Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Portuguese President, worried about “increasing number of dictatorships” in the world

  • ECO News
  • 30 October 2018

“If we look at the world, the number of democracies is decreasing and the number of dictatorships has been rising, and that’s not good news,” Marcelo noted in the UIA congress in Porto, this Tuesday.

The Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was speaking this Tuesday at the UIA congress, in Porto, this Tuesday, calling for more freedom and equality among countries, and he noted that the increasing number of dictatorships in the international context is “not good news”.

“If we look at the world, the number of democracies is decreasing and the number of dictatorships has been rising, and that’s not good news,” he said during a break at a congress organised by the International Union of Lawyers (UIA) in the northern city Porto to debate modern slavery.

He also expressed concern about modern slavery, namely among immigrants who are often victims of smuggling gangs, while speaking at the conference this Tuesday.

“There are increasingly more laws against slavery and unfortunately, there are increasingly more immigrants exploited by clandestine networks,” he said.

Rebelo de Sousa also lamented during the opening of the Congress that the crises in economic, social and political systems had led to a “temptation for radicalism, xenophobia, hyper-nationalism and sometimes popularism.”

He expressed concern with the slow pace of justice and called for lawyers to continue to defend the principles of a society subject to the rule of law.

The UIA acts as an advisor to the United Nations and the European Council and is present in 120 countries, representing over 2 million lawyers.

LUSA