Portugal

Table of Contents

Portugal, located on the south-western edge of the European continent, became a republic in 1910, but was soon controlled by an authoritarian one-party regime for almost half a century. Democracy returned to the country in 1974 and a new Constitution was adopted two years later.¹ Portugal has been a member of the European Union since 1986.²

According to a census conducted in 2021, 80% percent of the Portuguese population is Catholic. Other Christian groups make up a further 5% of the population, while Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Taoists, Zoroastrians, Baha’is, and Jews comprise less than 1% together. 14% of the population responded that they did not belong to any religious group.³

Constitution and government	Education and children’s rights	Family, community, society, religious courts and tribunals	Freedom of expression advocacy of humanist values
Preferential treatment is given to a religion or religion in general		Use of Conscientious Objection clauses resulting in the denial of lawful services to women and LGBTI+ people	Blasphemy or criticism of religion is restricted in law and is punishable by a fine
	State-funded schools offer religious or ideological instruction with no secular or humanist alternative, but it is optional		Some concerns about political or media freedoms, not specific to the non-religious

Constitution and government

Preferential treatment is given to a religion or religion in general

Education and children’s rights

State-funded schools offer religious or ideological instruction with no secular or humanist alternative, but it is optional

Family, community, society, religious courts and tribunals

Use of Conscientious Objection clauses resulting in the denial of lawful services to women and LGBTI+ people

Freedom of expression advocacy of humanist values

Blasphemy or criticism of religion is restricted in law and is punishable by a fine

Some concerns about political or media freedoms, not specific to the non-religious

Legend

Systemic Discrimination

Mostly Satisfactory

More information about rating table

Constitution and government

The Constitution⁴and other laws and policies protect freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 41), declaring religious groups separate from the State.

The 2001 Law on Religious Freedom⁵ defines freedom of conscience, religion and worship as the right to hold, not to hold and cease to hold a religion, to freely choose and change one’s beliefs, practice or not to practice the worship in public or private, profess one’s beliefs, to seek new believers, to proselytize, among other rights (Article 8). It also protects individuals from forced worship, being obliged to take a religious oath, or being questioned by state authorities regarding their convictions (Article 9).

The law reiterates the constitutional principle of secularism, emphasizing that “Churches and other religious communities are separate from the State and are free in their manner of organization and in the practice of their activities and worship” (Article 3) and that “The State does not adopt any religion whatsoever, nor pronounce itself regarding religious issues” (Article 4).
Under Article 51(1) of the Constitution,

“[w]ithout prejudice to the philosophy or ideology that underlies their manifestos, political parties may not employ names that contain expressions which are directly related to any religion or church, or emblems that can be confused with national or religious symbols.”

Religious privilege

The Law on Religious Freedom stipulates the relations between the government and religious communities, but doesn’t mention any humanist, secular or other philosophical groups. Similarly, the Religious Freedom Commission — an independent body that advises the government on matters pertaining to the application of the law on religious freedom — has representatives from several small religious communities, but no representatives from humanist or secular organizations.⁶ The Commission reviews and takes a position on all matters relating to the application of the law on religious freedom, including proposed amendments.

The law on religious freedom allows each religious group to negotiate their own concordat-style agreements with the government.

Religious groups may register as religious corporations and receive tax-exempt status. Registered groups receive the right to minister in prisons, hospitals, and military facilities; provide religious teaching in public schools; participate in broadcasting time on public television and radio; and receive national recognition of religious holidays. Unregistered religious groups are not subject to penalties and may practice their religion but do not receive the benefits associated with registration. At the time of writing, a taxpayer may allocate 0.5% of their tax payment to approved charities and non-governmental organizations, as well as any registered religious group.⁷

The government maintains a separate agreement with the Roman Catholic Church under the terms of a 2004 Concordat with the Holy See⁸, which replaced the Concordat of 1940. The Concordat allows the Catholic Church to receive a percentage of the income tax voluntarily allocated by taxpayers to various institutions in their annual tax returns. The Catholic Church and “rooted” religious communities are also exempt from VAT.

