Historically, Portugal was frequently featured in the public eye for not complying with international labour standards. Throughout the period of Portuguese colonization of Africa, whistleblowing by governmental, non-governmental organizations or individual humanitarians led to international controversies and international processes against Portugal. In the early 20th century, Nevinson’s report of slavery in cocoa plantations in São Tomé led to Cadbury’s investigation and strong reply from Portugal through one of the plantation’s owners Francisco Mantero (Higgs, 2012). In 1961, Ghana’s complaint on forced labour led to an ILO visit to Portuguese colonial Africa (Henriques, 2016). Finally, in 1998 a complaint of the International Commission of Jurists, an international lawyers association, led to an European lawsuit that forced Portugal to launch a comprehensive program to tackle child labour. Based on archival data, literature review and interview of living officials, we investigate whether these three cases had any influence on Portuguese policy, prompting any action or alternatively just window-dressing.