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Portugal signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on January 26, 1990 and ratified it months later, on September 21. The Convention has the full force and effect of law and may be invoked before Courts and applied against national bodies. It predominates when there is a conflict with national law, unless that national law is more favorable to the child.[2] Thus, under Article 12 of the CRC, a child has a legal right to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings in which he or she is affected, including those related to child protection. Rights set forth in the Convention are also incorporated directly into Portugal's Constitution. Article 37 provides freedom of expression for everyone, including minors; and Article 64, added to the Constitution in 1997, stipulates that the state is responsible for protecting children who do not have a typical family environment, such as those who have been abused and/or neglected. Alleged ill-treatment or abandonment may be reported to official services such as the Ombudsman (�Provedor de Justica�) or the Family and Children's Support Project, which are both equipped with counseling hotlines. The Civil Code permits the Court of Minors�upon recommendation of the Public Ministry�to take appropriate measures to ensure the child's best interest when the child's safety, health, or moral formation is in danger (Article 1918), including removal and appointment of a guardian (Article 1927). For children under fourteen years-old, the Court must seek the child's views before removing the child from his or her parents' home. (Article 1931; see also Law No. 197/99 below). Whenever there is a conflict between the child and allegedly abusive parent, the Court must appoint a �special curator� to represent the child (Article 1881). In sum, all children have a legal right to express their views in judicial (and administrative) proceedings that affect them; while the court has discretion to question the child directly, it is more common that the child's views are expressed through a representative. Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to make contact with any local experts and/or practitioners to confirm our research. Sources of Law (In Order of Authority)
CONSTITUIÇÃO DA REPÚBLICA PORTUGUESA[3]
Artigo 36. Família, casamento e filiação 5. Os pais têm o direito e o dever de educação e manutenção dos filhos. 6. Os filhos não podem ser separados dos pais, salvo quando estes não cumpram os seus deveres fundamentais para com eles e sempre mediante decisão judicial. 7. A adopção é regulada e protegida nos termos da lei, a qual deve estabelecer formas céleres para a respectiva tramitação.
Artigo 37. Liberdade de expressão e informação
1. Todos têm o direito de exprimir e divulgar livremente o seu pensamento pela palavra, pela imagem ou por qualquer outro meio, bem como o direito de informar, de se informar e de ser informados, sem impedimentos nem discriminações. `Artigo 69. Infância 1. As crianças têm direito à protecção da sociedade e do Estado, com vista ao seu desenvolvimento integral, especialmente contra todas as formas de abandono, de discriminação e de opressão e contra o exercício abusivo da autoridade na família e nas demais instituições. 2. O Estado assegura especial protecção às crianças órfãs, abandonadas ou por qualquer forma privadas de um ambiente familiar normal. International Law
Art.12 1. Os Estados Partes assegurarão à criança que estiver capacitada a formular seus próprios juízos o direito de expressar suas opiniões livremente sobre todos os assuntos relacionados com a criança, levando-se em consideração essas opiniões, em função da idade e da maturidade da criança. 2. Com tal propósito, proporcionar-se-á à criança, em particular, a oportunidade de ser ouvida em todo processo judicial ou administrativo que afete a mesma, quer diretamente quer por intermédio de um representante ou órgão apropriado, em conformidade com as regras processuais de legislação nacional. Statutes
Código Civil Português: Direito Da Família[5] Artigo 1881 (Poder de representação) 1. O poder de representação compreende o exercício de todos os direitos e o cumprimento de todas as obrigações do filho, exceptuados os actos puramente pessoais, aqueles que o menor tem o direito de praticar pessoal e livremente e os actos respeitantes a bens cuja administração não pertença aos pais.
