Vienna Discussion Forum 2019 Ending violence against women through crime prevention, criminal justice responses and women's economic empowerment

HEUNI’s expert Inka Lilja took part in the Vienna Discussion Forum 2019 Ending violence against women through crime prevention, criminal justice responses and women's economic empowerment organised by UNODC, UNIDO and the Permanent Representations of Finland, Norway and Sweden in Vienna. The event marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (25 November). HEUNI was pleased to contribute to this event; since the 1990s we have carried out research on violence against women. HEUNI’s efforts have focused on developing methods and tools to measure and capture women’s experiences of gender-based violence. In the Vienna Discussion forum Inka presented the findings of HEUNI’s latest research on violence against refugee and asylum-seeking women. The research was conducted as part of a project entitled “Co-creating a counselling method for refugee women GBV victims", funded by the European Commission through the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Fund.

In the panel Inka raised the concern that refugee women victims of violence form a group of women in Europe who do not report their experiences of violent crime to police. Ultimately, this leads to impunity for certain forms of violence and certain forms of crime. She also raised the question that if we want to tackle the low reporting rates among refugee women victims of violence, the proposed solutions must also take into consideration the residence status needs of the victims. Simultaneously, multidisciplinary services must be developed for this group of victims in line with the Victims’ Rights Directive and the Istanbul Convention. The HEUNI research report with policy recommendations will be published on the 13th of February 2020 in the Parliament of Finland.
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