Latest news and stories about human rights in health in Portugal for expats and residents.
The Portuguese parliament has advanced proposals to revise the gender identity law, requiring medical validation for adult name and gender changes and banning hormonal therapies for minors, sparking intense debate between conservative proponents and critics.
The Order of Psychologists and the Left Bloc have criticised recent legislative changes to gender identity law in Portugal, arguing that requiring clinical certifications for legal recognition is regressive, pathologising, and potentially violates international human rights obligations.
Pedro Domingo Díaz was diagnosed in 2023 with cancer of the left tonsil, without receiving adequate and specialised medical care. The Human Rights Commission is demanding protection.
Amnesty International criticises the disparities in access to voluntary termination of pregnancy in Portugal, while also condemning the actions taken by the USA, Israel, and Russia.
Transgender youth who benefited from the 2018 law warn of the new challenges ahead for those currently in the transition process.
Institutionalisation must be understood as a mistake in light of human rights. Community-based responses, such as the Independent Living Support Service (SAVI), represent the path forward. Opinion by José Miguel Nogueira
“Now I am me.” A man? “A trans man,” he replies assertively. Gabriel, 29. The gender transition process began ten years ago. The name given at birth will not be revealed in this report, as it does not bring back good memories. “It wasn't me,” he explains to RTP Antena 1. This is a portrait of the challenges of gender transition - before, during, and after - which we are publishing on International Transgender Day of Visibility.
I do not accept that ageing in Portugal has to be a choice between loneliness at home, or depersonalisation in a hospital corridor or a room in a residential care home.
Núria Rosa shares her traumatic journey of growing up without support or information about gender identity, reflecting on how the 2018 self-determination law might have spared her from years of suffering, school dropout, and marginalisation. Psychologist Sara Falcato highlights that legal recognition and access to affirmative care are crucial for the mental health and well-being of trans youth, warning that political attempts to roll back these rights are scientifically unfounded and dangerous.
Bills aiming to limit name and gender changes and restrict the use of puberty blockers for trans minors were approved by PSD, CDS, and Chega. Associations point out that the current law is still in force but criticise the “step backwards.”
They want it to be possible for a doctor to 'diagnose' identity. Old mistakes returning with a serious air: demanding a diagnosis in order to exist. The World Health Organization has already rejected this. A column by Daniela Gaspar Santos.
Under consideration is the reintroduction of a mandatory medical certificate for those wishing to change their sex in the civil registry and a ban on the use of puberty-blocking drugs for those under 18.
PSD, Chega and CDS-PP want to reintroduce mandatory medical validation for changing names and gender in the civil registry, and prohibit name changes as well as the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for those under 18.
The PSD wants to prevent minors from changing their name and gender in the civil registry, the CDS-PP intends to ban the use of 'puberty blockers', and Chega aims for both. The bills will be discussed this Thursday, but criticism has already emerged: 'The bills are a social setback for the rights of the gender-diverse population,' experts argue.
She could neither read nor write when she was found by the authorities. She was in a state of extreme thinness. The foster family reports on the difficult recovery of the woman who was enslaved for 25 years.
According to the secretary-general of the Portuguese Association for Support to Prisoners, the number of complaints about poor conditions in prisons is underestimated.
