Portugal

Portugal has a permanent standing national mechanism for implementation, reporting and follow-up, entitled the National Human Rights Committee (Comissão Nacional para os Direitos Humanos).

INSTITUTIONAL SETUP

The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC). It was established by Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 27/2010.

Composition

The NHRC is composed of representatives from 18 government areas, each of which nominates a focal point and a deputy focal point. There is, however, flexibility to add extra contact points. The NHRC also includes 4 permanent observers:

• Parliament
• the Public Prosecutor’s Office
• the Ombudsperson
• the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities.

The President of the NHRC is the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation while the Vice-President is the Deputy Director-General for Foreign Policy, responsible for multilateral affairs.

The 18 government areas currently represented in the NHRC are:

• Foreign Affairs;
• Finance
• Presidency of the Council of Ministers
• Statistics; Migration
• Defense
• Justice
• Home Affairs
• Education and Science
• Health
• Housing
• Economy
• Labour, Solidarity and Social Security
• Environment and Energy
• Youth
• Equality
• Agriculture and Maritime Affairs; and
• Culture.

While the areas are relatively stable, they can be changed or adapted when a new Government is formed. Appointments are undertaken at the start of each new Government: the Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs sends a formal communication (prepared by the Executive Secretariat of the NHRC) to the offices of other ministers, requesting the appointment of new focal points. These focal points tend to be either International Relations experts (usually at the level of Head of Department in line ministries) or advisors in Ministers’ Offices.

Focal points pursuant to Article 33 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

The Ministry for Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, as a member of the NHRC, has the internal lead in the implementation of the CRPD, while the NHRC continues to play a coordinating role in its capacity as the institutional link between UN treaty bodies and national entities.

Focal points from Gender Equality Mechanisms

There is a focal point for the Gender Equality government area at the NHRC, which tends to be the International Relations Advisor at the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG).

Secretariat

The Human Rights Unit (which is part of the Department for Multilateral Political Organizations at the Directorate-General for Foreign Policy of Portugal’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs) serves as the Executive Secretariat of the NHRC. The Unit is headed by a career diplomat and is currently composed of five desk officers as well as an intern. Two of these desk officers hold responsibility for the Committee’s Executive Secretariat, including managing daily communications via the Secretariat’s email inbox.

MANDATE

The law which created the NHRC provides it with seven tasks:

1. guaranteeing interministerial coordination to define Portugal’s positions in multilateral human rights fora and to ensure the fulfilling of its international human rights obligations;
2. monitoring the implementation of Portugal’s international human rights obligations by line ministries;
3. proposing the adoption of internal measures (whether of a legislative or non-legislative nature) to comply with Portugal’s international human rights obligations;
4. ensuring the timely submission of reports to multilateral human rights mechanisms;
5. proposing Portugal’s ratification of international human rights instruments;
6. promoting and disseminating good practices, both those developed in Portugal and those observed internationally, with a view to their potential adaptation or implementation at the national level;
7. promoting the dissemination of knowledge and initiatives on human rights, including studies and events.

As such, this broad mandate allows the NHRC to engage with all international human rights monitoring mechanisms, both at the UN level (Treaty Bodies, Special Procedures, Universal Periodic, Human Rights Council, etc.) and at the regional level (namely the Council of Europe).

The NHRC engages with all human rights mechanisms, UN bodies as well as regional mechanisms. It is up to date with all its reports.

Process for the preparation of state reports

The reporting process begins with the identification of the governmental areas to be involved, depending on the substantive themes addressed in the reporting exercise. Where appropriate, a dedicated Working Group may also be established. An explanatory email is normally circulated via the NHRC mailing list, convening a coordination meeting with focal points. This email provides context on the reporting exercise at hand and includes a proposed allocation of recommendations to the relevant governmental areas. Focal points are invited to confirm their attendance and share their views on the proposed allocation grid within a set deadline. Once attendance has been confirmed and the allocation grid validated, the Secretariat organizes and chairs a coordination meeting. Afterward, it continues to provide support by clarifying residual questions and reviewing all inputs for linguistic and syntactic coherence before compiling them into a unified, final report. Up until 2025, this process remained largely ad hoc: the Committee coordinated its reporting exercises by gathering the information provided by different government entities via email and consolidating it into a single document.

In 2025, when preparing the national report in response to the Concluding Observations of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, the NHRC made use for the first time of the National Recommendations Tracking Database (NRTD/NRTA), a digital platform developed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Access to the platform was extended to all participating entities, enabling them to input their contributions directly into the system, following their own internal validation processes. Given its clear advantages for data management and coordination, the platform is expected to remain in use for future reporting exercises.

COORDINATION

The NHRC holds a minimum of three plenary meetings per year, to which all focal points are invited, although they may sometimes be represented by deputy focal points or other colleagues from their line ministries. These plenary meetings are always presided by the President of the NHRC. One of these meetings - usually towards the end of the year- is open to civil society, with a specific topic often chosen for discussion. The agenda generally includes a presentation on relevant developments in multilateral human rights fora, an update on Portugal’s reporting obligations, and a discussion on the Council of Europe, with particular focus on the ratification of legally-binding instruments.

The NHRC also meets regularly at Working Group level to address particular reporting issues (such as the UPR, a specific Treaty Body, or a visit of a Special Procedure mandate-holder) or a particular topic (such as business and human rights or human rights indicators). Not all focal points are always invited to these meetings, depending on the topic under discussion.

Currently, the NHRC is in the process of establishing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to organize its internal work and the drafting of reports.

Linkages with the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The NHRC's work is not directly linked to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. However, many NHRC focal points also contributed to drafting Portugal’s second Voluntary National Review (VNR). Additionally, the focal point for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers is the International Relations and 2030 Agenda Unit at the Government’s Secretariat-General, which is responsible for mainstreaming the 2030 Agenda and coordinating the drafting of the VNR.

Channels of communication with National Statistics Office

The National Statistics Institute is a full member of the NHRC. Nevertheless, most quantifiable data for reporting purposes is provided by the line ministries themselves (administrative data).

Channels of communication with Parliament

Parliament is a Permanent Observer to the NHRC. Its focal point is included in the mailing list and thereby receives all communication sent to Committee members. At the start of each legislature, the President of Parliament is asked to appoint a focal point, who is typically a Member of Parliament.

Channels of communication with the Judiciary

There is no direct contact between the NHRC and the Judiciary. When data or information is required, requests are typically channeled via the Ministry for Justice.

CONSULTATION

Apart from the plenary meeting open to civil society, the NHRC holds Working Group level meetings with civil society organizations registered on its mailing list to discuss reports prior to submission. The Ombudsperson, Portugal’s NHRI and NPM, is a Permanent Observer to the NHRC and therefore also receives all communications sent to focal points and is invited to all meetings. Furthermore, the NHRC appoints a focal point to serve on the Advisory Committee of the National Monitoring Mechanism on the Implementation of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This mechanism depends on the Parliament and is often chaired by representatives of civil society organizations.

The NHRC’s Annual Strategic Work Plans function, in practice, as National Action Plans. At the beginning of each year, every governmental area is required to commit to three specific measures in the field of human rights. By the end of the year, they must report on the implementation of such commitments, which are then published in the NHRC´s Annual Activities Report. Both documents are available in Portuguese and English on the Committee’s website.

Ms. Sara Ágoas, Head of the Human Rights Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, cndh@mne.pt