Response to interpellation 2022/23:378 on the government's work to combat violence against women by men
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 L considers gender-related violence to be a major societal problem and that the government prioritizes crime prevention work through a national program and increased support for women's and girls' shelters 1. 2 S argues that the government is underfunding and dismantling the municipalities' work on women's peace 2. 3 S is determined to do more so that no form of violence is committed 3 and considers strategies to be worthless if resources are cut in municipalities, regions, healthcare, school health, schools, and social services 3. 4 L wants to take new measures and focus on results to save lives and offer protection and support to those living with violence 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! Sofia Amloh has asked me what initiatives I am prepared to take to strengthen the preventive work so that men's violence against women shall cease. Sofia Amloh has also asked me if I intend to take any measures so that men's violence against women shall receive the same priority, resources, and commitment and be taken as seriously as gang crime and men's violence against other men.
Let me begin by stating that gender-related violence is a major societal problem that violates the fundamental freedoms and rights of those subjected to violence. The violence is widespread and serious, causes great suffering and has lifelong consequences.
The government has a high priority on combating crime. That work must take place on a broad front. We are taking a decisive stand against organized crime and gang crime. The government will simultaneously prioritize crime and violence prevention work during the upcoming mandate period. Gender-related violence against women shall cease, and honor-related violence and oppression shall be eliminated. It is a self-evident and important part of the government's priorities.
Preventing gender-related violence from occurring or being repeated in the first place is the primary starting point for the government's ten-year national strategy to counter and combat violence. Expanded and effective prevention work against violence is one of the strategy's most prioritized areas.
The government decided in 2022 on a national violence prevention program. It strengthens both early violence prevention work as well as interventions towards those who have an increased risk of committing violence as well as towards those who have subjected a close relative to violence. The program is also a part of the government's broader crime prevention work.
In order for us to stop violence in close relationships, the individuals who perpetrate violence need to change their behavior. Socialstyrelsen has been tasked with developing a national coordination and knowledge development for work aimed at preventing recidivism among perpetrators of violence. Socialstyrelsen also operates the telephone line Välj att sluta, which provides support and treatment to perpetrators of violence. Additionally, the Social Services Act was amended in 2021 so that social services are now required to take measures against perpetrators of violence so that they will change their behavior.
The government has also established a new state grant for preventive work against violence. The purpose is to strengthen the violence prevention work and promote the development of evidence-based interventions.
The government has already strengthened the preventive work against honor-related violence and oppression permanently with 50 million kronor per year. The initiative increases the previously permanent funds by 300 million kronor for the work against men's violence against women and honor-related violence and oppression. So far this year, the government has allocated approximately 525 million kronor for the work and given several agencies assignments in the area.
The government has additionally increased the support to local women's and girls' shelters by 50 million kronor during 2023. This reinforces the permanent funds for women's and girls' shelters and other organizations within the crime victim area by 150 million kronor per year.
The government's national strategy is supplemented by action programs containing concrete measures to prevent and combat gender-related violence. In the 2021-2023 action program, a central starting point is that violence shall be prevented with a focus on perpetrators of violence.
The Government has now begun the work of preparing a new action program to counter and combat gender-related and honor-related violence and oppression for the period 2024-2026. The work of preventing violence will continue to be in focus for the work.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer and for the opportunity to debate a very current and pressing issue! I would also like to thank my committee colleague Helena Vilhelmsson for the important interpellation that we have just heard debated.
My questions to the Minister concern what the government is doing to combat men's violence against women. By that, I primarily mean the preventive work, the work that is required so that the violence is not committed in the first place.
Every three weeks, a woman is killed by a man, and more than one rape is committed - every hour, every day of the year. The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention also estimates that approximately 80 percent of violence against women is never reported to the police.
There are parts of the Minister's answer that I think are good. That the government's national strategy is complemented by action programs, for example, is completely in line with the Social Democratic government's work, as well as that the current government plans to extend the action program for a new period.
