| SUMMARY |
| The Portuguese
Ombudsman for Justice (Provedoria de Justica) has specific staff covering children’s
issues and to respond to children’s inquiries and complaints (there is a telephone
"hotline" for children). |
| CONTACT INFORMATION |
| Name of Office (In
National Language) |
Provedoria de Justiça |
| Name of Office (In
English) |
Ombudsman Office |
| Postal Address |
Rua do Pau da Bandeira 9
1200 Lisboa
Portugal |
| Telephone |
+35 1 1 392 6600 |
| Fax |
+35 1 1 396 1243 |
| Email address |
provedor@mail.telepac.pt |
| The
Portuguese Ombudsman Office (Provedoria de Justiça) has specific staff
covering children's issues and responding to children's
inquiries and complaints. Besides
the possibility of addressing the Ombudsman using the same ways that
all citizens may use, children- or adults on their
behalf - can also reach this special service of the Portuguese
Ombudsman by phone, calling a toll-free number that is available 24
hours a day. To learn more about the Office of the
Portuguese Ombudsman or about this special service -
which is named "Linha Verde Recados da Criança" (Free Line
Messages from Children) - please go to www.provedor-jus.pt. |
| Title of Ombudsman |
Ombudsman |
| Name of Ombudsman |
Counsellor José Manuel Menéres
Sampaio Pimentel |
| Name of contact
person for ENOC |
Maria Teresa Rabaça |
| OFFICE SIZE AND STRUCTURE |
| Number of staff
members |
The Ombudsman Office
has about 106 workers. About 50% are in charge of technical and administrative support of
the office. The other 50% (51 workers) can be described as the staff of the Ombudsman
himself |
| List of staff
members and functions |
| Ombudsman staff Dr. Antonio Gonçalves Nadais
Dra Maria Madalena Diener de Oliveira
Dr. José Tomas Ferreira
Dr João Sequeira Ribeiro
Dr. João Portugal
Dr. Pedro Marchão Marques
Dra Ana Vicente
Dr João Galvão
Maria Angela Cruz Rodrigues
Maria Leonor Baptista Carvalho
Maria Julia Alves Palmela
Maria Rita Salema Corte Real
Lina Mascarenhas |
Ombudsman deputy
Head of Cabinet
Adjoint of the cabinet
Assessors of the cabinet
Personal Secretary |
Dra Maria Alberta
Meneres
Dra Ana Paula Barros
Dra Maria Rita Roquete |
Hotline for Children Matters and
Children Claims Ombudsman Office in Autonomous Region of Azores |
| Assessors of the
Ombudsman office 1. Political and constitutional matters: rights, freedoms and
safeguards; town planning and environment and culture |
|
Dr André Folque
Dra Maria Cristina de Sousa Machado
Dra Isabel Canto
Dra Isabel Morais Cardoso
Dr Jaime Drummond do Valle
Dra Maria Belo Ravara Possolo
Dr Miguel Meneyes Coelho2. Financial matters; economics; employment |
Co-ordinator
Assessors |
Dr. João Manuel
Gonçalves
Dra Ana Maria Lourenço da Cruz
Dra Elsa Maria Henriques Dias
Dra Maria Alexandra Garcia Eglésias
Dr. José Miguel de Sa Paes
Dr Rui Galvão de Melo
Dra Isabel Maria Canto Fernandes de Paula3. Social matters; education; social security
and health |
Co-ordinator
Assessors |
Dr José Miguel
Pereira dos Santos
Dr José Garcia Cristo: Dr Nuno Simões
Dr Pedro Ascensão
Dra Maria Teresa Bessa
Dr Vitor Manuel Costa Santos4. Administrative organisation and civil servants matters |
Co-ordinator
Assessors |
Dra Maria Suzete
Aleixo de Meneses
Dr Carlos Alberto Carvalho Jordão
Dra Cristina Santos
Dra Graça Arujo
Dra Lurdes Garcia
Dra Paula Cruz
Dr Soares de Brito
Dr Tomas Porto5. Judicial and penitenciary matters; internal security and national
defense |
Co-ordinator
Assessors |
Dr Antonio Vilhena de
Carvalho
Dra Cristina Sa Costa
Dr Duarte Vera Jardim
Dr Filipe Alberto Baptista
Dra Isaura Maria Junqueiro
Dr. Rui José Sa Gomes |
Co-ordinator
Assessors |
| Summary of annual
Budget |
Approx. 619.000.000$00
- $US 42 million
Current administrative spending: 59.000.000$00 - $US 40 million
Investment spending (including research and library): 20.000.000$00 - $US 2 million |
| Principal sources
of funding |
Approx. 620.000.000$00
- $US 42 million. The budgetary appropriations of the Office of the Ombudsman figure in
the budget of Parliament |
| HISTORY OF THE OFFICE |
| Date the office was established |
April 21, 1975 |
| Initiator of the Ombudsman
office |
Minister Salgado Zenha
– Minister of Justice |
| Steps Involved in
establishing office |
Decree-Law (DL) no.