According to Article 16(2) ministers of worship “cannot be questioned by magistrates or other authorities about facts and things of which they have become aware by reason of their ministry.” This became especially relevant when the extent of sexual abuse in Catholic institutions was revealed.⁹ An independent commission established to investigate the extent of sexual abuse by members of the clergy of the Portuguese Catholic Church identified that while in previous decades there had been a “systematic cover-up” of sexual abuses – in which the failure to document allegations plays a part. However, since the 2010’s, the Church’s response to allegations of sexual abuse is now more victim-centered.

The State pays for the salaries of chaplains in public hospitals, prisons, the armed forces and the police force. The law permits members of any registered religious group to serve as chaplains. However, in practice, the majority of chaplains are nominated by the Catholic church.¹⁰

Religious symbols such as crucifixes are on display in many State primary schools and hospitals, and in some municipalities meeting rooms. Priests are invited to many public inaugurations by local authorities and by national authorities.

In August 2023, the World Youth Day was hosted by Portugal and held in Lisbon and Fátima. This week-long global Catholic event was attended by hundreds of thousands of people. The central government and municipalities financially supported the event to the tune of several million euros.¹¹ Public figures including the President, Prime Minister and Lisbon Mayor attended the events, including open-air masses.

Catholic celebrations explicitly sponsored by public institutions, such as universities or branches of the army, are still a fairly common occurrence, according to the Association for Republicanism and Secularism (Associação República e Laicidade).

Education and children’s rights

Under Article 43 of the Constitution, “[p]ublic education shall not be linked to a religious belief” and the State “may not programme education and culture in accordance with any philosophical, aesthetic, political, ideological or religious directives.”¹² These principles are reiterated in the Basic Law on Education (as amended).¹³

According to Law 55/2018¹⁴, all schools are obliged to provide Moral and Religious Education as an optional subject within the school curriculum at primary level and all students on the science and humanities track at secondary level (Article 13(2) and 14(5)). The classes should last no less than 45 minutes per week. Reports indicate that the number of students signing up for Catholic Moral and Religious Education halved between 2012 and 2022.¹⁵

Read together with Article 24 of the Law on Religious Freedom¹⁶, religious groups may offer optional religious instruction through State-funded schools, provided there are a minimum number of students of the particular denomination who wish to attend the course. The minimum number is unspecified in the body of the law, but is reported to be 10, according to the Association for Republicanism and Secularism (Associação República e Laicidade). The courses and materials themselves are designed by the respective religious group, who are also responsible for training of teachers. The Catholic Church, as well as Buddhist, Bahá’í and Christian evangelical communities have teaching courses approved by the State.¹⁷ While the State bears ultimate responsibility for the recruitment, transfer or dismissal of any such course’s instructor, representatives of the religious denominations are approached to approve such decisions (Article 24(5) of the Law on Religious Freedom).

Under Article 14 of the Law on Religious Freedom, all schools, both public and private, are required to accommodate the religious practices of students, including rescheduling tests if necessary.¹⁸

Female genital mutilation

Since 2015 there has been a law penalizing female genital mutilation (FGM), however it is rarely enforced, despite a growing number of cases being reported every year.¹⁹ In the vast majority of the reported incidents, the mutilation is reported to have taken place during short stays in West African countries.²⁰ A total of 1,076 cases of FGM were detected in Portugal by the end of 2023.²¹ The rise in reported cases (17% increase between 2022 and 2023) may be a consequence of increasing awareness and reporting among health professionals.²² In 2021, a conviction was made in an FGM case for the first time in Portugal. A young woman was initially sentenced to three years in prison for authorizing genital mutilation on her one-and-a-half year old baby girl. However, this sentence was later suspended following an appeal based on the best interest of the child and the fact that the mother was only 19 at the time and was herself a survivor of FGM.²³

Family, community, society, religious courts and tribunals

There are no major restrictions on personal social freedoms.

