The General Report of Amnesty International (AI), which will be released today in Brussels, entitled “The Situation of Human Rights in the World 2024-25, alert for “Global crisis of human rights as the ‘effect [Donald] Trump ‘accelerates destructive trends “.
The report of 2024-2025 points out that in Portugal there are “credible reports” of torture and abuse in prisons and that access to affordable housing “Continue to be insufficient”among many other problems.
The General Report of Amnesty International (AI), which will be released today in Brussels, entitled “The Situation of Human Rights in the World 2024-25, alert for “Global crisis of human rights as the ‘effect [Donald] Trump ‘accelerates destructive trends “.
AI analysis covers 150 countries and includes regional and global analyzes, “With a broader view of human rights trends and developments in today’s world.”
In the chapter on Portugal, A Amnestia volta to highlight that “There are credible reports of torture and abuse in prisons.”
Highlights as diverse issues as access to affordable housing remains insufficient, freedom of meeting has been harmed by the incorrect use of decades, access to abortion is not fully guaranteed, dozens of people were injured during attacks on migrants in the city of Porto and an exceptional heat and forest fires caused five dead.
Regarding prisons, it cites data from the National Prevention Mechanism, the Ombudsman’s Office, collected during a visit to 17 arrests in July 2023, who found abuse situations to people detained in almost half of the chains visited.
The mechanism expressed, at the time, its concern that the authorities did not investigate and do not share with the prosecutors credible alleges of abuse and also registered the “Degrading Conditions” Lived by dozens of migrants while being detained at Lisbon airport, including people forced to sleep in interrogation rooms and international boarding areas, in some cases for six nights.
Regarding the housing crisis, it states that although in May and September the government has revoked the measures introduced by the program “More Housing” to face the shortage of houses at affordable prices, “Concerns have been manifested by the fact that the elimination of provisions such as the freezing of rent and the regulation of short -term lease can aggravate affordable housing shortage.”
In March, The National Statistics Institute estimated that almost 13% of the entire population lived in overcrowded housing And that, among the people at risk of poverty, 27.7% live in overcrowding conditions, he points out, adding that data published in June by the General Finance Inspection estimate that 60% of tenants do not enjoy possession of possession.
Regarding excessive use of force, amnesty highlights only death, last October, at Cova da Moura, Amadora, of Odair Moniz, a 43-year cook of Cape Verdean origin, shot by a PSP agent “In unfast circumstances”, Situation that followed days of social agitation against police violence in various neighborhoods of Lisbon.
AI also states that the Portuguese authorities continued to prevent the organization of peaceful demonstrations, based “In legislation with decades of existence to impose charges and responsibilities on organizers, as well as vague provisions that criminalize acts considered as disturbing of ‘public order and tranquility’.”
It gives an incident in January last year, where the then -internal administration minister ordered an investigation to allegations that police had been abusive to two climate activists, detained after a protest, and also maintained all hand -detained activists for more than 10 hours.
In February, peaceful counteraminifestation to an extremely right manifestation was allegedly dispersed without warning and using excessive force, he adds that the Internal Administration General Inspection began an investigation into the allegations that the use of police rods had led several against protesters to need medical treatment, namely due to fractured ribs.
Another example refers to July, when eight climate activists interrupted traffic in Lisbon during a protest and were sentenced to a suspended arrest of 18 months.
The amnesty also speaks of gender-based violence, based on February information from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) that in 2023 domestic violence had caused 22 deaths, of which 17 women and two children, and 72% of homicides were committed by partners or former partners.
With regard to sexual and reproductive rights, Amnesty points out that access to voluntary pregnancy interruption was not guaranteed throughout the country, “Due to the fact that the authorities did not properly regulate the right of consciousness of refusal of medical staff to abort.”
AI also speaks of discrimination based again on a PGR report already released in October, which reports that only 17 criminal actions had resulted from investigations on 895 hate crimes committed between 2020 and the first half of 2024, while 761 of cases were filed, adding that that “disaggregated data were not collected on these hate crimes” and that “The high threshold of criminal actions for hatred reasons has remained throughout the year”.
It states that in October the PSP excluded racial motivation in three separated attacks from six men against Algerian and Moroccan citizens in the city of Porto. The AI also recalls that in June the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe warned Portugal to the need to improve the housing conditions of the Gypsy population and to reinforce the measures to combat hatred crimes.