2. Se houver conflito de interesses cuja resolução dependa de autoridade pública, entre qualquer dos pais e o filho sujeito ao poder paternal, ou entre os filhos, ainda que, neste caso, algum deles seja maior, são os menores representados por um ou mais curadores especiais nomeados pelo tribunal. (Redacção do Decreto-Lei 496/77, de 25-11) Artigo 1918 (Perigo para a segurança, saúde, formação moral e educação do filho) Quando a segurança, a saúde, a formação moral ou a educação de um menor se encontrem em perigo e não seja caso de inibição do exercício do poder paternal, pode o tribunal, a requerimento do Ministério Público ou de qualquer das pessoas indicadas no nº 1 do artigo 1915º, decretar as providências adequadas, designadamente confiá-lo a terceira pessoa ou a estabelecimento de educação ou assistência. (Redacção do Decreto-Lei 496/77, de 25-11) Artigo 1927. (Pessoas a quem compete a tutela) O cargo de tutor recairá sobre a pessoa designada pelos pais ou pelo tribunal de menores. (Redacção do Decreto-Lei 496/77, de 25-11) Artigo 1931. (Tutor designado pelo tribunal) 1. Quando os pais não tenham designado tutor ou este não haja sido confirmado, compete ao tribunal de menores, ouvido o conselho de família, nomear o tutor de entre os parentes ou afins do menor ou de entre as pessoas que de facto tenham cuidado ou estejam a cuidar do menor ou tenham por ele demonstrado afeição. 2. Antes de proceder à nomeação de tutor, deve o tribunal ouvir o menor que tenha completado catorze anos. (Redacção do Decreto-Lei nº 496/77, de 25-11) PROTECÇÃO DE CRIANÇAS E JOVENS EM PERIGO[6]
ANEXO Lei de protecção de crianças e jovens em perigo
Artigo 3. Legitimidade da intervenção
Artigo 4. Princípios orientadores da intervenção
b) Privacidade - a promoção dos direitos e protecção da criança e do jovem deve ser efectuada no respeito pela intimidade, direito à imagem e reserva da sua vid privada;
d) Intervenção mínima - a intervenção deve ser exercida exclusivamente pelas entidades e instituições cuja acção seja indispensável à efectiva promoção dos direitos e a protecção da criança e do jovem em perigo;
g) Prevalência da família - na promoção de direitos e na protecção da criança e do jovem deve ser dada prevalência às medidas que os integrem na sua família ou que promovam a sua adopção; h) Obrigatoriedade da informação - a criança e o jovem, os pais, o representante legal ou a pessoa que tenha a sua guarda de facto têm direito a ser informados dos seus direitos, dos motivos que determinaram a intervenção e da forma como esta se processa;
Constitution of the Portugese Republic[8]
Article 36. Family, marriage and affiliation
5. Parents have the right and the duty to educate and maintain their children. 6. Children shall not be separated from their parents unless the parents fail to perform their fundamental duties towards the children, and in that case only by judicial decision. 7. Adoption shall be regulated and protected by the law, which shall ensure expeditious conduct of the procedure. Article 37. Freedom of expression and information
1. Everyone has the right to express and publicise his or her thoughts freely, by words, images or other means, and the right to impart, obtain and receive information without hindrance or discrimination. Article 69. Childhood
1. Children have the right to be protected by the community and the State for their full development, particularly against all forms of abandonment, discrimination and oppression and against the abuse of authority in the family or other institutions. 2. The State shall guarantee special protection to children who are orphaned, abandoned, or in any way deprived of a normal family environment.
Civil Code: Rights of the Family
Article 1881 (Power of representation) 1. The power of representation entails the exercise of all the rights and the fulfillment of all the obligations of the child, except the acts that are purely personal, those in which the minor has the right to practice personally and freely the acts in respect to property of which the administration does not belong to the parents. 2. If there is conflict of interests of which the resolution depends on the public authority, between either parent and the child subject to the parental power, or between the children, even if, in this case, one of them is of age, the minors are represented by one or more special curators named by the tribunal.
Article 1918 (Danger to the safety, healthy, moral formation and education of the child)
When the safety, health, and moral formation or education of a minor is found to be in danger and is not the case of inhibition of exercising the paternal power, the court can, by request of the Public Ministry . . . decree that adequate measures, namely entrust them to a third party or to an establishment of education or assistance.
(Revision of the Decree Law 496/77, of 11/25)
Article 1927. Guardians for a minor may be designated by the parents or by the court of minors.
Article 1931. 1. When the parents have not designated a guardian or [such designation] has not been confirmed, then court of minors, listening to the advice of the family, will name a guardian from among the relatives of the youth or from among the persons who in fact have cared for or are caring for the youth or have demonstrated affection for him
2. Before naming a guardian, the court should listen to the minor if he is at least 14 years old.
Protection for Children and Youth in Danger[9]
Annex: Article 3: Legitimacy of intervention. 1. It is appropriate for states to intervention to promote the rights and protection of children and youth in danger when parents or the legal guardian or the de facto guardian puts the child/youth in danger (in terms of safety, heath, education, or development) or when this danger results from an act or omission of a third person or the child himself but the adult guardian does not stop it. 2. It is considered that a child or youth is in danger when, namely, he or she is found in the following situations:
a) Is abandoned or lives on its own
b) Suffers physical or psychological harm or is a victim of sexual abuse
c) Does not receive care or affection adequate to his or her age and personal situation
d) Is forced into activities or work that is excessive or inadequate to his or her age, dignity and personal situation or prejudicial to his or her formation or development
e) Is subjected, directly or indirectly, to behaviors that affect gravely his or her safety or emotional balance
f) Assumes behaviors or allows him/herself to do activities or consumptions that affect gravely his or her healthy, safety, formation, education or development without the parents, legal representative or de facto guardian who does not stop it.
