Violence against women and domestic violence in relation to the Istanbul Convention

• Author: Nousiainen, Kevat
• Pages: 61-62

61

10 Violence against women and domestic violence in relation to the Istanbul

Convention

10.1 General (legal) context

10.1.1 Surveys and reports on issues of violence against women and d omestic violence

Surveys and statistics on violence against women have been available for decades. An

important official attempt to gather information on the issue was made by the C ouncil for

Gender Equality in 1990, which established a committee to undertake a fact-finding

mission on violence against women in Finl and. Today, information is collected from crime

statistics, national victim surveys and special studies on violence against women and men.

These sources provide information on different aspects of violence against women.

According to the latest survey on violence against women, one in five women had

experienced violence or the threat of violence by her present partner at some point of the

relationship.91 The results of an EU-wide survey conducted by the Fundamental Rights

Agency revealed that in Finland, the percentage of women that had experienced physical

and/or sexual violence was among the highest in the EU.92

10.1.2 Overview of national acts on violence against women, domestic violence and issues

related to the Istanbul Convention

Finnish legislation on violence, including both criminal law and victim services, is strictly

gender neutral. In the Criminal Code (39/1889), for example, several provisions in Chapter

20 on sexual crimes, Chapter 21 on crimes against life and health, and Chapter 25 on

crimes against freedom have been amended. Earlier amendments of Chapter 20 involved

a gender-neutral definition of rape. In the past ten years, most sexual crimes have been

brought under public p rosecution, physical harassment has been criminalised, and the

definitions of several sexual crimes have been changed. So far, the definition of rape is

based on force and not lack of consent. There is a citizens’ initiative pending for an

amendment of the provision on rape to be based on lack on consent. Physical sexual

harassment was criminalised in 2014. As to crimes again st life and death (Chapter 21),

the crime of petty assault against the offender’s spouse, former sp ouse or partner was

brought under public prosecution in 2011 . Until then, the prosecutor could not act unless

the victim required the perpetrator to be punished. Stalking was criminalised under

Chapter 25 of the Criminal Code in 2013. Amendments were made over several years. The

Act on Protection Orders (898/1998) was adopted in 1998, and the State provides funding

for shelters for victims of violence in intimate relations un der the Act on State Subsidies

for Providers of Shelters (1354/2014). In April 2019, the Ministry of Justice announced a

reform of Chapter 20 of the Criminal Code on sexual crimes. The preparatory works should

be ready by the end of May 2020.

The first GREVIO report on Finland93 noted a number of issues for improvement. The report

found that key pro fessionals are not systematically trained to tackle cases of violence

against women. The report also criticised the implementation of the Act on restraining

orders, the failure to secure the position of children who have experienced or witnessed

violence in custody issues, the lack of resources for victim se rvices, as well as making

several other observations. It was noted that the gender-neutral approach followed in

91 Sukupuolistuneen väkivallan yleisyys Suomessa (Prevalence of gender based violence in Finland), Centre

for Gender Equality Information, National Institute for Health and Welfare,

https://thl.fi/fi/web/sukupuolten-tasa-arvo/hyvinvointi/sukupuolistunut-vakivalta/sukupuolistuneen-

vakivallan-yleisyys-suomessa.

92 Violence against women: an EU-wide survey, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,

https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra-2014-vaw-survey-factsheet_en.pdf.

93 Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) (2019)

Baseline Evaluation Report Finland, Grevio/Inf(2019)9, https://rm.coe.int/grevio-report-on-

finland/168097129d.