The COMBAT project addresses the relation between public policies and anti-discrimination/human rights legal frameworks that protect against discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnic origin, colour or nationality in Portugal. The project addresses a key research question: how institutional racism is being tackled or silenced in current public policy-making and anti-discrimination legal provision with a focus on two key areas: education and housing.

Through an analysis of the past and present of the struggles against racism in Portugal and the wider European context, this project proposes a sociological understanding of the main issues currently raised in this area, such as the permeability of institutions to racial discrimination; the absence of a sound public debate on racism that engages with grassroots movements and associations; the under-reporting of racist crime and discrimination to the competent bodies; the tendency to consider racism just as isolated events and not as integrated within institutional practices and arrangements.

The project aims to address and engage in dialogue with: policy makers; legal experts; immigrant and anti-racist NGOs and associations; grassroots movements, journalists; academics.

Keywords:
Institutional racism; Anti-discrimination law; European Union; public policies; human rights

Duration: 1 June 2016 – 30 April 2020

Funding: Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT and co-funded by the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER) through the COMPETE 2020 operational program – PTDC/IVC-SOC/1209/2014 – POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016806.

Total funding: 132.338,00 Eur
FEDER funding: 112.487,30 Eur
National funds, OE: 19.850,70 Eur

The COMBAT project addresses the relation between public policies and anti-discrimination/human rights legal frameworks that protect against discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnic origin, colour or nationality in Portugal. The project addresses a key research question: how institutional racism is being tackled or silenced in current public policy-making and anti-discrimination legal provision with a focus on two key areas: education and housing.

Through an analysis of the past and present of the struggles against racism in Portugal and the wider European context, this project proposes a sociological understanding of the main issues currently raised in this area, such as the permeability of institutions to racial discrimination; the absence of a sound public debate on racism that engages with grassroots movements and associations; the under-reporting of racist crime and discrimination to the competent bodies; the tendency to consider racism just as isolated events and not as integrated within institutional practices and arrangements.

The project aims to address and engage in dialogue with: policy makers; legal experts; immigrant and anti-racist NGOs and associations; grassroots movements, journalists; academics.

Keywords:
Institutional racism; Anti-discrimination law; European Union; public policies; human rights

Duration: 1 June 2016 – 30 April 2020

Funding: Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT and co-funded by the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER) through the COMPETE 2020 operational program – PTDC/IVC-SOC/1209/2014 – POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016806.

Total funding: 132.338,00 Eur
FEDER funding: 112.487,30 Eur
National funds, OE: 19.850,70 Eur

• to advance the prevailing state of the art in the field of institutional racism and more specifically, in the relation between coloniality, integration policies and the law;
   
• to examine the implementation and effects of national legislation, EU Directives and key European Conventions (e.g. the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities) in the Portuguese legal system, and the main challenges detected in monitoring and reporting activities on the Portuguese context;
   
• to map complaints and development of case-law since 2000 in Portugal, with a focus on the work of the Portuguese equality body, the Commission for Equality and Against Racial Discrimination;
   
• case-study research of complaints of racial discrimination that have constituted an administrative offence procedure or a criminal offence;
   
• case-study research of collective complaints concerning the violation of fundamental rights of the minoritised/racialised population.

COMBAT carries out empirical research within the institutional and legal frameworks of the Portuguese State, the EU and other international legal provisions, with a focus on the development and implementation of public policies for integration and anti-discrimination/human rights law.

Key research contexts:

i) Public bodies and institutions such as equality bodies, general-inspectorates and directorates-general;
 

ii) NGOs and associations that support victims of racial discrimination and develop legal advocacy;
 

iii) (Inter-)national judicial institutions;
 

iv) the media (the press and TV networks) and social networks;
 

COMBAT will identify and analyse the trajectories of complaints and the role of public bodies and grassroots organisations in paradigmatic cases in two key life-spheres: education and housing. Cases will cover school segregation, segregation in housing policies and police brutality in Portugal. Research will foreground the role of anti-racist and legal advocacy organisations in supporting victims, joining administrative procedures and representing complainants. The team will also examine how the media has framed the cases under study: what is newsworthy and what is the understanding of racism and discrimination conveyed in the news. 
 

Ana Rita Alves

Cecília MacDowell Santos

Inês Oliveira 

Marta Araújo

Pedro Almeida

Pedro Varela

Sara Fernandes 

Silvia Rodríguez Maeso (Principal Investigator)

 

Ana Rita Alves

Cecília MacDowell Santos

Inês Oliveira 

Marta Araújo

Pedro Almeida

Pedro Varela

Sara Fernandes 

Silvia Rodríguez Maeso (Principal Investigator)

 

Ana Flauzina (Federal University of Bahia/Universidade Federal da Bahia)

Bruno Gonçalves (SOS Racismo/ROMED – Mediation for Roma)

Gavan Titley (National University of Ireland, Maynooth)

Jaime Amparo Alves (Department of Black Studies, University of California-Santa Barbara)

