In a memorandum published today, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, called on the authorities of Portugal to address more resolutely the increasing level of racism in the country, as well as to take additional steps to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence.

The Commissioner is concerned about the rise of racially motivated hate crimes and hate speech targeting especially Roma, people of African descent and persons perceived as foreigners in Portugal. She recommends implementing a comprehensive action plan against racism and discrimination, urges the authorities to firmly and publicly condemn all instances of hate speech, and politicians to refrain from using or tolerating racist rhetoric.

Welcoming the substantial steps taken to improve the legal and institutional framework for tackling discrimination, the Commissioner invites the Portuguese authorities to pursue their efforts and ensure that civil, administrative and criminal legislation fully complies with international standards.

She also recommends that the police and prosecution services adopt a wider understanding of what constitutes a racist offence and carry out prompt, rigorous and impartial investigations into all incidents with racial overtones.

Further efforts are also necessary to tackle racist bias against people of African descent inherited from the colonial past and historical slave trade. “It is important to shed light on the historically repressive structures of colonialism, ingrained racist biases and their present-day ramifications”, said the Commissioner. School curricula are a particularly useful tool to achieve this goal.

Noting with appreciation the steps taken to combat discrimination against Roma, the Commissioner recommends enhancing such efforts, especially to tackle antigypsyism, which remains pervasive in Portuguese society and present in the public discourse of some politicians.

Racism in the police also remains an issue of deep concern. “The Portuguese authorities should apply a policy of zero tolerance towards any manifestation of racism in the police”, said the Commissioner. She also recommends improving human rights training for police officers and the recruitment procedures and selection criteria to promote access of persons belonging to minority groups to the police and their representation at all levels of management.

The Commissioner also recommends establishing a fully independent police complaints mechanism to investigate all complaints of ill-treatment by the police.

The Commissioner welcomes the longstanding commitment of the Portuguese authorities to eliminating domestic violence, their resolute action to overcome deeply rooted patriarchal attitudes and gender-based stereotypes and their work towards gender equality in all areas of life.

Levels of violence against women remain nonetheless alarmingly high in Portugal. The authorities should therefore take additional steps to challenge biased mindsets and to raise further awareness in society that violence against women, including domestic violence, is a serious human rights violation and therefore a crime, for which perpetrators must be held accountable.

She urges the authorities to take measures to ensure that domestic violence and sexual offences, including rape, are adequately investigated and prosecuted, and that sentencing is commensurate with the gravity of offences and sufficiently dissuasive.

The Commissioner invites the authorities to continue improving training for members of the law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and, more widely, those providing services to women victims of violence. She welcomes recent steps taken to ensure that children who witness domestic violence are considered primarily as victims and receive adequate protection.

Lastly, the Commissioner recommends that the authorities further amend the definition of rape in the Criminal Code and ensure that it is entirely based on the absence of the free consent of the victim.

• Read the Commissioner for Human Rights' memorandum on Portugal (also in Portuguese)
• Read the comments of the authorities of Portugal on the memorandum

Der Bürgerbeauftragte Matthias Crone bekräftigt die Forderung der Behindertenbeauftragten

Zu häufig werden die Fähigkeiten von Menschen mit Behinderung unterschätzt und daher unzureichend oder sie werden überhaupt nicht als mögliche Fachkräfte von Morgen wahrgenommen. Die Lage der Menschen mit Behinderungen im Bereich der beruflichen Bildung muss daher noch immer als kritisch eingeschätzt werden.

Gründe dafür sind zum Beispiel: Die fehlende Barrierefreiheit im Zugang und der Durchführung von Schule, geringe bis fehlende Durchlässigkeit zwischen Qualifizierungs- und Ausbildungsketten oder auch die fehlende Bereitschaft von Unternehmen, Menschen mit Behinderung auf dem allgemeinen Arbeitsmarkt auszubilden oder einzustellen. Verschärft wird ihre Situation in der beruflichen Bildung nun zusätzlich durch die Auswirkungen der Corona-Pandemie.

Vor diesem Hintergrund fand eine Konferenz der Beauftragten für Menschen mit Behinderung im Online-Format unter dem Thema „Berufliche Bildung von Menschen mit Behinderung“ statt. In einer gemeinsamen „Berliner Erklärung“ fordern die Beauftragten den Auf- und Ausbau eines Berufsbildungssystems, das in seinen Rahmenbedingungen die Belange von Menschen mit Behinderungen umfassend berücksichtigt.

