Committee for combating violence against women and domestic violence

The Committee for combating violence against women and domestic violence will start operating at the beginning of 2017. The matter is related to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (so-called Istanbul Convention). The Government issued a decree on the Committee on 17 November.

The Istanbul Convention entered into force in Finland on 1 August 2015. As a party to the Convention, Finland shall appoint an official, broad-based intersectoral body to coordinate the work for combating violence against women and domestic and intimate partner violence.  The Committee is responsible for the coordination, implementation, follow-up and evaluation of principles and actions meant to prevent and combat all forms of violence falling within the scope of the Convention. The aim is to discuss violence more openly than today in order to enable early intervention.

The Committee shall coordinate actions of different branches of government, for example research, to prevent violence against women and domestic violence. The work includes, among other measures, drafting plans on implementation of Istanbul Convention in Finland.

Different ministries and expert institutions in their administrative branches are represented in the Committee. Also NGOs will be heard as experts, and they are represented in sub-committees to the Committee.

Issues related to intimate partner violence have so far been coordinated by an intersectoral civil servant working group for the prevention of domestic and intimate partner violence. The working group will continue its work until the end of 2016.

The Committee for combating violence against women and domestic violence will be appointed as soon as possible, and it will be operating under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. 

Inquiries

Laura Terho, Lawyer, tel. 02951 63550, firstname.lastname@stm

• Combating domestic and intimate partner violence

• European Council Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (so-called Istanbul Convention)

• The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention)