"The symbols are not always invisible, and on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the United Nations challenges us to make this cause visible by illuminating buildings all over the world," he said in a note published on the Presidency's website.

According to this note, the Head of State, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, joins the United Nations initiative and "the Belem Palace was illuminated this 25 November, in orange, to make the cause of the Elimination of Violence Against Women visible".

"The problem of gender violence is a global problem with consequences mainly in the lives of millions of women. It is a persistent human rights problem that no society should neglect and that the Portuguese should also recognise and combat".

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa adds that "violence against women does not only affect their victims, it affects families, communities, society as a whole, because it is an obstacle to the promotion of equality and to the full development and greater social and civic participation of all".

The Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality, Rosa Monteiro, said on 25 November that in the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Network for the Support of Victims of Domestic Violence welcomed 625 people between 28 September and 8 November, including 309 women, 304 children and 12 men.

Rosa Monteiro said that 12,419 attendances were made, which means that, on average, the Network made almost 303 attendances a day over these 41 days, and pointed out that 503 of them were "new situations that arrived for the first time to the attendance teams looking for help".