Article 4. Guiding principles of intervention
The intervention for the promotion of the rights and protection of the child and the youth in danger abides by the following principles:
a) Superior interest of the child and of the youth � the intervention should attend in a prioritizing manner to the interests and rights of the child and of the youth, without harm to the considerations that are necessary to other legitimate interests in the aim of the plurality of the present interests in the concrete case;
b) Privacy � the promotion of the rights and protection of the child and of the youth should be effectuated with respect to intimacy, right to the image and reserve of his or her private life;
c) Precocious intervention � the intervention should be effectuated as soon as the situation of danger is known;
d) Minimum intervention � the intervention should be exercised exclusively by the entities and institutions whose actions are essential to the effective promotion of the rights and protection of the child and of the youth in danger;
e) Proportionality and actuality � the intervention should be necessary and adequate to the situation of danger in which the child or youth is found in the moment in which the decision is taken and can only interfere in his or her life and that of the family in the measure for which is strictly necessary toward this goal;
f) Parental responsibility � the intervention should be effectuated so that the parents assume their duties toward the child or youth;
g) Prevalence of the family � in the promotion of the rights and in the protection of the child and youth prevalence should be given to the measures that integrate them in their families or that promote their adoption;
h) Obligatoriness of information � the child and the youth, the parents, the legal representative or the de facto guardian have the right to be informed of their rights, of the motives that determined the intervention and of the way in which it is processed;
i) Obligatory audition and participation �the child and the youth, separated or in the company of the parents or the person chosen by them, such as the parents, legal representative or the de fact guardian, have the right to be heard and to participate in the acts and in defining the measure of promotion of the rights and the protection;
j) Subsidizing � the intervention should be effectuated successively by the entities with competence in the subject of childhood and youth, by the commissions of protection of children and youth, and, in last instance, by the courts.
�Children in Danger: The Role of the Commissions for the Protection of Minors in Portugal� http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0011-52582004000200007&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt
�Rights of Children: Period of Transition in Portugal� (2001)
http://www.ambito-juridico.com.br/aj/eca0011.htm
�Social Intervention in the Evolution of the System for Social Protection of Children and Youth in Danger in Portugal�
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:-RxkJrnWH4EJ:www.cpihts.com/Patricia%2520Piedade.pdf+portugal+criancas+
menores+proteger+27+Maio+1911,+artigo+2&hl=en
[2] Portugal Second Period Report Submitted by Portugal Under Article 44 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Report of February 26, 2001 (CRC/C/65/A.11) at ¶¶ 6-7, available at http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/7a25a4f2919d4ec2c1256a64002d2ff8?Opendocument, and also as .pdf Document, and also as Word Document.
[3] Constitution of Portugal, Portuguese, available at http://www.parlamento.pt/const_leg/crp_port/constpt2005.pdf.
[4] Convention on the Rights of the Child (in Portuguese), available at http://www.unicef.org/brazil/dir_cri.htm, and also http://www.runic-europe.org/portuguese/humanrights/Crianca.pdf
[5] Civil Code of Portugal (in Portugese), available at http://www.giea.net/legislacao.net/codigos/codigo_civil/direito_familia/
[6] PROTECÇÃO DE CRIANÇAS E JOVENS EM PERIGO, Lei nº 147/99, de 1 de Setembro [PORT], available at http://www.portolegal.com/CriancasPERIGO.htm. [7] Unless otherwise noted, all translations are unofficial.
[8] Portugal Constitution, in English, available at http://www.parlamento.pt/ingles/cons_leg/crp_ing/index.html. Representing Children Worldwide | Copyright 2005 Yale Law School |All Rights Reserved

References: Artigo 36

Artigo 37
 Artigo 1881
 Artigo 1918
 artigo 1915
 Artigo 1927
 Artigo 1931

Artigo 3

Artigo 4