Sentencing
No honour-based acts are specified as grounds for sentencing under Chap. 6 §§ 4-8 of the Finnish Criminal Code. Instead, sentences are imposed according to general principles that apply to all criminal acts.
Female genital cutting
The provisions on female genital cutting were introduced as recently as 2024 and are regulated in Chap. 21 of the Criminal Code, which deals with crimes against life and health. They have been introduced as sub-paragraphs to Chap. 21 § 6, which regulates aggravated assault and preparations for such assaults. Female genital cutting is described as the total or partial removal or other damage to the external genitalia of a woman or girl (Chap. 21 § 6b). The penalty is imprisonment for one to ten years. Chap. 21 § 6c regulates preparation for female genital cutting, which may include possessing “a tool that is designed specifically for the purpose” of performing the act (Criminal Code, Chap. 21 § 6a, cl. 1), taking a woman or girl abroad for the purpose of performing the procedure (Criminal Code, Chap. 21 § 6c, cl. 2) or persuading a woman or girl to undergo the procedure (Criminal Code, Chap. 21 § 6c, cl. 3). Preparing to perform female genital cutting carries a sentence of four months to five years’ imprisonment.
The range of punishment for female genital cutting is the same as for aggravated assault, which implicitly means that the crime is not considered to be of a normal degree. It is also stipulated in § 6b that attempts at female genital cutting are punishable within the framework of the range of punishment. In the case of preparation for female genital cutting, the range of punishment is slightly higher than for preparation for other forms of aggravated assault, mainly because it carries a minimum penalty of imprisonment. Preparation for other forms of aggravated assault can result in a sentence of up to four years in prison but do not require a prison sentence.
The focus of § 6a is on the act of female genital cutting in itself, i.e. the person who performs the procedure. In cases in which family members or other persons are involved in planning and carrying out female genital cutting, these circumstances are considered preparation for the crime under § 6b.
Forced marriage and child marriage
The Criminal Code does not contain any specific provisions on forced marriage; instead, this offence is dealt with under the provisions on human trafficking (Chap. 25 § 3, cl. 4) or aggravated human trafficking (Chap. 25 § 3a). If the forced marriage is carried out against a child, aggravated human trafficking is automatically applicable (Chap. 25 § 3a, cl. 3). Human trafficking of a normal degree carries a sentence of imprisonment for at least four months and up to six years while aggravated human trafficking carries a sentence of imprisonment for at least two and up to ten years. The provisions on unlawful coercion under § 8 of the same chapter may also be applicable (RP 172/2021).
According §§ 27a and 27b of the Marriage Act, a marriage entered into under duress shall be annulled with the same legal effect as in the case of divorce under § 27 1, i.e. without the requirement for a cooling period as would apply in the case of an ordinary divorce. The legal process for applying for the annulment of a marriage is regulated under §§ 30b-32. Provisions for the annulment of marriage were introduced in 2023 on the basis of Government Bill 172/2021. On the same basis, § 115a was introduced, according to which a marriage contracted abroad shall not be recognised in Finland if at least one of the parties was under eighteen years of age and at least one of the parties was resident in Finland when the marriage was contracted.
Double criminality
Finnish law applies to crimes committed outside Finland against Finnish citizens (§ 5 Criminal Code) and by Finnish citizens (§ 6 Criminal Code). This only applies to crimes with a maximum penalty of more than six months’ imprisonment. This means that all of the above-mentioned crimes could be subject to trial in a Finnish court, as their maximum penalties all exceed six months’ imprisonment.
