Response to interpellation 2023/24:664 on support to counter violence in young people's relationships
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns support to counter violence in young people's relationships and funding for women's peace work. L argues that the government is investing more money in combating men's violence against women than the previous government 1. L emphasizes that they are working for funding for civil society, stricter consequences for perpetrators, and improved restraining orders 2. L also believes that the government is making historically large investments in the justice system to meet the need for crime victim perspectives 3. S argues that the government is deprioritizing women's peace work by choking off funding to the municipalities and dismantling investments via Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner 4. S also argues that the government lacks a plan for women's shelters 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! I have been asked whether I and the government will restore the funding to ungarelationer.se so that the platform can continue its operations and, if not, how I intend to ensure continued active work to support the aforementioned target group.
I would like to begin by thanking the interpellor for her commitment to this important issue.
Supporting young people who are subjected to violence in a close relationship is a central and important part of the work to prevent and combat men's violence against women, other types of violence in close relationships, and honor-related violence and oppression. The Government has therefore tasked several authorities with strengthening that work.
The Gender Equality Authority has been tasked with mapping and disseminating information about violence in young people's relationships as well as supporting violence prevention measures aimed at young people in relationships. The Swedish National Agency for Education has been tasked with preventing, detecting, and addressing men's violence against women, including violence in young people's relationships and honor-related violence and oppression.
The National Board of Health and Welfare has examined and granted grants to the Foundation 1000 Möjligheter, which operates the support line ungarelationer.se, in accordance with the ordinance (2022:257) on state grants to women's and girls' shelters and certain other non-profit organizations within the crime victim area. The National Board of Health and Welfare's decision includes a position in a case concerning the exercise of authority in an individual case which I, as minister, cannot comment on.
In conclusion, I want to say that in order to prevent and combat violence against women in the short and long term, it is crucial to stop the violence in young people's relationships.
Annika Strandhäll (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you to the Minister for Equality for our opportunity to have this debate today. To some extent, it is now a repetition of the previous debate that just took place with Helena Vilhelmsson. But I still hope to be able to add some other perspectives.
Few studies have highlighted young people's vulnerability to violence in romantic relationships in Sweden. Youth, and particularly young adults, however, appear to be more vulnerable compared to older adults based on previous research.
The latest Swedish study on the extent of relationship violence among young people showed that 56 percent of girls were subjected to psychological violence via digital media and 46 percent to psychological violence face-to-face by a current or former partner. Among the girls, 20 percent had been subjected to physical violence and 44 percent to sexual violence.
Among the boys, 42 percent had been subjected to psychological violence via digital media and 34 percent to psychological violence face-to-face. Of the boys, 13 percent had been subjected to physical violence and 10 percent to sexual violence by a current or former partner.
International research shows both a high degree of vulnerability and a high degree of violence among young people and, in some studies, also a higher degree of self-reported violence among girls than among boys. The same research also shows an overlap between being subjected to violence and committing violence in young people's relationships.
Ungarelationer.se turned five years old on February 1. I participated in that celebration, among others, together with the Minister for Equality. We then highlighted the importance of the activities conducted via unga.relationer.se, just as the Minister for Equality did in an earlier post in the previous interpellation debate.
After the first five years, we can state that the need for ungarelationer.se definitely remains, and that those who have received the support evaluate it with a very good result. As was said here earlier, the support line has so far received over 15,000 chats, and ungarelationer.se has had almost 1.4 million page views.
The support line was started during our previous government's term. After the start, we funded the activity through a government mandate to the Gender Equality Authority, where we also explicitly pointed out the Foundation 1000 Opportunities. It was a mandate within the framework of the January Agreement and thus something that S, L, C and MP agreed on.
In 2022, the government mandate continued, and thus we could also continue to fund this activity, which is so important. I still perceived that a positive decision was on the way, and the Minister for Equality spoke of the near future. What is meant by the near future?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! This is a debate that very much resembles the previous one. I do not intend to repeat what I said then.
