History, Mission, Vision, Values ​​and Safeguard Policy

History

Decree-Law No 98/1998, of 18 April, establishes the National Commission for the Protection of Children and Youth at Risk with the aim of planning State intervention and coordinating, monitoring and evaluating the action of public bodies and the community in protecting children and young people at risk.

Decree-Law 159/2015, of 10 August:

– Repeals Decree-Law No 98/98 of 18 April 1998 and changes the designation to the National Commission for the Promotion of the Rights and Protection of Children and Youth (CNPDPCJ), strengthening the role of promoting children’s rights;

- confers administrative autonomy and own assets;

Highlights the ‘strengthening of the CNPDPCJ’s capacity to intervene, the reconfiguration of its guardianship framework, as well as the strengthening of the mechanisms of functional autonomy and the operability of its bodies’;

- Creates the Regional Coordinations, as executive bodies, providing the CPCJ with qualified and proximity monitoring.

Decree-Law No 139/2017, of 10 November:

Creates Regional Technical Teams that replace regional coordinations on the continent;

The CNPDPCJ shall be composed of President and Vice-President.

Presidents of the National Commission since its inception:

Dr João Pedroso (1998-2001);

Dr. Edmundo Martinho (2001 to 2003);

Dr Dulce Rocha (2003-2005);

Dr Armando Leandro (2005-2017);

Dr Rosário Farmhouse, (2017-2024);

Dr. Ana Valente, since August 2024.

Mission

Contribute to the planning of State intervention and to the coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the action of public bodies and the community in promoting the rights and protection of children and young people.

Vision

To be a reference entity for the effective realization of the Human Rights of each and every child in Portugal.

Values

Rigor - carefully, punctually and exemplarily comply with the most demanding legal and moral parameters. Impartiality - treat with the same degree of exemption and quality all matters, employees and customers. Transparency: take a position driven by standards and transparency that promote the good name of the organization. Efficiency - promote mobilisation mechanisms to achieve performance levels of excellence. Innovation - Pursue continuous improvement.

Safeguard Policy

The CNPDPCJ has a Policy to Safeguard the Promotion of the Rights and Protection of Children and Youth, a decisive domestic policy instrument for all the actions of the National Commission and applicable to all persons who integrate it, work with it, collaborate with it or intervene in its projects or activities, on a permanent or temporary basis.

Inspired by a structure shared by the Council of Europe within the framework of the CP4 Europe project, of which CNPDPCJ is a partner, as well as European and international reflections based on the main European and international legal instruments on the rights of the child, the document also features a child-friendly language version in Portuguese e in English, established in collaboration with the National Council of Children and Youth.

See here the institutional version of the CNPDPCJ Safeguard Policy at English and on English.