The starting point for double criminality is that acts that are not crimes in the country where they were committed cannot be tried in any other country. However, it follows from Chap. 1 § 11, cl. 8 of the Criminal Code that female genital cutting can still be tried by a Finnish court. Similarly, unlawful coercion (Chap. 25 § 8) can be tried if the coercion constitutes an act of forced or child marriage in violation of Article 37 of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
Greenlandic legislation
Greenland has traditionally exercised considerably greater independence from Denmark in the legal sphere than the Faroe Islands has. This is evident, for example, in the fact that Greenland has its own independently drafted criminal code (Kriminallov for Grönland), although it has been translated into Danish. The Greenlandic Criminal Code is clearly influenced by the specific social problems that arise from the vulnerability and isolation caused by Greenland’s geography and nature (Nyborg Lauritsen, 2019). The Criminal Code stipulates, among other things, that it is expressly punishable not to help persons in distress (§ 89 of the Criminal Code). A corresponding provision, consistent with one of the most important assessment criteria of honour practices, “to help one’s neighbour”, also appears in the General Penal Code of Iceland. There are no corresponding explicit provisions in the criminal codes of the other Nordic countries or autonomous regions.
Greenlandic legislation has been examined through searches on www.nalunaarutit.gl, which is the official source of Greenlandic legal information. The site contains legislation and other legal material in both Greenlandic and Danish. Based on the Danish search terms listed in the methodology section, searches were conducted in the Greenlandic Criminal Code and in specific legislation on marital relations, genital cutting and negative social control. Despite extensive searches, no legislation or other legal documents have been found that can be attributed to forced marriage, child marriage, female genital cutting, conversion attempts or other honour-based acts. Icelandic legislation
Almenn hegningarlög, or the General Penal Code of Iceland, was originally enacted in 1940, from which point many additions and amendments have been made. The General Penal Code largely does not contain criminal classifications but consists of descriptions of crimes. The section headings below correspond to the criminal classifications used in Swedish legislation.
A number of the criminal definitions mentioned below are relatively new and were introduced in 2016 in connection with the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The ratification mainly meant that female genital cutting and forced marriage were included in the General Penal Code. The changes are specified in Act No. 23 from 30 March 2016.
Recent treatment of the concept of honour in Icelandic legislation
Icelandic criminal law takes a slightly different approach to the concept of honour than other Nordic countries and autonomous regions, as, until recently, the concept has been legally applicable. Under Articles 84 and 85 of the General Penal Code, a person convicted of a minor offence (punishable by up to one year in prison) could, two years after serving their sentence, apply to the court to have their honour restored (uppreist æru). The possibility of having one’s honour restored had far-reaching consequences, among other things because the crime for which an individual had been punished could not be invoked in defamation cases under the former Article 238, nor could it be held against them with respect to various forms of public employment. In this way, the Icelandic concept of honour reflects research that places honour practices in a political, legal, economic and social context (Rosquist, 2020; Baianstovu, 2017).
Articles 84 and 85 were removed from the General Penal Code in 2018, which entailed changes to a large number of related legal provisions. The preparatory work and debates that preceded the removal of the principle of restoring honour are not covered by this study. However, it is important to mention that until recently Iceland had legislation that allowed for the restoration of honour, which contrasts with the legislation that this study focuses on, i.e. the prohibition of maintaining or restoring honour in the Nordic countries and autonomous regions.
Stricter penalties
There is no specific Icelandic provision for stricter penalties that directly refers to honour. However, stricter penalties are stipulated for certain specific offences. These are described under the respective subheadings.
Article 70, which regulates sentencing in general, states in the third paragraph that if an act is directed against a man, woman or child with whom the perpetrator has a close relationship, and the relationship is considered to be relevant to the seriousness of the crime, a more severe penalty shall be imposed. Therefore, if a crime takes place in a family or clan context, and this context was significant for the planning and execution of the crime, it can be considered an aggravating circumstance (þyngingar refsingunni) under Icelandic criminal law.
Item 7 from the first paragraph of the same article states that the perpetrator’s motive must be considered. However, it does not specify whether the motive should be considered a mitigating or aggravating circumstance, which means that both circumstances may be relevant. This can be compared to the Swedish so-called stricter penalty clause (Chap. 29 § 2, itm. 10 of the Swedish Criminal Code), in which honour motives are interpreted as an exclusively aggravating circumstance when determining sentencing.
