The Chega party has presented a draft resolution recommending that the Government creates an electronic platform where the data of convicted sex offenders in Portugal can be found and to make this information available to the public, aiming at the “effective prevention” of this problem.

The diploma (which does not have the force of law), was delivered to Parliament by the party and recommends that the Government create “a platform for registering the identification of all sex offenders definitively convicted in Portugal and make this data public and universally accessible”.

Chega also proposes that “a period of 25 years be established for the public registration of all offenders, regardless of the sentence imposed, from the time of the conviction”.

In the draft resolution, Chega’s single MP argues that “it is essential that the Government develops and implements an electronic platform where the data of all convicted sex offenders in Portugal is recorded, whether the victims are minors or adults, for the purpose of effective, social and massive prevention of a problem that seriously erodes the surrounding social fabric”.

André Ventura states that “since 2015, the identity of sex offenders is registered - and only available to police officers, magistrates and a number of official entities - in the Criminal Identification Register of Convicted Offenders of Sexual Crimes against Sexual Self-Determination and Sexual Freedom of Minors, which configures a useful instrument for the competent authorities of investigation and research in matters of sexual crimes against minors”.

The report, which was adopted by a majority of MEPs in the EPP-ED group in Strasbourg, stresses the need for a clearer definition of the concept of “sexual crimes against minors”.

In the opinion of the MP and leader of Chega, “Portugal has been very ineffective in the fight against sexual crimes, as a result not only of specific cultural phenomena, but also of the legal-penal system itself, which is extremely ineffective in its current configuration in the fight against sexual crimes”.