Central to the preventive work is, among other things, the highlighting of gender norms. There are many examples where gender norms limit people and lock us into gender roles, gender roles that we are assigned when we are born and sometimes even before we are born. It is about how girls should be because they are girls and how boys should be because they are boys. I will never deviate from my view that these entrenched forms are both dangerous and harmful. Every human being should be free, and for that, we need to fight these deeply rooted norms that force us into something that we may not want to be.
Some clear examples where we can see the consequences of this are how the violence in the football stands manifests and the gang crime that plagues our Sweden. It is an unimaginably large human suffering, and on top of that, great costs are incurred for the consequences. It is deeply deplorable how men's violence against other men weighs heavier on the government's scale than men's violence against women. It is visible in political priorities, interventions, resources, and commitment.
Based on this, I want to ask the Minister how the norm work and the gender studies where we are so far ahead should form the basis for and be visible in the concrete measures that the new action program and the national violence prevention program are to contain. Will we see a preventive work aimed at children and young people where gender roles are made conscious and where no form of violence shall become an expression of emotion?
Then I want to note something that is not included in the government's response to the interpellation. A committee initiative has been directed to the government regarding a zero vision, on the initiative of the government's own party comrades. It is quite remarkable that one has to go that way via the Riksdag to the government to get policy through. This is not included in the response. Why not?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! In the work of combating gender-related and honor-related violence, we must have as a starting point that the acts of violence should not be committed at all. If we are to work with this, we must work in several areas. The most important measure to ensure that we do not end up in this at all is to work with our young people and with the root causes of the controlling behavior and the exercise of power that we see in the relationships where violence is the ultimate expression of this.
This does not occur in a vacuum. It is norms and values that are established during the early years. Working with this in school and intervening in different ways in children's everyday lives and norm formation is incredibly important, so that they do not have their own bubbles, for example on social media, where this type of harmful norms and values are established and reinforced. It is a major priority in the preventive work.
In addition, we must also, as I touched upon in the earlier debate here today, ensure that more people can leave these relationships. We must look at the repressive measures, and we must also look at how we work with the perpetrators so that we can change this behavior when we have failed - for we will unfortunately fail with some. How do we ensure that those who commit violence against their partner do not continue with that behavior? This is a broad task.
When it comes to priorities, it is no secret that we in Sweden have a situation within the justice system with gang crime that is escalating and which is taking increasing focus in the general debate. This government does not consider men's violence against men to be more prioritized or more serious than men's violence against women.
We do, however, have an incredibly difficult situation. Within the justice system, for example, we have had an enormous increase due to gang crime. It consumes incredible resources from the justice system. I know, because I have worked with this. Despite that, the number of people registered in the population register per police officer last year, 2022, was exactly the same as in 2012, ten years before. The Social Democrats did not solve the police shortage during the years they were in power.
If we do not get more police officers, despite a crime development that looks like this, it is very difficult for the police to prioritize resources in such a way that other types of crimes are also covered. It is of course completely unacceptable that it affects women exposed to violence and that it affects victims of rape.
That is how the reality looks. We must notice this and work with it. But the basis for this is the justice system and that the number of police officers per inhabitant has not increased, despite the development we have had. The price for that is paid by very many women today.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Madam Speaker! Regarding the government's statement, there will at least be more police with a Social Democratic-led government than with a bourgeois government. I believe the government will be held accountable after this mandate period, given the promises that were broken in this area as well. It is simply up to be proven. I will leave it at that for the time being.
Recently, Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner, SKR, announced that the government's funding for the new legislation intended to improve the situation for women in protected housing is far from sufficient. According to SKR, 2.4 billion were needed to meet the reform. In the government's budget, only 145 million kronor are now allocated for 2023. This corresponds to 6 percent. SKR argues that this will affect women and children exposed to violence.
The purpose of the law, which the Social Democratic-led government initiated, is to improve the protection and support for women but also to strengthen the children's rights perspective for all the children who accompany their mothers to the protected housing. That municipalities have the conditions to live up to the legislation is crucial for it to have an effect and for the quality of protected housing to be ensured.