Katy Sian (University of York)

Kojo Koram (University of Essex)

Mamadou Ba (SOS Racismo)

Marie-Bénédicte Dembour (Human Rights Centre, Ghent University)

S. Sayyid (University of Leeds)

Thula Pires (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro/Pontifícia Universidade Católica, Rio de Janeiro)

Special Issue:

Maeso, Silvia Rodríguez; Baldi, César Augusto (2019), “Repensar a legislação e as políticas públicas desde o anti-racismo em contextos europeus e latino-americanos”, Special Issue of journal: Revista Direito e Praxis, UERJ, Vol. 20, no 3.

https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/index.php/revistaceaju/article/view/44398

Scientific Articles:

Alves, Ana Rita (2019) "‘Para eles, nós não somos humanos!’: habitação, território e a monitorização de violências racializadas em Portugal", Revista Direito e Praxis, 10 (3), 2068-2096.

https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/index.php/revistaceaju/article/view/43878/30315

Araújo, Marta (2019) "À procura do "sujeito racista": a segregação da população cigana como caso paradigmático", Cadernos do Lepaarq (Dossiê 'Comunidades Quilombolas, Negras, Ciganas e Indígenas na América Latina: Racismos Institucional e Epistemológico'), XVI, 31, 147-162.

https://periodicos.ufpel.edu.br/ojs2/index.php/lepaarq/article/view/14940

Maeso, Silvia Rodríguez (2019) "O Estado de negação e o presente-futuro do antirracismo: Discursos oficiais sobre racismo, 'multirracialidade' e pobreza em Portugal (1985-2016)", Revista Direito e Práxis, 10 (3), 2033-2067.

https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/index.php/revistaceaju/article/view/43883

Raposo, Otávio; Alves, Ana Rita; Varela, Pedro; Roldão, Cristina (2019) "Negro drama. Racismo, segregação e violência policial nas periferias de Lisboa", Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 119, 5-28.

https://journals.openedition.org/rccs/8937

Varela, Pedro (2019) "Direito à memória e antirracismo: reivindicar o movimento negro de 1911-1933", Medi@ções - Revista Online da ESE/IPS, “Educação (anti)racista: Que políticas, práticas e perspectivas?”, 7, 2, 86-98.

http://mediacoes.ese.ips.pt/index.php/mediacoesonline/article/view/230

Varela, Pedro; Pereira, José (2019), "As origens do movimento negro e da luta antirracista em Portugal no século XX: a geração de 1911-1933", Revista Buala, 8 Janeiro.

http://www.buala.org/pt/mukanda/as-origens-do-movimento-negro-e-da-luta-antirracista-em-portugal-no-seculo-xx-a-geracao-de-1

Maeso, Silvia (2018) “‘Europe’ and the Narrative of the ‘True Racist’: (Un-)thinking Anti-Discrimination Law through Race”, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 8, 6, 845-873.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3161645 

	Europe and the narrative of the ‘true racist’: thinking anti-discrimination law through race
	Booklet | Direito, estado e sociedade: uma análise da legislação de combate ao racismo em Portugal

Almeida, Pedro (2012) ‘Futebol, racismo e eurocentrismo. Os média portugueses na cobertura do Campeonato Mundial de Futebol na África do Sul’, Revista Crítica das Ciências Sociais, 98, 103-123.
 

Alves, Ana Rita (2016) ‘(Pré)Textos e Contextos: Media, Periferia e Racialização’, Revista de Ciências Sociais Política & Trabalho, 44, 91-107.
 

Araújo, Marta (2013) ‘Challenging Narratives on Diversity and Immigration in Portugal’, in Philip Kretsedemas; Jorge Capetillo-Ponce; Glenn Jacobs (eds.), Migrant Marginality: a Transnational Perspective. New York/London: Routledge, 27-46.
 

Araújo, Marta (2016) ‘A very “prudent integration”: white flight, school segregation and the depoliticization of (anti)racism’, Race, Ethnicity and Education, 19(2), 300-323 (Published online: 12 Nov 2014).
 

Araújo, Marta (2019), "À procura do "sujeito racista": a segregação da população cigana como caso paradigmático", Cadernos do Lepaarq (Dossiê 'Comunidades Quilombolas, Negras, Ciganas e Indígenas na América Latina: Racismos Institucional e Epistemológico'), XVI, 31, 147-162.
 

Maeso, Silvia Rodríguez; Araújo, Marta (2013) ‘A quadratura do círculo: (anti)racismo, imigração e a(s) política(s) da integração em Portugal nos anos 2000’, Oficina do CES, 407.
 

Maeso, Silvia; Araújo, Marta (2014) ‘The Politics of (Anti-)Racism. Academic Research and Policy Discourse in Europe’, in Wulf D. Hund, Alana Lentin (org.), Racism and Sociology. Berlin: Lit Verlag, pp. 207-237.
 