LGBTI+ rights

Portugal legalized same-sex marriage in 2010 and has made significant steps to recognize the rights of the LGBTI+ community over the last decade, including the extension of adoption rights to same-sex couples in 2016²⁴, a new gender identity law in 2018²⁵ to include self determination of transgender people and an amendment to the law in 2024²⁶ to prohibit conversion therapy against LGBTI+ people.

Abortion

In 2007, Portugal held a referendum to remove what had been one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws. A majority voted in favor of the legalization of abortion during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.²⁷ According to the law, there is a mandatory reflection period of three days before the abortion can be performed and counseling services must be made available.²⁸

Doctors are granted the right of conscientious objection and the percentage of doctors who refuse to perform abortions based on religious beliefs remains high.²⁹ Recent investigations suggest that around 30% of hospitals do not carry out abortions due to conscientious objection of doctors. The practical obstacles faced by those who wish to have an abortion are numerous, especially outside the main urban centers, and legally established waiting times are often violated as a result of this.³⁰ The problem is particularly acute for women who live in the Portuguese archipelago of Azores, where women wishing to have an abortion must travel to the Portuguese mainland (circa 1,500km away) to access services. Although travel expenses are reimbursed by the State, this can create a serious challenge for staying within the 10-week legal deadline.³¹

Assisted dying

The law on assisted dying³² was approved in May 2023 after several attempts. Previous versions had been either vetoed by the President of the Republic or ruled to be incompatible with Constitutional precepts. However, due to the political crises caused by the resignation of the Prime Minister in November 2023 and the change in the government to a coalition of the center-right and Christian Democrats, the law is still awaiting implementation. The law faced strong and vocal opposition from conservative politicians and from the Catholic Church.³³

Under Article 21 of the new law, doctors are guaranteed the right to conscientious objection and are not obliged to participate in assisted dying. They can currently invoke this right without needing to provide justification, however there is a growing debate around whether this right should be limited.³⁴

Freedom of expression, advocacy of humanist values

The Portuguese Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, freedom of information and freedom of the press, and these rights are generally upheld in practice. However, the continued existence of ‘blasphemy’ and criminal defamation laws on the statue books runs contrary to international human rights standards.

Blasphemy law

A quasi-’blasphemy’ law criminalizes “offending a person in virtue of his religious belief”. Article 251 of the Criminal Code³⁵ defines “Insult motivated by religious belief”:

“Whomever publicly offends another person or derides that person because of his or her beliefs, in such a way as to disturb public peace, will be punished with a prison sentence of up to one year or with a fine of up to 120 days”.³⁶

Article 252 further criminalizes “Hindrance, disturbance or insult to an act of worship”:

“Whoever publicly vilifies a religious act of worship or derides such an act will be punished with a prison sentence of up to one year or a fine of up to 120 days”.³⁷

The articles do not appear to have been used in recent years.

The conflation of religious offense with the language of “public peace” and “vilification”, as well as a lack of prosecutions producing case law, makes it difficult to assess interpretation of this law. We consider it unlikely that sentencing could result in a prison term without some element of hate crime, however the wording on “public offense” and “derision” based on “beliefs” alone is vague enough that the threat of prosecution remains over acts that should constitute legitimate expression about religion and thus constitutes a quasi-blasphemy law.

Defamation

Under Article 180 of the Criminal Code³⁸ defamation is punishable by a prison term of a maximum six months or a fine of a maximum 240 days. If the act is committed through the media, the penalty is increased to imprisonment for up to two years or a fine not less than 120 days (Article 183). The law has frequently been used by public officials to curb criticism, contrary to international standards.

The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) has regularly ruled against Portuguese authorities for their handling of both civil and criminal defamation cases.³⁹

In a recent high-profile case, Ana Gomes, who is a former member of the European Parliament and ran for President of Portugal in 2021, was fined for calling a well-known businessman a “crook” on X (formerly Twitter) but later saw her sentence overturned by a Portuguese appeal court.⁴⁰ It remains to be seen if this is a sign of change.