On 28 May 2019, the Portuguese State Secretary of Equality and Citizenship will hold, in collaboration with the SOGI Unit, the launch of the Portuguese manual on “Policing Hate Crime against LGBTI Persons”. This launch will be complemented by a training of police officers, prosecutors and judges. This activity stands to benefit all the entities involved, although the most important beneficiary will be the Portuguese LGBTI community, who can expect better trained police and legal responses in times of need.
The cooperation between the SOGI Unit and the Portuguese government will constitute another step towards adopting measures that protect LGBTI citizens from discrimination, harassment and violence, and that ensures that, when cases are reported, police is trained adequately to follow up and the judicial system is capacitated to prosecute and judge appropriately. The focus of this two-day event will be on reporting, comprehensive investigation, prosecution and delivery of judgements on hate crimes with homophobic, transphobic and interphobic motivations.
The manual will be launched publicly on 28 May with the presence of State Secretary of Citizenship and Equality, Rosa Monteiro.
The launch will be followed by the training, to be undertaken by Paulo Vaz (police officer/trainer) and João Pereira (Programme Adviser, SOGI Unit). Among other topics, the training will focus on under-reporting of hate crimes, hate crime investigation and collecting evidence.
The presence of civil society will be ensured by Marta Ramos (Executive Director, ILGA Portugal).
