Portugal

Current situation

Feedback from the state

From the reply of the Ministry of Defence to the EBCO Questionnaire (supplementary information from the 2022 replies in brackets):

The Portuguese military service model was established in the Law No. 174/99, September 21 (Military Service Law) and its Regulation (Decree-Law No. 289/2000, November 14). Currently the conscription into obligatory military service is not imposed in Portugal given the fact that compulsory military service formally terminated in 2004. Since then, professionalization model is fully established, and in peacetime, military service is exclusively volunteer based. Nevertheless, Portuguese citizens are subject to military obligations from the first day of the year in which they turn eighteen years old until the last day of the year in which they turn thirty-five. In the year the citizen reaches eighteen years old, he or she is automatically registered in the military census and included in what is called the Recruitment Reserve. According to the Military Service Law, citizens are part of the reserve recruitment mechanism until the age of 35 and may be called up for periods ranging from four months to one year, in cases where the satisfaction of the basic needs of the Armed Forces is affected or the pursuit of the permanent objectives of national defence policy is impaired.

Also in the year in which they turn eighteen, or in the following year, at the age of nineteen, the citizen is summoned to attend National Defence Day. (There are no preparatory military recruitment programmes that constitute obligatory components of the secondary education curriculum in Portugal.) Once this military duty is fulfilled, the citizen returns to the Recruitment Reserve, where he or she will remain, unless they decide to join the military.

For those who choose to join the Armed Forces and render military service, there are basically two possible options:

• Entering the permanent staff, a special recruitment mechanism, which confers a more stable and permanent contractual relation with the Military Institution;
• Entering the voluntary and contract regimes, which are considered normal recruitment mechanisms and have time-limited duration, a twelve-month service or a contract that can reach up to 6 years in most specialties or eighteen years, in specific military professions.

If they wish to do so and meet the defined requirements, contract military personnel can also apply to permanent staff vacancies. If this does not occur until the end of the contract period, they return to civilian labour market and stay in the Availability Reserve, where they remain until the age of thirty-five.

The Military Service Law also stipulates safeguard mechanisms provided for exceptional situations. In fact, in the event of imminent or effective war or aggression by foreign forces, or in cases where the fulfilment of the fundamental requirements of the Armed Forces is affected, the Portuguese law provides for exceptional recruitment mechanisms, namely the recall and mobilisation (Articles 34 and 36 – Law No. 174/99). The activation of these mechanisms operationalizes by calling-up citizens from the Recruitment Reserve and from the Availability reserve. The Availability Reserve consist of citizens who have completed military service under contract. Until the age of 35 they may also be called up for a total period of two months (for recycling and training, or military manoeuvres).

Total first-time military recruitment for the voluntary and contract regimes, that is, the number of candidates for the three branches of the Armed Forces that initiated the initial military training period (all volunteers):

• Year 2020 = 3054
• Year 2021 = 3132
• Year 2022 = 2539
• Year 2023 = 2192

The right to conscientious objection has been recognised in general terms in article 41 (6) of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic (“Conscientious objectors will render unarmed military service or civil service appropriate to their situation”) since 1976 and derives from the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, and can only be limited under the constitutional terms. Article 226 establishes that conscientious objectors to military service will perform civic service of duration and hardship equivalent to that of armed military service. Article 40 of the Military Service Law (Law No. 174/99) establishes that for citizens subject by law to military service, it is grounds for exemption from military duties to be recognised as conscientious objectors under the terms of the respective legislation (Law no. 7/92, of May 12, Law on Conscientious Objection, amended by Law No. 138/99, of August 28). The right is recognised in peace time, in compulsory mobilisation (general or partial) and in war time. Young people can request the application of the status of conscientious objector in order to be excluded from participation in the National Defence Day” [EBCO Note: We have received no information to imply that conscientious objectors can request not to be listed in the recruitment reserve.]

Article 5 of the Law on Conscientious Objection (Law no. 7/92, May 12, amended by Law No. 138/99, August 28) states that civic service to be performed by conscientious objectors, when enforced comprises a period of training, lasting three months, and a period of actual service, equal in length to compulsory military service. The training period comprises a general training phase and a specific training phase, which will consider the objectors' educational and professional qualifications and the characteristics of the institution where the civic service will be carried out. The National Commission of Conscientious Objectors works at the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth (IPDJ). It is the IPDJ that ensures the planning, organisation, and coordination of the civic service of conscientious objectors and manages all matters relating to obtaining the status or renouncing it.

Although the right to conscientious objection has greater application in conscription regimes, the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic still maintains the right to conscientious objection, which allows voluntary military personnel to exercise this right. In this context, arising from the constitutional provision, article 40 of the Military Service Law (Law No. 174/99) establishes that for citizens subject by law to military service, it is grounds for exemption from military duties to be recognised as conscientious objectors.