Female genital cutting
Article 218a, which is an addition to Article 218 on general assault, stipulates a sentence of up to six years in prison for offences of a normal degree, those which cause injury by partially or completely removing the sexual organs of a girl or woman. In the case of a serious offence, a sentence of up to sixteen years’ imprisonment may be imposed. No fines are included in the range of punishment, with imprisonment being the minimum sentence. When assessing the severity of an offence, consideration is given to whether the act caused serious injury or death, led to long-term health problems and/or was conducted in a particularly reckless manner (author’s translation).
Article 218c states that if a person previously convicted of female genital cutting is convicted of a new offence (implicitly against another woman or girl), this constitutes grounds for a stricter penalty. The penalty may then be increased by an addition fifty per cent of the prison term of the first sentence.
Forced marriage and child marriage
Article 225(2) of the General Penal Code stipulates that anyone who forces a person to marry (ganga í hjúskap) or undergo a marriage-like ceremony may be sentenced to imprisonment for up to four years. Fines are not included in the range of punishment, and the prison sentence is twice as high as for crimes of general unlawful coercion, as described in the first paragraph of the same article.
As mentioned earlier, Icelandic legislation makes relatively little use of explicit criminal classifications, and this is also the case here, but Article 227a states that forced marriage (nauðungarhjónaband) may also constitute human trafficking (mansal), which can result in up to twelve years’ imprisonment. Article 227a also specifies that if the target of an act of human trafficking is under the age of 18, this shall be considered an aggravating circumstance or grounds for a stricter penalty. The crime of child marriage is thus implicitly criminalised but without an explicit criminal classification.
In Icelandic marriage law, the validity of a marriage is mainly regulated by Article 25a. This article, which was added to the Marriage Act as recently as 2022, concerns the recognition of marriages contracted abroad. The basic rule is that marriages contracted abroad shall be recognised in Iceland as long they have been conducted in accordance with the laws and regulations applicable in the country where the marriage took place. However, the second paragraph emphasises the requirement that both spouses must have been over the age of eighteen when the marriage took place. In exceptional cases and “taking into account the unambiguous interests of a person under the age of eighteen”, a marriage may be recognised for persons who were sixteen years of age at the time of the marriage. Thus, there is some regulation of the recognition of child marriages and marriages involving young people.
The third paragraph of Article 25a states that if a marriage “is contrary to the fundamental rules of the Icelandic legal system or public policy”, it cannot be recognised in Iceland. In this way, forced marriages or child marriages established in accordance with the above-mentioned Article 225(2) or Article 227a of the General Penal Code could not be recognised under the Marriage Act.
Conversion attempts
Since 1 January 2024, a new article (227b) has been added to the General Penal Code. According to this, anyone who “through coercion, deception or threats persuades a person to undergo unconfirmed treatment (ógagnreynda meðferð) with the aim of suppressing or changing their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression (breyta kynhneigð, kynvitund eða kyntjáningu)” shall be sentenced to a fine or imprisonment for up to two years. The term ógagnreynda specifies that the treatment lacks medical or similar evidence, meaning that the provision does not apply to gender-affirming treatment performed within the framework of public healthcare.
An offence committed against a person under the age of 18 carries a sentence of imprisonment for up to four years, as is the case for anyone who abducts a child for the purposes of subjecting them to conversion attempts. The legislation is thus clear that such an offence against a minor is particularly serious.
The third subparagraph of the same article also stipulates that encouraging or inciting conversion attempts, as well as accepting money to participate in such a crime, is also punishable. There is thus an implicit assumption that conversion attempts are carried out in a collective context against individuals.