We Social Democrats view with concern the consequences of the austerity measures that municipalities and regions face regarding the entire welfare system and the area of women's peace. For the first time in many years, we have a government that chooses not to provide development funds for this. That the government claims to be taking action against men's violence against women while simultaneously underfunding and dismantling the municipalities' important work on women's peace makes me deeply saddened.
SKR also warns that women and children may end up being squeezed out when defectors from criminal gangs are now to be offered help in protected housing. We Social Democrats believe that women fleeing for their lives from violent men must be guaranteed a place in protected housing. They must not be pushed aside by the work against gang crime.
The mandate regarding men's violence against women is now conspicuous by its absence in the management of the police and other authorities, and the support for civil society's preventive work – the preventive work – is being scaled back. And Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner warns – it is not the opposition but SKR that warns – that there is a lack of funding to implement the law on protected housing.
To counter men's violence against women, a women's peace policy is required that permeates the entire society: school, social services, healthcare, police, and the justice system. Preventive measures are also required, a preventive effort. But it is not credible when one cuts back on welfare. It is not possible. How is the preventive work to be carried out when the school and social services receive fewer resources?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! An important reform that is currently being prepared within the Government Offices is the reform on protected housing. It is very important for strengthening the protection for those living with violence in the home. It is a reform that, among other things, makes it possible to protect children. Children's protection needs are seen in a new way. They shall be able to be protected in a better way from contact with a violent guardian during the stay at the housing.
We will also have a quality assurance of our protected residences. Within my area of responsibility, I see this as a key measure in the important work of combating and preventing gender-related violence and honor-related violence.
This type of reform obviously requires funding. We have already allocated 145 million kronor. There is a surplus there, as the reform will not enter into force at the intended time. Otherwise, the government has announced that we will return regarding funding for this.
In the situation we now find ourselves in, there are some important things. It is no secret that we have several ongoing crises in our society. We have gang crime that is escalating, we have a war in our immediate vicinity, we have an energy crisis, and we have a recession. It is an incredibly large number of crises all at once. The government is aware that crises in such a situation, if we look historically, most often hit the most vulnerable in society the hardest.
This government will do everything we can to counteract the negative effects for the most vulnerable. And among the most vulnerable is, of course, the group we are talking about here and now, those who live in fear, those who do not know where to go when they want to leave their relationship, those who need society's protection and support from both the judicial system and social services and all actors who are key players in this work.
The government will not forget this. We will look at this group and make the priorities required to achieve proper protection.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Madam Speaker! Men's violence against women is not a private matter, but it is about serious crimes. Violence against women is neither a natural disaster nor something random. In most cases, the perpetrator is known to society. Women have alerted, left, and done everything in their power to protect themselves and their children.
It is up to us in politics to do more. We Social Democrats are determined to do more so that no form of violence shall be committed. No woman shall have to flee, and no man shall have to have violence as an expression of his feelings.
As has been said, strategies and action programs are important. But they are not worth much when resources are cut where the plans are to be implemented, out in the municipalities and regions - in healthcare, in school health services, in schools and in social services.
A reform to improve the situation for women and children in sheltered housing is not worth much if there is no money to implement the reform. The Minister says that there are several crises in this country. Absolutely, that is true, and historically it is most often women and children who are hit hardest. Then there also needs to be a government that does even more.
There are many words from this government, but very little that is noticed when it comes to actual action.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! When I speak about the enormous societal problem that we are discussing here today, I often liken it to an ongoing pandemic. If we look at the Social Democrats' governance, we see that measures are implemented but the results are lacking. We see that it remains at approximately the same levels, the same number of murdered women every year - around 15. Measures are thus implemented, but the results are lacking.
It is time to look at new measures. If we continue to do as we always have done, we cannot expect a different result. At this very moment, I am consulting civil society and relevant authorities for expertise, ideas, thoughts, and concrete measures.
The chairman said here that it is a bit like what is noticeable in concrete action. I could say the same thing about the Social Democratic government, but regarding results: it is a bit like what is noticeable.
This government will focus on results. We will take new measures that have not been taken before, because it is the results that matter. It is that which can save lives. It is the results of the measures that actually offer protection and support to those who live with violence and fear in their own homes.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.