I can again emphasize that ungarelationer.se is an important operation that works with this prioritized area, violence in young relationships. We are working within the government to see how we can ensure funding to civil society organizations that work specifically with this. I cannot say here when a decision can be announced.
As I said, I will not repeat what I said in the previous debate. I will, however, tell you a little about the government's work in another respect when it comes to violence in young people's relationships, namely the measures we are taking within criminal policy.
Madam Speaker! Swedish crime policy has been characterized for far too long by an entirely too one-sided perpetrator perspective. It becomes extra clear when we look specifically at violence in young people's relationships, because the crime that takes place between young people is also the crime where the most vulnerable crime victims are found.
In my previous role as a prosecutor, I had, for example, cases of gang rape where both the victims and all the perpetrators were under 18 years old. They were brutal gang rapes - the type of crime that destroys the remainder of the victims' lives.
When I have handled these crimes in my role as a prosecutor, I have felt an almost unbearable frustration over our inability to take a crime victim perspective. We have a crime victim who is perhaps 16 years old and three perpetrators, who have subjected the crime victim to a group rape, who are also 16 years old. At the same time, we have a system that says we should not incarcerate children. No, it is clear that it is not desirable. But what is the alternative? What is the alternative if we do not intervene against those, also young, individuals who subject another youth to serious crime?
This is to completely betray the crime victim, and that is what we have done in Sweden for so many years. My frustration over this is one of the main reasons why I entered politics in the first place. I cannot stand that we have it that way.
That is why I am so glad to represent a government that is finally carrying out the shift that should have happened a long time ago. The government is, for example, reviewing the penalties for violent and sexual crimes. Above all, we believe that recidivism must be given a much greater significance than it has today. If one repeatedly subjects another person to crime, the consequences must become sharper. Even if the person is young, we must be able to take measures that lead to sharp consequences, otherwise we leave the crime victims in the lurch.
The government is also reviewing the restraining order system. We believe that we must protect the vulnerable in a much better way than we do today. Therefore, we are reviewing the restraining orders. We want more restraining orders, we want them to cover larger geographical areas, and we want more restraining orders to be combined with ankle bracelets.
We simply want the victim's perspective to finally be seen in a much clearer way than what is done today. It should be the perpetrators who have their freedom restricted rather than the crime victims.
Annika Strandhäll (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, the Minister for Equality, for the committed contribution regarding crime victims!
I would, however, like to take the opportunity to return to the question that I raised in my previous contribution. We are, after all, in April 2024, and if the activity that we have spoken so passionately about from the rostrum does not receive notification of funds before the half-year mark, it must be shut down.
I am therefore explicit in my contribution from the rostrum today: Stability and clarity were needed. Given the short timeframe, it is, for example, not possible to throw the organization into any new type of application procedure. There has been uncertain funding for the operations even during 2023, but I look forward to and hope that in connection with the supplementary budget we will be able to receive a decision. In that case, it will be as early as Monday. I want to convey this to the Minister for Equality.
Taking into account the crime victim perspective, which the Minister for Equality raised, I would also like to submit a question. Ahead of 2024, there was a hope that the support line's operations could be financed through the state grant to women's and girls' shelters, as well as other non-profit organizations within the crime victim area. But with the decisions for 2024 and 2025, it became clear that this was not the case.
What made me a bit thoughtful based on the Minister's post is that one could observe that the circle of organizations that can receive support has been broadened. But for example, 30 different emergency services in addition to ungarelationer.se have received reduced grants compared to previous years. That is something that clashes quite poorly with the Minister's commitment. We can also observe that even the Riksförbundet för Brottsofferjourer has been hit hard by this and received significantly reduced appropriations. That is perhaps something the Minister could comment on.
We have met in different ways in the debate on the government's priorities within the area of women's peace (kvinnofrid). I have been very critical of some of the priorities that the government has made in the area. Sweden's municipalities, for example, no longer receive any development funds for women's peace work, which has meant that the conditions for the municipalities to conduct their activities will be affected to a considerable or very great extent. This is stated by seven out of ten municipalities in a survey that Unizon has conducted. This is just one example of what we from the Social Democrats perceive as a deprioritization of women's peace work from the government's side.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! It is exciting to stand here in the speaker's chair, because everything is about how one frames different things.
