Country Profile Portugal

General Country Information

Summary

There is one national women’s helpline in Portugal, free of charge and available 24/7, which does not offer multilingual support. There are 62 women-only shelters in Portugal with 1,024 beds available, and 140 women’s centres for survivors of violence against women and domestic violence. There are two rape crisis centres in Portugal, which offer support to women and girls who have experienced sexualised violence. Portugal has a National Action Plan for the period of 2023-2026. Certain primary prevention measures are included in the document; however, there is no specific budget allocated to such activities. The state, through the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, collects data on women’s specialist support services and this data is public.

Women’s Specialist Services

There is one national women’s helpline in Portugal called Information Service for Domestic Violence Victims (Serviço de Informação à Vítima de Violência Doméstica – SIVVD, tel.: +351 800202148; SMS +351 3060), which is run by the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality. It operates free of charge, is available 24/7, meeting the standards of the Istanbul Convention, but it does not offer multilingual support. The helpline provides support to all survivors of domestic violence and gender-based violence from a gender-neutral perspective. The helpline is funded by the state and by international funding. In 2024, the helpline received 1,964 calls, emails and SMS. In 2024, the most common forms of violence reported by the callers to the state-wide helpline were domestic, physical and sexualised violence.

There are two other helplines available in the country. The Association for the Support of Victims (Associação de Apoio à Vítima – APAV, tel.: 116006) provides support for all victims of crime, including survivors of domestic violence. It is free of charge and operates from Mondays to Fridays from 8:00 to 22:00. The second helpline is called National Social Emergency Line (Linha Nacional de Emergência Social, tel.: +351 144), is run by the Social Security Services and operates 24/7. This helpline also provides support to all survivors of domestic violence and violence against women, but with a gender-neutral approach. Additionally, most centres supporting survivors of violence against women and domestic violence are accessible by phone, video calls or email and can provide remote support to survivors, but mostly only during working hours. Survivors can also contact women’s centres, which can provide multilingual support depending on the language skills of staff members, or through a telephone translation service run by the High Commission for Migration.

The Association of Women Against Violence (Associacao de Mulheres contra a Violência – AMCV, tel.: +351 213802160, SMS +351 0962048272) can be contacted by survivors during working hours and provides multilingual support in Portuguese, English, French and German, according to the staff available. The Women’s Alternative and Response Union’s helpline (Uniao de Mulheres Alternativa e Resposta, tel.: +351 218873005) is also available to survivors.

The Portuguese government provides a mobile app (AppVD) linked to the Resource Guide in the area of Domestic Violence (Guia de Recursos na área da Violência Doméstica, www.guiaderecursosvd.cig.gov.pt), which localises all services providing support in cases of violence against women and domestic violence, divided by regions.

There are 62 women-only shelters in Portugal, offering 1,024 beds. In the country, there are two types of shelter services available for women and children who are survivors of domestic violence: emergency accommodations (Acolhimentos de emergência) offer 24/7 access and can accommodate women for 72 hours; however, it is possible to extend this timeframe if the risk persists or according to the needs of the survivor. The shelters (Casa de Abrigo) can accommodate women for up to six months. There are 24 emergency accommodations with a total of 277 beds and 38 shelters with a total of 747 beds. Women are not expected to pay for their stay in women-only shelters. The services most often provided by the women-only shelters include casework, counselling/psychological support, referrals and collaborations with other services, and practical and legal advice.

All women-only shelters are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits, undocumented women, refugee women, homeless women, women with sensory disabilities, older women, women with children with disabilities and unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. Some women-only shelters are also accessible to women with physical disabilities, women with cognitive disabilities, women with substance abuse issues, transgender women and women with older sons (14 years and above). There are also shelters in Portugal that are specialised to support LGBTQI+ people, women survivors or those at risk of trafficking, older women and women with mental health issues.

Women-only shelters are funded by the state, donations, international funding, and religious institutions. Seven shelters are run by women’s NGOs with a gender specific approach, while the others are run by other NGOs and faith-based organisations. Women-only shelters are located in all regions of Portugal, both in continental districts and in the autonomous regions of Azores and Madeira. If women-only shelters had to decline referrals, it is mainly because there is no space or capacity to support the survivor, no capacity to accommodate survivors with children, or inadequate equipment for the needs of women/children. In 2024, the most common forms of violence reported by the survivors to the women-only shelters were domestic violence, physical violence, and violence directly or indirectly affecting children. In 2024, women-only shelters accommodated 2,854 women and 2,685 children.

There are other shelters in the country, besides women-only shelters, that provide support for male survivors of domestic violence, LGBTQI+ people and for men and women survivors of trafficking.

There are 140 centres for survivors of violence against women and domestic violence in the country. Most service structures also guarantee decentralised services, meaning that in total, 223 service points are available throughout Portugal. Two women’s crisis centres are run by women’s NGOs: AMCV in Lisbon and EIR (UMAR) in Porto. Women’s centres provide non-residential support, such as counselling and psychological support, legal advice, social welfare and financial support, housing advice, referrals and collaborations with other services, and representation at court, police, and social services. The centres also offer specialised support for survivors of sexualised violence, including needs assessment, specialist psychological care, specialist sexualised violence advocacy services, community awareness and prevention education, and legal advice.

All women’s centres are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits, undocumented women, refugee women, women with disabilities (physical, cognitive, sensory), as well as older women. Most women’s centres can be accessed by unaccompanied girls under the age of 18, and some are equipped to support transgender women. Additionally, there are services supporting specific groups of survivors, but they are often dependent on project-based funding.

Women’s centres are funded by the state, donations, international funding, and religious institutions. The centres are located in most regions of Portugal.

There are two rape crisis centres in Portugal, one located in Lisbon and the other in Porto. There are also crisis and medical services operated by the Institute of Forensic Medicine and hospitals. The rape crisis centres provide specialist forensic and medical care, needs assessment, specialist psychological care, specialist sexualised violence advocacy services, community awareness and prevention education, and legal advice. Sexualised violence services are funded by the state, as well as through international funding. These services support women, young women, and children.

The Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality is responsible for collecting data on the public and private measures and actions outlined in the National Action Plans. Portugal has an Action Plan for the Prevention and Combating of Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence 2023-2026. The action plan does not provide a definition of primary prevention, but it does outline several prevention objectives, such as preventing and eradicating social tolerance of violence against women and domestic violence, raising awareness about their impact and promoting a culture of non-violence, human rights, equality, and non-discrimination. Different primary prevention activities are conducted in Portugal, such as awareness-raising campaigns and programmes, school-based primary prevention programmes, and primary prevention activities specifically targeted to men and boys. Nevertheless, there is no specific budget allocated to primary prevention activities, and the National Action Plan mentions various funding sources such as the State Budget, the Demography, Qualifications and Inclusion Programme and other European and international funding sources.