Maeso, Silvia & Cavia, Beatriz (2014) ‘Esquivando el racismo: el paradigma de la “integración” en las sociedades europeas y vasca contemporáneas’, in Ignacio Irazutza e María Martínez (org.), De la Identidad a la Vulnerabilidad. Alteridad e integración en el País Vasco contemporáneo. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra, pp. 151-194.
 

Maeso, Silvia (2015) ‘“Civilising” the Roma? The depoliticisation of (anti-)racism within the politics of integration’, Identities. Global Studies in Culture and Power, 22(1), 53-70.
 

Maeso, Silvia; Araujo, Marta (2017) ‘The (im)plausibility of racism in Europe: policy frameworks on discrimination and integration’. Patterns of Prejudice, 51(1), 26-50.
 

Maeso, Silvia; Araújo, Marta (2017), ‘The semantics of (anti-)racism in the governance of non-Europeanness: an introduction’, Patterns of Prejudice, 51, 1, 1-8.
 

Santos, Cecília MacDowell (2012) ‘Mobilização Transnacional do Direito e a Reconstrução dos Direitos Humanos’, in Cecília MacDowell dos Santos (org.), A Mobilização Transnacional do Direito: Portugal e o Tribunal Europeu dos Direitos Humanos. Coimbra: Edições Almedina, 13-27.

European Convention on Human Rights (1950)
 

Council of Europe | European Social Charter (1961; revised in 1995)

UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) 

Constitution of the Portuguese Republic (1976) | Article 13 (Principle of equality) Article 59 (Workers’ rights)

Penal Code – Portugal (1982) | Article 132 (Aggravated Homicide: if it is determined by racial, religious or political hatred), Article  145 (Qualified offences against the physical integrity), Article  180 (Defamation), Article 181 (Insult), Article 239 (Genocide), Article 240 (Discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence)

Law No. 134/99 of August 28, on the Prohibition of Discrimination in the Exercise of Rights due to Motives based on Race, Colour, Nationality or Ethnic Origin. Establishes the Commission for Equality and Against Racial Discrimination. 

Decree-Law No. 111/2000 regulates Law No. 134/99, establishes, inter alia, the administrative authorities responsible for investigating administrative offenses, as well as the administrative authority that will impose fines and the corresponding sanctions for discriminatory acts.

Council Directive 2000/43/EC of June 29, 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin

Council Directive 2000/78/EC of November 27, 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation

Law No. 18/2004 of May 11, Transposes to the Internal Legal System the EC Directive 2000/43/CE of June 29 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin

Law No 7/2009 of February 12, Labour Code | Article 23 (Concepts of equality and non-discrimination) Article 24 (Right to equality in the access to employment and work) Article 25 (Prohibition of discrimination)

Law No. 3/2011 of February 15, Prohibits any Discrimination in Access to and the Exercise of Independent Work. Transposes Directive 2000/43/EC, Directive 2000/78/EC and Directive 2006/54/EC

Law 93/2017 of August 23, 2017 establishing the legal regime for preventing, prohibiting and combating discrimination on the grounds of racial and ethnic origin, color, nationality, ancestry and territory of origin

European Convention on Human Rights (1950)
 

Council of Europe | European Social Charter (1961; revised in 1995)

UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) 

Constitution of the Portuguese Republic (1976) | Article 13 (Principle of equality) Article 59 (Workers’ rights)

Penal Code – Portugal (1982) | Article 132 (Aggravated Homicide: if it is determined by racial, religious or political hatred), Article  145 (Qualified offences against the physical integrity), Article  180 (Defamation), Article 181 (Insult), Article 239 (Genocide), Article 240 (Discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence)

Law No. 134/99 of August 28, on the Prohibition of Discrimination in the Exercise of Rights due to Motives based on Race, Colour, Nationality or Ethnic Origin. Establishes the Commission for Equality and Against Racial Discrimination. 

Decree-Law No. 111/2000 regulates Law No. 134/99, establishes, inter alia, the administrative authorities responsible for investigating administrative offenses, as well as the administrative authority that will impose fines and the corresponding sanctions for discriminatory acts.

Council Directive 2000/43/EC of June 29, 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin

Council Directive 2000/78/EC of November 27, 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation

Law No. 18/2004 of May 11, Transposes to the Internal Legal System the EC Directive 2000/43/CE of June 29 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin

Law No 7/2009 of February 12, Labour Code | Article 23 (Concepts of equality and non-discrimination) Article 24 (Right to equality in the access to employment and work) Article 25 (Prohibition of discrimination)

Law No. 3/2011 of February 15, Prohibits any Discrimination in Access to and the Exercise of Independent Work. Transposes Directive 2000/43/EC, Directive 2000/78/EC and Directive 2006/54/EC

Law 93/2017 of August 23, 2017 establishing the legal regime for preventing, prohibiting and combating discrimination on the grounds of racial and ethnic origin, color, nationality, ancestry and territory of origin

Booklet | Direito, estado e sociedade: uma análise da legislação de combate ao racismo em Portugal