212/75 of April 21, 1975 established the first competencies and powers of the Ombudsman in
Portugal.
The Portuguese Constitution of 1976 received the Ombudsman as an uni-personal and
independent organ of the Republic, with large competencies (not yet fully developed by the
ordinary law), and elected by Parliament for a period of 4 years, by a qualified majority
of 2/3, within citizens of special merit and credibility. The Ombudsman can be
re-elected only once.
The statute of the Ombudsman was developed in 1997, 1991 and 1996 by Law no. 81/77 of
November 22, 1977, Law no. 9/91 of April 9, 1991 and Law no. 30/96 of August 14, 1996.
The "children’s hotline" was created in September 1992 by the Ombudsman to
answer the specific claims presented by children or by adults in their name. |
| Major changes in
structure, focus and activities |
The major changes in
the structure occurred in 1991 and 1996.
In 1991, changes occurred mainly on the structure of the technical and administrative
support itself, which evolved from a traditional public structure – all workers
public servants – to a dual structure that is divided into the staff of assessors and
the technical and administrative services.
The 25 assessors, their five co-ordinators, cabinet staff and personal secretaries, are
appointed by the Ombudsman himself based on personal trust for a certain period of time,
maximum 3 years, subject to renewal. Technical and administrative services (approximately
61 workers) are public servants appointed for life.
In 1996, the Ombudsman’s competencies were subject to a substantial growth. The
Ombudsman has competence to act where the citizens rights and fundamental liberties are
abused even if the responsible person is a private institution and not a public authority
in case of any special relation of power or dominium remains on it. This is a unique
competence of the Portuguese Ombudsman. |
| Legislation
establishing the office |
|
| Terms of reference
or Mission Statement |
| The functions which
are attributed to the Portuguese Ombudsman, as well as his guarantees and scope of action,
make this institution similar to the Scandinavian model. The Ombudsman has control of
administrative activity, parliamentary legitimacy, and is independent in the exercise of
his functions. He has the power to make recommendations to the public authorities for the
remedy of illegalities or injustices, as well as the exercise of other informal means and
the duty of co-operation with the organs and services subjected to his intervention. On
the other hand, like "the people defender" (Spanish Constitution), the Ombudsman
has great powers of initiative in terms of constitutional matters. This may involve either
the successive abstract control of the constitutionality of any legal rules to the
constitutional court, or that same organ to ascertain situations of unconstitutionality by
omission. Through Public Prosecutors, the Ombudsman also intervenes in the fields of
criminal procedure, administrative court procedure and invalidation of abusive general
contractual clauses. One important aspect is that Ombudsman action does not depend on a
personal and direct interest of the complainers, which means a real benefit to the defence
of diffuse interests. |
| AIMS AND CURRENT ACTIVITIES |
| Note. In this section
we only refer to activities which the Ombudsman Office for Children matters which are
mainly developed by the staff of the "Children Messages and Claims Hotline" |
| Action with
Children |
 | Direct consultations with individual children |
| Telephone hotline |
| Community meetings with groups of children |
| National fora with children |
|
| Activities Office
undertakes |
| Influencing policy development at national level |
| Influencing policy development at local/community level |
| Individual casework |
|
| Areas of greatest
experience |
| The justice system |
| Social Services |
|
| Principle themes of
the current year |
| Access to appropriate information |
| Protection from all forms of violence |
| Sexual exploitation |
| Children in institutions |
| Disabled children |
| Homeless children (abandoned children) |
|
| EVALUATIONS/STUDIES |
| Evaluation of the
effectiveness/impact of the office |
| Each situation is
trace (child and child and family or child institution) until we reach a satisfactory
solution. This can take several months or even years (in 1997 we concluded a case began in
1993). It is very normal that a case takes 18 months. The majority takes 4-5 months. |
| Other publications
or studies available |
Ombudsman annually
presents to the parliament a Global Report. There are also Special Reports on specific
matters in which the ombudsman expresses the conclusions he (and his assessors) made by
directly observing and visiting public institutions
There are many of these special reports: "Portuguese Prisons"; "Health
Services and Hospitals"; "Children Institutions for Social Reinsertion"
etc.
Public administration services or private institutions that still have special relations
of power or dominium regarding citizens are specially targeted by these Ombudsman reports.
All reports are published in paper in Portuguese and are available on demand. |
