On women's safety

Thank you Mister Chair, distinguished colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Norway welcomes the initiative taken by the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime by dedicating the 8th Annual Colloquium to womens safety.

Violence against woman is a violation of human rights, the very nature of which deprives woman of their ability to enjoy fundamental freedoms. No nation, worldwide can prove itself free of violence against woman and girls.

The Norwegian position is clear; no religion, culture or tradition can ever serve as excuse for violence against women. Further, violence against woman is not a private matter but should be dealt with by Governments. It must be prevented, combated and alleviated through measures to help and protect the victims and through treatment and prosecution of the perpetrators.

The Colloquium has so far given us valuable insight in how other states deals with the violence against woman and has given us a great opportunity to share lessons and experiences concerning prevention and safety. 

Mister chair, distinguished colleges allow me then to draw your attention to the situation in Norway and the Norwegian governments main activity to combat violence against woman.

The situation in Norway

The extent of domestic violence against women and children in Norway is not known exactly. This applies to abuse of women, physical abuse of children, children as witnesses to violence and child sexual abuse.

However, a number of studies clearly indicate that such violence is far more widespread than initially assumed and also far more dangerous than initially assumed

Let me give you an example; Among the 32 victims of murder in Norway in 2007, 8 were woman murdered by their intimate partner. In the period of 1997 to 2007 the number of woman murdered by their intimate partners was 76. This constitutes between 20% and 30% of the murders committed every year in Norway.  Many of the perpetrators had been reported to the police one or more times before it happened. We must learn to read the warning signs, to prevent further violence and, in the extreme cases, murders.

A nationwide survey carried out in 2005, showed that approximately nine per cent of women over fifteen years of age in Norway have been victims of severe violence from their current or former partner one or more times in the course of their lives.

By severe violence we mean attempted strangulation, use of weapons, or beating head against and object or wall. Barely two percent of the men have experienced a severe violent act.

Many of the women who are victims of violence by a present or past partner have children. The number of children who seek shelter in crisis centres with their mother offers an indication of the number of children who grow up in an environment of domestic violence. Out of a total of 4.200 persons who spent the night at a crisis centre in 2007, 1,900 were children.

The Norwegian governments actions  

Ladies and gentlemen let me draw your attention to the efforts made by the Norwegian government to prevent and combat violence against woman.

Violence against woman takes many forms and includes, among other, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse (rape), trafficking for sexual exploitation, forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

The Norwegian Government has chosen to draw up separate action plans in this field; one to combat human trafficking; one to combat forced marriage; one to combat female genital mutilation and finally one to combat violence in close relationships more generally. These initiatives are mutually supplementary and are intended to ensure a coherent approach to combating violence against woman.

Due to the time limit for my presentation, I will only be able to give you a more detailed presentation of one of the action plans; the plan of action to combat violence in close relationships.

The action plan called “Turning point”, was launched in December 2007 and runs for the period 2008 til 2011. Through this action plan, we are introducing measures that will help ensure that the police, educational institutions and support services are better trained, better coordinated and more capable of detecting, preventing and dealing with the many complex issues raised by domestic violence.

Ladies and gentlemen – what are the main aspects of this Action Plan? Firstly, - One of the goals is to ensure that services for the victims of domestic violence come higher up on the political agenda of the local authorities.

A special challenge is to strengthen and reinforce local agencies and help ensure that the various services are working towards the same goal. Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide appropriate services for their citizens. However, far from all the local authorities and support services have procedures and binding agreements to ensure cooperation on domestic violence cases. The measures in the action plan aim to promote cooperation at the local level, to the benefit of users.

We wish to incorporate the good lessons that have been learned from short-term projects into the established services. We will continue to need enthusiasts and development projects, but this work must be incorporated into the ordinary support services to the greatest possible extent so that services do not vanish when projects come to an end.

Secondly – domestic violence often causes serious physical and mental harm to victims that may, in extreme cases, lead to a loss of life. We will therefore make a major effort to strengthen protection for victims. The police play a central role in this effort, but they are highly dependent on close cooperation with other helpers and services in order to be able to provide good protection for victims. Such cooperation must be based on a common understanding of which situations may trigger a danger of violence and threats for victims.

One important measure in this plan therefore entails studying murder and manslaughter cases in which the perpetrator is the present or former partner of the victim. Only by understanding these connections will we be able to identify the risk factors and develop good protective measures.

Thirdly - The police force is assigned a very central role in our efforts to combat domestic violence.

From January 2008, every police district in Norway is instructed to have at least one dedicated domestic violence coordinator in full time position. In addition, the greater districts are instructed to establish domestic violence units.

The fourth aspect of our Action Plan is the perpetrators of violence. In our opinion successful prevention of domestic violence must include a focus on the person committing the violent act. Our action plan points out that punishment alone is not the right solution for violent men.

Male inmates who are perpetrators of violence will be offered treatment by the ordinary health services and various programmes run by the Correctional Services with the aim of changing their behaviour. These programmes include group therapy based on the methods developed by the Norwegian foundation Alternative to Violence, stress management groups and anger management groups.

Finally I would like to draw your attention to the use of technical aids in the fight against violence against woman.

On January first 2004 (1 January) the police initiated a nation-wide system of mobile violence alarms. Used in combination with other measures, such as a ban on visits/restraining orders, mobile violence alarms are intended to give persons under threat of violence greater freedom of movement and help prevent violence and threats.

The alarm system is based on two geographical positioning systems (GPS and GSM) to ensure that the police can locate the person under threat as accurately as possible.

When the alarm is triggered, the person concerned can communicate directly with the police operations centre.

Special guidelines for the provision of mobile violence alarms have been drawn up by the National Police Directorate. In addition an information brochure and instruction manual for the person under threat, has also been prepared.

As of October 2008, a total of approximately 1,500 alarms were in operation.

As a tool to improve the situation for victims of violence by limiting the action of the offender, the government has decided to introduce a pilot project on the use of electronic monitoring of persons who have breached a ban on visits. The project is based on work on electronic tagging done in other countries. We want to make the offender responsible by putting a larger part of the burden on the perpetrators instead of the victims.

We are now in a process were we are to decide which type of electronic monitoring that should be used in the project. Parallel, we work on a bill that will give us the legal basis for electronic tagging.

The pilot project is planned to begin in January 2009.

To summarise the actions taken by the Norwegian government to prevent violence against women, we emphasise that this sort of violence is a public responsibility rather than a private problem. In our action plan we focus on local cooperation, protection of the victims, dedicated police, treatment for the perpetrators and the use of technical aids for protection.

Mr Chair: In conclusion I would like to repeat my hope for a successful outcome of this colloquium whereby we both develop and share views on successful practices. I believe that knowledge and awareness rising, as we work on here in Querétaro these days, is essential in preventing violence against women.

Thank you for your attention.