the four
businesses reported twice, counted twice.
k Includes one
minor found twice in the same business.
l Includes one
business found twice in the same unlawful situation.
m
Includes 11 workers in that business, counted twice.
2. Drug abuse (art. 33)
Paragraphs 155 to 157 of the 1996 guidelines
530. The
legal framework set forth in paragraphs 226230 of the initial report and the
entities set up to fight drug abuse, still exist.
The only thing to be added is
that numerous projects have been established for cooperation with government
bodies and nongovernmental
organizations. Most of them involve the
participation of Project Life and the regional social security centres, and are
carrying
out several operations in the schools in cooperation with the centres
for drug abuse and prevention studies in Lisbon, Porto and
Coimbra.
531. The Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security is making an
indirect contribution to the basic prevention of drug use and abuse
by
encouraging, through the civil service integrated investment plan and
cooperation agreements concluded with nongovernmental organizations,
the
creation of a social support framework for children and young people, in
accordance with local needs, giving priority to the
most underprivileged
population groups.
532. The Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security
intervenes directly in the social reintegration of young people, a fundamental
aspect in that it constitutes the last step in the process to rehabilitate drug
addicts and aims to prepare them to reestablish relations
with the family,
school, the community and the workplace. The Ministry allocates sums for
investment in and maintenance of activities
in supervised apartments and direct
social support teams, in accordance with decree law 193/96 of 15 October
1996, the joint orders
issued by the Council of Ministers and the ministries of
health, training and employment and solidarity and social security on 9
October
1996, published in the official gazette, second series, No. 235, of 10 October
1996.
533. Supervised apartments or halfway houses are premises for drug
addicts receiving group therapy and facing problems of reintegration;
the
premises provide support during the transitional phase (reintegration into the
family, society, the school and job); that support
is provided by social service
technicians and monitors and includes psychological and psychiatric
consultations.
534. Direct social support teams are teams working on
the adjustment to different situations. They work directly with people with
problems of drug addiction and their families and, as a general rule, in the
geographical areas affected by the problem.
535. Social security provides
financial support to the tune of about 80 per cent of the cost of the
measures.
3. Sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (art. 34)
Paragraphs 158 and 159 of the 1996 guidelines
536. The
1982 Penal Code, which was in force when the initial report was written, was
amended in 1995. While no change was made to
the fundamental principles and
basic philosophy underlying the Code (which constitute, as is stated in the
preamble to decree law
48/95 of 15 March 1995 approving the revised
version, “a code that is democratic in origin and framed by the rule of
law”),
very significant amendments were made with regard to sexual crimes,
in particular those committed against children, the penalties
for which were
increased. In doing so the legislature acted in agreement with the professional
sectors working on protection of
the child and with public opinion, which had
for some time been demanding greater criminallaw protection against this type of
sexual
abuse. In fact, the victimization of children in general and in the
sexual sphere in particular has been a source of concern in
recent years, both
in professional circles working with children and in society in general. The
media are also attaching greater
importance to the issue.
537. The 1982
Penal Code considered sexual crimes as “crimes against the values and
interests of life in society”; the
1995 version of the Code treats them as
crimes against the person and classifies them in a separate section
entitled “Crimes
against freedom and sexual selfdetermination”.
Freedom and sexual selfdetermination, in the case of children under a certain
age and whose freedom in general (and consequently in the sexual sphere) is
still at a formative stage, are understood as the right
to be shielded from any
aggressive sexual conduct.
538. The reform enshrines a liberal sexual
criminal law, guided by the principle that, in the case of adults, sexual
activities carried
out in private and by consent are not crimes. Thus,
behaviour such as prostitution, pornography and homosexuality is not
criminalized
if it is carried out in such a way as not to encroach on the sexual
freedom of any other person, and in particular by adults who
gave their consent
freely. Sexual activities are criminalized only if they are carried out by
force and infringe a person’s
free will, in particular when the
perpetrators act violently, use serious threats or render the victim unconscious
or unable to resist
in order to practice such acts.
539. Under the 1995
Penal Code, all the acts that constitute a crime when committed against an adult
(in particular compulsion and
rape) are considered aggravated crimes if the
victim is under the age of 14. The Code also provides for a specific category
of crime
known as “crimes against sexual selfdetermination”
covering certain acts that constitute a crime only when committed
against a
minor or in respect of a minor. The child’s age, i.e. whether he or she
is under or over 14 years of age, is a decisive
factor in qualifying the
act as a crime.
540. With regard to children under the age of 14, the
Penal Code prohibits any contact of a sexual kind, on the grounds that under
that age children are not free to consent to sexual relationships; as a result,
it is immaterial whether the acts were carried out
with or without consent. The
Penal Code also punishes any activity likely to give rise to sexual disturbance.
