[women-rights] UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women concludes visit to Sweden

UNITED NATIONS Press Release
21 June 2006

On 21 June 2006, Prof. Yakin Ertürk, the Special Rapporteur of the United
Nations Human Rights Council on violence against women, its causes and
consequences issued the following press statement:

"I would like to thank the Swedish Government for inviting me to undertake
an official fact-finding mission on the situation of violence against
women in the country. During the course of my mission, I have visited
Stockholm, Uppsala, Malmö, Lund and Luleå. I held consultations with
national and local authorities, women's organisations and other civil
society actors, and appreciated how open, informed and well prepared they
were. I also visited shelters for women and talked to women who suffered
extreme violence. I would like to express my special gratitude to them for
sharing their personal experience, which has contributed to enhancing my
understanding of the diverse manifestations of violence against women and
how it is dealt with in Sweden.

Gender equality is a highly valued principle in the Swedish society.
Public discourse and public policy in this regard is firmly established
within an equal opportunity framework, which has led to impressive
advances towards the achievement of equality between women and men in the
public sphere, although challenges remain. For example, while women are
overrepresented in the service sector, part-time and low paid jobs, they
remain underrepresented in senior management positions in private business
and in some important public institutions such as the police and the armed
forces. Also of concern is the existence of a gender wage gap whereby
women earn less than their male counterparts in comparable positions.

The gender equality experience in Sweden has been a contradictory process.
While the equal opportunity agenda has paved the way for public
representation of women, it was not effective in countering the deeply
rooted patriarchal gender norms that sustain unequal power relations
between women and men. As a result, the root causes of violence against
women remained unchallenged and perceived as pertaining to the private
realm of life. In the quest for equality, violence against women is said
to have become normalized and personalized.

The increased recognition of this contradiction is reflected in the 1990
Government Bill on Gender Equality, which sees violence against women as
an expression "of the prevailing imbalance of power relations between the
sexes." A 2001 survey, commissioned by the Government, found that 46% of
all women have experienced male violence since their fifteenth birthday.
12% had been subjected to such violence in the last year prior to the
survey. The study also highlights that those men who perpetrate violence
against women can be found at all income and education levels. Contrary to
common stereotypes, they are "normal", more often than not, Swedish-born
men. Similarly, women who suffer gender-based violence can be found in all
segments of society.

The legislative and institutional response of the authorities to violence
against women in Sweden is impressive. By way of example, I would like to
highlight the 2005 reform of the Penal Code, which now recognizes that
sexual intercourse or comparable acts with a person while exploiting a
state of helplessness constitutes a form of rape. Also commendable is the
existence of almost 150 shelters run by non-governmental organisations in
a country of only nine million people, which offer protection to women who
escape protracted situations of violence. A number of these shelters
battle with considerable resource constraints, which makes their work even
more remarkable.

Yet, despite the strengthened legislative framework, only about 10% of all
reported crimes of sexual violence result in a prosecution of the
perpetrator. Enhanced understanding of gender hierarchies in different
settings, specific training of police, social services staff, medical
personnel and judges as well as employment of more proactive methods in
investigating cases of gross violations of a woman's integrity could
bridge the gap. There also appear to be considerable differences among
Sweden's autonomous municipalities in the way they discharge their
responsibility to protect and assist women victims of violence. More
public scrutiny and guidance must be directed towards municipalities that
are lagging behind.

While it needs to be emphasized that violence against women remains a
mainstream problem in Sweden, some groups of women appear to face higher
risks of violence because they are at the cross-roads of intersecting
systems of oppression and discrimination. Women with alcohol or drug
problems, women with disabilities or mental illness, lesbian women, Saami
women and women from immigrant communities are among these groups. They
deserve to receive special protection and assistance from both the State
and society at large.

Although, with respect to violence against immigrant women, the murders of
Pela Atroshi and Fadime Sahindal have attracted much public attention, the
Swedish society appears to tip-toe around an open public debate on how to
dissolve seeming contradictions between the principles of gender equality
and cultural diversity in practice. In this regard, it is important to
recall that cultural, traditional or religious considerations can never be
invoked to justify any form of violence against women. Yet, it is equally
important not to entrench a false dichotomy between what is referred to as
"honour-related violence" and other forms of violence against women.

Finally, I would like to briefly comment on the 1998 law through which
Sweden criminalized the buying of sex, while at the same time
decriminalizing women (and men) in prostitution. Unfortunately, a
comprehensive and independent review of the effects this policy has had on
human trafficking and on violence against women in prostitution has yet to
be undertaken. A number of my interlocutors have suggested that the
trafficking of women to Sweden has become less lucrative and therefore
shifted to other countries. At the same time, however, I also received
reports that women who remain in the low-end of the prostitution sector,
especially drug addicted women, are now more vulnerable to violence and
remain largely excluded from public policy measures.

Thank you for your attention."