As I said in my previous post, the government has allocated more money in its budget than the previous government did, namely 600 million kronor for 2024 to the sixth gender equality sub-goal that men's violence against women shall cease.
We have strengthened the commitment in this area through this. Then it is clear that the money can be distributed differently over different years. Here, as mentioned, it is Socialstyrelsen that makes the administrative decisions on which organizations shall receive which funds when it concerns precisely the grants to civil society. But generally, the government has invested more money in this work than the previous government did, and we also did so in 2023.
I cannot comment on individual agency decisions, but if more can apply for state grants, it will naturally become a smaller piece of the cake per applicant. So that is natural, of course.
I mean that we need to be able to have a welcoming approach. We need many civil society organizations. We need many actors who engage in the work in different ways. I think that is something positive and something that we should encourage. Different civil society organizations work with these issues from partly different perspectives, and I am convinced that we need to tackle the issues in several different ways.
With that said, there is obviously a great need for organizations to have foresight and be able to anticipate their funding and plan their operations.
Violence in young relationships is a particularly prioritized area for the government. It is for that reason that we are currently looking at how we can more clearly direct funding towards just this important work.
Overall, I want to emphasize once again that we are investing more money in this. We are ramping up the work. To claim that we are scaling it down is not consistent with the truth.
Annika Strandhäll (S)
Madam Speaker! I shall make good use of my remaining two minutes of speaking time.
I note that one can obviously express oneself very differently. I want to return to what the Minister for Gender Equality said about her enthusiasm for crime victims. She usually asserts that one wants to make a shift from perpetrators to crime victims, but the reality is that Brottsofferjouren is alerting that they have had their funds reduced by the equivalent of 66 percent. There, the minister cannot hide behind the authorities. The government rules. If one uses the tools a government has to steer where one wants the resources to go, they also go there – it is just a tip.
When it comes to the prioritization of the work for women's peace, the fact is that after 17 years you have strangled the funding for the municipalities' work for women's peace. They no longer receive any development funds. Seven out of ten municipalities state that the missing funds will affect the conditions for working against violence in close relationships to a fairly large or very large extent.
You have also discontinued the women's peace initiative that has been conducted through Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner and which has been crucial for supporting activities across the entire country.
The money you have allocated to carry out reforms with sheltered housing is not enough. It corresponds to 6 percent of what is required to comply with the law.
We have a situation where women's shelters are threatened by a permit requirement for protected housing. Many women's shelters argue that they will have difficulty meeting the requirements in the new law on permit requirements, and you lack a plan for this.
There are ready-made legislative proposals on men's violence against women in the Minister of Justice's inbox - I debated with him this morning - which he has not presented for 18 months. More needs to be done!
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! To begin with, I want to say that even Brottsofferjouren receives its funds via Socialstyrelsen. Again, this is an agency decision that I, as minister, cannot intervene in, which I believe the interpellor is well aware of.
This is a task that is incredibly important and at the same time very complex. If we are to truly turn the development around, we need to work from several different angles with funding and sharp measures.
When we talk about financing, we must also not forget the financing of the justice system. I believe few have missed that this government is making historically large investments in precisely the justice system, and that is important. In 2022, we had the same number of police officers in relation to the population size as we had in 2012, despite having had completely skyrocketing crime in our country.
The underfunding of the justice system has meant that our justice system has not been able to cope. One can neither handle gang-related crime nor any other form of crime. We see the result in an extensive impunity for this type of crime. If we are to talk about the victim's perspective, it is also absolutely crucial that we have a justice system that can meet the enormous needs that exist.
I am glad to be the Minister for Equality in a government that takes a holistic approach to these issues, which looks at the funding of the sixth equality policy sub-goal, which looks at the funding of our justice system, and which looks at concrete measures that can truly make a difference to reverse the development – which simply must be reversed.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.