Thus, anyone carrying
out an acto sexual de relevo (significant sexual
act) on or towards a minor under 14 years of age or leading a minor to
engage in such an act has committed the
crime of sexual abuse of a child. The
penalty is a prison sentence of one to two years or, in cases where the act
consisted of copulation
or anal intercourse, of 3 to 10 years
(art. 172, paras. 1 and 2). By the same token, anyone carrying
out an act of exhibitionism
within view of a child under 14 years of age or
using oral or written obscenity or pornographic representations or objects to
influence
the child, or using the child for pornographic pictures, films or
recordings (art. 172, para. 3) has committed the crime of sexual
abuse
of a child. The penalty for such acts is up to three years in prison, or from
six months to five years in prison if the act
was carried out for profit
(art. 172, paras. 3 and 4).
541. For this crime, as with most
sexual crimes, be they against adults or children, criminal proceedings are
instituted on the basis
of a complaint by the victim (or the victim’s
legal representative if the victim is under 16); when the victim is under
12
years of age, however, the government prosecutor can start proceedings
independently of a complaint, “for special reasons of
public
interest” (art. 178, para. 2). “Public interest” is
understood to refer to the interest of the child, as
it is already understood at
present in certain quarters and as is obviously intended by the wording of the
relevant provision in
the final draft revision of the Penal
Code.
542. The Office of the High Commissioner for the Promotion of
Equality and the Family has sent the Ministry of Justice an opinion
on these
issues in which it underscores the need to give particularly careful
consideration to the issues relating to a complaint
in the event that the victim
is a child. Indeed, although the 1995 revision of the Penal Code endeavoured to
meet society’s
growing demand for harsh penalties for the perpetrators of
sexual crimes against children, and although it generally aggravated the
penalties for such crimes, several criticisms have been made of the amendments
to article 178 concerning the right to file a complaint.
543. Several
nongovernmental organizations claim that, when the victims are children under
the age of 12, sexual crimes should always
be considered to be public in nature
and thus liable to criminallaw proceedings, whether or not a complaint has been
made. They
also find that the right to file a complaint should vest in the
child after the age of 14 and not in the child’s legal
representative.
544. As of the age of 14, criminal law considers that a
person is in principle free to decide about his or her sexual relationships,
reserving the right to interfere in cases in which the perpetrator is in a
situation of authority over the minor and is likely to
harm the minor’s
ability to decide. Thus, acts constituting the crime of sexual abuse of minors
are treated as sexual abuse
of adolescents (art. 173), the penalty for
which is from one to eight years, in prison, in the cases described in
paragraphs 1 and
2 of article 172, or up to one year in prison in the cases
described in paragraph 3 of article 172 (up to three years if committed
for
profit), when they are committed against:
(a) Minors between the ages of
14 and 16 placed in the care of the perpetrator for educational or assistance
purposes;
(b) Minors between the ages of 16 and 18 placed in the care of
the perpetrator for educational or assistance purposes, the perpetrator
having
abused his or her role or position.
545. The reform of the Penal Code
recognizes two other limits to the principle according to which the minor having
reached the age
of 14 is free to decide on his or her sexual relations. The
first concerns homosexual relations, to which the minor cannot validly
consent
before the age of 16 (art. 175). The second concerns the crime of violent rape
(estupro). The Penal Code maintains the criminal character of copulation
with a minor aged between 14 and 16 when that act was carried out
by taking
advantage of the minor’s inexperience (art. 174).
546. The
protection afforded to juveniles against their exploitation in prostitution has
been weakened by the reforms of 1975, now
that the crime of involving a minor in
debauchery and prostitution or encouraging, promoting or facilitating
prostitution has an
upper age limit of 16. Above this age, the protection
afforded to the child is the same as that provided for adults, namely, the
crime
is only punishable if the perpetrators is acting professionally or with gainful
intent, or taking advantage of the victim’s
situation of abandonment or
economic hardship.
547. This year, the current Government submitted a
bill on the revision of the Penal Code to the Assembly of the Republic,
proposing
several amendments to its provisions on sexual crimes against
children, to bring it into line with recent international guidelines
and
resolutions to combat paedophilia and the sexual exploitation of children for
commercial purposes, such as recommendation R (91)
11 of the Council of Europe,
the Declaration and Agenda for Action adopted by the 1996 Stockholm World
Congress (at which our country
was represented) and, in particular, the Common
Plan of Action adopted by the European Union.
548. Accordingly, the bill
proposes extending the range of the crimes of sexual abuse of children and
adolescents, by imposing the
same punishment on oral intercourse as that
provided for copulation and anal intercourse and by criminalizing the
performance not
only of exhibitionist, but also of indecent acts before a minor.
In addition, besides the use of children and adolescents in the
production of
pornographic photographs, films or recordings, the display or transfer of such
material on any basis would also be
a crime.
549. The bill submitted by
the Government also makes provision for the application of Portuguese criminal
law outside the national
territory, to cover crimes committed abroad by
Portuguese who are normally resident in Portugal, irrespective of the
nationality
of the victim and of whether or not the act in question is a crime
under the legislation of the country in which it has been committed.
