Organisation

Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (Comissão para a Cidadania e Igualdade de Género, CIG).

Start and end date

The project was divided into two phases: in 2017, members of the criminal police bodies underwent a 3-day specialised training course in Strasbourg; on 28 and 29 May 2019, a conference and training sessions were held in Lisbon. Further to this, since April 2019, officers from the Immigration and Borders’ Service (SEF) have also underwent training sessions based on the course developed by CIG and its training manual.

Scope

The training activities took place in Strasbourg (2017) and Lisbon (2019).

Target group(s)

Criminal police bodies, Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Immigration and Borders’ Service (SEF).

Funding

Not applicable.

Objectives

• Undertake training in Strasbourg with the aim of enabling participating members to replicate the training.
• Enable more effective action against crimes that are motivated by discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sexual characteristics.
• Improve performance in supporting victims of these crimes.

Outputs

• Portuguese version of the Council of Europe training manual Policing hate crimes against LGBTI persons: Training for a professional police response.
• Conference for the public presentation of the Portuguese edition of the manual.
• Presentation of the Council of Europe handbook Policing homophobic and transphobic hate crime – which the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Unit of the Council of Europe organised, with the support of CIG and the Lisbon Municipal Council.
• Distribution of the handbook Policing hate crimes against LGBTI persons: Training for a professional police response (Portuguese version) to relevant actors and promotion.
• The handbook is used for the initial training of police officers.

Description

• The training course that was held in Strasbourg was intended to enable its participants to carry out future training for criminal police bodies in Portugal.
• The Portuguese version of the training manual Policing hate crimes against LGBTI people: Training for a professional police response reflects one of the strands of assistance provided to the Portuguese state, specifically in the field of preventing and combating hate crimes and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people. The manual aims to provide criminal police bodies with tools to better understand this area and, consequently, better support victims and investigate these crimes. CIG translated and edited the Portuguese version; paper and digital versions are available.
• The Council of Europe together with CIG has trained 30 agents from the Portuguese Public Security Police, National Republican Guard and Criminal Police. The training included people who were trained in Strasbourg, a member of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Unit and a civil society organisation. The aim was to enable police forces to respond more appropriately to these types of crimes and train officers to intervene appropriately with these victims and understand their specific circumstances, to avoid, in particular, re-victimisation. The aim was also to train officers to become trainers in this area.
• Immigration and Borders Service (SEF) officers also underwent training on “Policing LGBTI Hate Crimes” based on the course developed by CIG and its manual. This training offers tools for officers to improve knowledge on this phenomenon and to improve performance in investigating these crimes and supporting victims.

Critical success factors

• The Portuguese Ministry of Internal Affairs has ensured the distribution of the manual to all police units in the country.
• The Public Prosecutor’s Office promoted the manual on its website.

Actors involved in the design and implementation of the practice

Cooperation between the Council of Europe and CIG.

Monitoring and evaluation

CIG is preparing a protocol with the Ministry of Internal Affairs to continue this project.

Publicly available contact details

Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality
Telephone: +351 21 798 30 00
Email: cig@cig.gov.pt
Website