In its first thematic report, the Council of Europe Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) welcomes Sweden’s continued progress in in preventing and combating violence against women in several areas. However, the experts also point out fields which require urgent action by the authorities to fully comply with the Istanbul Convention. 

GREVIO welcomes Sweden’s continued progress in criminalising conduct and introducing obligations that often go beyond the standards of the Istanbul Convention, including the criminalisation of “violation of a child’s integrity” and addressing gender-based violence-related suicides. 

Moreover, measures have been put in place to protect children from child marriage or being taken abroad for that purpose or Female Genital Mutilation. 

Other noteworthy steps include the incorporation of the new legislation on rape based on the lack of consent in the mandatory sexuality education curriculum. The entry into force in 2022 of a provision allowing video-taped interviews of victims and witnesses to be used as evidence in courts has been considered to have increased the chances of a case successfully proceeding through the criminal justice chain; to have reduced the burden placed on victims to give their statement repeatedly; and to have limited the risk of intimidation by perpetrators designed to make the victim withdraw or amend their earlier statements.

Particularly significant is the impact on courts’ practices stemming from the 2018 reform on rape, notably leading to the successful prosecution of different typologies of rape, such as “surprise rape” and situations where the victim remained passive, leading to a rise in the rates of convictions.

Beyond the progress made in Sweden to implement the convention, GREVIO is concerned about the quality of training for key professionals, since much of the training is available on a voluntary basis or occurs at an irregular frequency and often does not address digital forms of violence against women. Key professionals include social workers, health-care personnel, teachers, family law professionals and members of the judiciary. Regarding training of the judiciary, the report underscores the need for mandatory in-depth training, not only relating to criminal law but also to family law cases. In this respect the report finds that judicial decisions on custody and visitation often do not offer sufficient consideration for the safety concerns and needs of women and children leaving abusive relationships, frequently ignoring allegations of domestic violence, accepting agreements despite a history of domestic violence and using or accepting the use of ill-founded concepts such as the so-called “parental alienation syndrome”, or similar notions, to dismiss claims of domestic violence.

Another area of concern is the sparse multi-agency cooperation structures at local level in domestic violence cases and the insufficient geographical distribution of shelters for victims. And when referring domestic violence victims to shelters, GREVIO expresses its reservation on the practice of social services increasingly referring domestic violence victims to shelters run by for-profit entities rather than to shelters run by women’s specialist organisations with long-lasting expertise in the area of violence against women. 

While GREVIO welcomes the comprehensive measures taken to combat serious forms of violence against women so-called honour cases, the authorities should ensure that such policies do not result in the stigmatisation of certain migrant communities. 

Finally, the authorities should take necessary measures to prevent violence from occurring in youth homes, harmonise the data collection on all forms of violence against women and domestic violence between law-enforcement agencies, prosecutors and the judiciary.

 GREVIO and Sweden

 Government comments