This
proposed revision of the Penal Code has not been approved by Parliament, for
various reasons put forward by the opposition
political parties. The reforms
advocated in the area in question have, however, been accepted without
reservation. The proposal
on the revision of the Penal Code will be resubmitted
to the Assembly of the Republic.
550. The issue of sexual violence has
been widely debated, as already noted, in special meetings on the issue, in
training courses
and in the media. In February 1997, a twoday workshop on the
sexual abuse of minors was held in Lisbon, under the auspices of the
Family
Planning Association. In November 1996, the Family Planning Association had
also published a brochure on the issue, in preparation
for the workshop, which
drew on contributions from experts from different fields with experience in the
treatment of such cases.
4. Sale, trafficking and abduction (art. 35)
551. Currently,
trafficking in persons carries a penalty of between two and eight years’
imprisonment. Anyone who, through
violence, serious threats, stratagems or
deceit causes another person to engage in a foreign country in prostitution or
an acto sexual de relevo (significant sexual act), by taking advantage of
that person’s situation of abandonment or need, is deemed to have
committed
this offence. If, however, the victim is aged under 14 and the
perpetrator is acting professionally or with gainful intent, the
penalty
incurred is between 2 and 10 years’ imprisonment.
Paragraphs 161 and 162 of the 1996 guidelines
552. Cases of trafficking
in children are rare in Portugal. Isolated cases have been detected in coastal
areas, where the children
came from derelict backgrounds, sometimes without
families. Given the particular nature of this phenomenon, there are strong
reasons
to suspect that the true scale of the traffic in children for the
purposes of prostitution and pornography is not known. Accordingly,
several
nongovernmental organizations, including the Child Support Institute and the
National Federation for Action on Child Labour,
are conducting measures for the
benefit of street children, the group most targeted for recruitment for the
purposes of sexual exploitation,
prostitution and pornography.
5. Other forms of exploitation (art. 36)
Paragraph 163 of the 1996 guidelines
553. In
the initial report, we drew attention to measures to prevent and control begging
(para. 237). Recognizing that most of the
homeless in Lisbon were young
people, the city authorities and the central Government have decided to work
together to address the
problem. In this context, attention should be
drawn to the CAIS project for homeless people of greater Lisbon, backed by the
Lisbon
City Council and the State Secretariat for Youth.
554. Begging is,
however, more widespread among the Gypsy population, particularly in certain
areas of the country. The causes of
begging are varied and complex and it is a
difficult problem to address since it requires a comprehensive approach: any
attempts
to solve the problem in a piecemeal and uncoordinated manner are bound
to fail. Given that begging is a consequence of a number
of factors related to
poverty and exclusion, only a comprehensive and multisectoral approach is likely
to succeed.
D. Children belonging to a minority or an indigenous group (art. 30)
Paragraph
165 of the 1996 guidelines
555. We have already pointed out that the Portuguese population has a certain
homogeneity, as evidenced by the use of a single language
throughout the
national territory. As stressed in our initial report, until recently, the
largest ethnic minority was the Gypsy
community, which still preserves its
distinct features and remains closely knit by its culture and its social
organization. In the
absence of exact figures, researchers generally estimate
the Gypsy population (largely made up of young people) as some 40,00050,000
strong.
556. During the 1980s, major changes took place in the demography
of Portugal, since when the country has had a sizeable foreign population.
According to figures from the most recent census (population statistics from
1991), the population of Portugal is 9,862,540. In
1985, the number of aliens
legally resident in Portugal was some 80,000, but following the process
to regularize illegal aliens,
which was completed in December 1996, this
figure has risen to 183,055.
557. Measures taken to respect the
cultural and religious rights of these communities are covered in paragraphs 54
ff. dealing with
the application by the State of the principle of
nondiscrimination.
558. Where language is concerned, given that the
immigrant communities resident in Portugal almost exclusively derive from
Portuguesespeaking
African countries, and from Brazil and Timor, it is
understandable why little attention has been given to this problem, which
continues
to pose difficulties in teaching such children to read and write,
leading to the deprivation of the right of the child to preserve
his or her own
language.
559. Mention should be made here, once again, of the great
importance attached to the establishment of the Office of the High Commissioner
on Immigration and Ethnic Minorities, with the mandate, in the future, of
gathering data for a thorough analysis of appropriate social,
cultural and
religious measures designed to give effect to the rights of the
children.
[*] For the initial report submitted by the
Government of Portugal, see CRC/C/3/Add.30; for the Committee’s
consideration of the
report, see CRC/C/SR.250252.
GE.0140753 (E)
080501 230501
[*] See editor’s note
on p. 4.
[*] See editor’s note
on p. 4.
[*] See editor’s
note on p. 4.
[*] See editor’s
note on p. 4.
[*] See editor’s note on p. 4.
[*] See editor’s note on p.
4.
[∗] See editor’s note on p.
4.
[*] See
editor’s note on p. 4.
[*] See editor’s
note on p. 4.
[*] See
editor’s note on p. 4.
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