Dazu sagte Matthias Crone: „Die Eingliederung in den ersten Arbeitsmarkt ist die beste Form der Inklusion. Grundlage hierfür ist eine gute berufliche Ausbildung. Dabei muss die Ausbildung im regulären Betrieb für junge Menschen mit Behinderungen die Regel werden und nicht die Ausnahme sein wie heute. Das ist gemeinsame Aufgabe für Wirtschaft, Reha-Träger und Schulen, hier gibt es auch in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern noch Nachholbedarf. Die Erhöhung der Ausgleichsabgabe darf kein Tabu sein, wenn mehr Bereitschaft zu inklusiver Ausbildung und Beschäftigung in Betrieben des allgemeinen Arbeitsmarktes erreicht werden soll.“

Den vollständigen Text der Erklärung finden Sie hier.

• Support for human rights systems and defenders
• Equality, non-discrimination and racism

When:25 March 2021 - 26 March 2021

UNECE

Website:

Workshop on Measuring Poverty in Pandemic Times(link is external)

External event

UNECE will hold an online workshop on poverty measurement from 25 to 26 March. FRA will present innovative approaches put into practice by various EU Member States. The workshop aims to provide hands-on training and address the capacity-building needs expressed by countries on adapting their surveys.

• It builds on UNECE’s 2020 guide to data disaggregation when measuring poverty(link is external). The workshop targets statisticians, researchers and analysts from national statistical offices, ministries and other government agencies who produce poverty statistics in the countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central. Participants will reflect on general methodological lessons learnt when surveying ethnic minorities. 

Link: EUIPO erroneously declared invalid a design of a brick of a LEGO toy building set (europa.eu)

Languages available: bg es cs da de el en fr it hu nl pl pt ro sk

General Court of the European Union

PRESS RELEASE No 48/21

Luxembourg, 24 March 2021

Judgment in Case T-515/19 Lego A/S v EUIPO and Delta Sport Handelskontor GmbH

EUIPO erroneously declared invalid a design of a brick of a LEGO toy building set

EUIPO failed to examine the relevance of the application of the exception relied on by Lego and failed to take into consideration all the features of appearance of the brick

Lego is the proprietor of the following Community design, registered on 2 February 2010, in respect of ‘building blocks from a toy building set’:

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In the context of an application for a declaration of invalidity made by Delta Sport Handelskontor, the Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) found, by decision of 10 April 2019, that all the features of appearance of the product concerned by the contested design were solely dictated by the technical function of the product, namely to allow assembly with, and disassembly from, the rest of the bricks of the set. In accordance with the provisions of the Regulation on Community Designs, 1 EUIPO therefore declared the design in question invalid. Lego brought proceedings before the General Court of the European Union seeking annulment of that decision.

The Board of Appeal identified the following features of appearance of the product: (i) the row of studs on the upper face of the brick; (ii) the row of smaller circles on the lower face of the brick; (iii) the two rows of bigger circles on the lower face of the brick; (iv) the rectangular shape of the brick; (v) the thickness of the walls of the brick and, (vi) the cylindrical shape of the studs. According to the Board of Appeal, all those features are solely dictated by the technical function of the building brick, namely to allow assembly with, and disassembly from, the rest of the bricks of the set. 

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Link: EU law precludes a national practice by which a candidate excluded from a public procurement procedure may rely, in that candidate’s appeal against the decision to admit the bid of another tenderer, only on the infringement of the principle of equality in the assessment of bids (europa.eu)

Languages available: de el en fr it

Court of Justice of the European Union

PRESS RELEASE No 47/21

Luxembourg, 24 March 2021

Judgment in Case C-771/19 NAMA Symvouloi Michanikoi kai Meletites AE - LDK Symvouloi Michanikoi A.E. and Others v Archi Exetasis Prodikastikon Prosfigon (AEPP) and Attiko Metro A.E.

EU law precludes a national practice by which a candidate excluded from a public procurement procedure may rely, in that candidate’s appeal against the decision to admit the bid of another tenderer, only on the infringement of the principle of equality in the assessment of bids

The dismissal of the pre-litigation administrative appeal against the decision to exclude a candidate does not affect that candidate’s interest in bringing proceedings, provided that that dismissal by an independent national review authority does not have the authority of res judicata

On 24 January 2018, the company Attico Metro launched an open tendering procedure for technical consultancy services for the project to extend the Metro in Athens (Greece), 1 worth approximately € 21.5 million. The first stage of the tendering procedure consisted, inter alia, in reviewing the candidates’ technical bids, while the second consisted in the opening of economic bids and the overall assessment. Four candidates, including NAMA a.o. (‘NAMA’) and SALFO a.o. (‘SALFO’), 2 which are technical consultancy business associations, each submitted a bid. 

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