Double criminality
Article 5 of the General Penal Code specifies that persons who are citizens or residents of Iceland may be convicted under Icelandic law for offences under Article 218a and Article 225 sub-paragraph 2 even if the offence was committed abroad and even if the act is not a criminal offence in the country where it was committed. This corresponds to the other Nordic countries’ specific focus on double criminality for honour-based crimes. Additional crimes included in this specification relate to child pornography offences and certain sexual offences. Double criminality was introduced through a number of amendments to the General Penal Code between 2012 and 2023. The amendments aim in various ways to promote the health and safety of children and women and involve the ratifications of UN conventions on children and women and a number of EU directives.
Norwegian legislation
In Norway, there is no specific legislation for crimes believed to be committed for reasons of honour. The terms ‘honour-based’ and ‘negative social control’ are not used in the Norwegian Penal Code. To the extent that honour-based acts are punished, they must instead be derived from more general legislation.
Stricter penalties
Point f of Chap. 14 § 77 of the General Penal Code, which concerns increased penalties, states that crimes committed by several persons acting in concert (fellesskab) constitute grounds for increased penalties. This finds its parallel in the aforementioned § 81 sub-paragraph 2 of the Danish Criminal Code, which specifies acts committed by “several persons acting in concert”. However, it does not specify what this association or group might consist of, unlike Chap. 29, § 2, sub-paragraph 10 of the Swedish Criminal Code, which specifies “the honour of a family, clan or similar group”. Whether this point has been used in honour-based cases in Norwegian case law may be the subject of further research.
Forced marriage and child marriage
The Norwegian General Penal Code § 253 regulates the crime of forced marriage, which means forcing someone to enter into a marriage or marriage-like relationship through violence, deprivation of liberty, other unwarranted or criminal acts, or undue pressure. The second paragraph of the same section stipulates that taking a person abroad for the purpose of forcing them into marriage constitutes attempted forced marriage. The maximum penalty for the offence is six years’ imprisonment.
Child marriage is regulated in § 262 sub-paragraph 2 of the General Penal Code. There is no criminal classification for child marriage corresponding to forced marriage, but anyone who enters into marriage with a person under the age of sixteen may be sentenced to up to three years’ imprisonment, even if they are unaware of the other party’s age. If both parties are of equal age or development, immunity from punishment may be applicable.
If the child marriage was entered into under duress, the above-mentioned § 253 applies, which can incur an increased penalty of up to six years’ imprisonment.
The Marriage Act § 23 regulates the right to obtain a divorce in cases of forced marriage. This is supported by § 16 of the same act, which allows for the marriage to be annulled, providing a stronger legal action than divorce. Child marriage is mainly regulated by § 1a of the Marriage Act, which states that persons under the age of 18 cannot enter into marriage. Child marriages contracted abroad cannot be recognised in Norway if one or both parties were under the age of 18 at the time of the marriage. This applies regardless of whether one or both parties had a connection to Norway at the time of the marriage (§ 18b of the Marriage Act) or neither party had a connection to Norway at the time of the marriage (§ 18c). However, § 18c of the Marriage Act allows for marriages to be approved upon special application if either or both parties were over sixteen years of age and neither party had a connection to Norway at the time of the marriage, provided that the parties are over eighteen years of age at the time of the application. Such an application for approval may also be granted if there are exceptional reasons for doing so.
Female genital cutting
The General Penal Code §§ 284 and 285 describe the crime of female genital cutting as an intervention that causes damage to or permanently alters a woman’s sexual organs. Restorative procedures are also criminal and fall under the same section of the law. The sentence for female genital cutting of a normal degree (§ 284) is imprisonment for up to six years. For aggravated female genital cutting (§ 285), the sentence is imprisonment for up to fifteen years. When assessing whether the crime is aggravated, consideration must be given to whether the procedure has led to illness or incapacity to work, permanent or incurable (irreversible) changes in appearance, serious bodily injury or death. Only one of these consequences needs to be proven for the more serious classification of the crime to apply. It is also emphasised in § 284 that the consent of the victim does not exempt the perpetrator from liability. The provision in the General Penal Code replaces the previous law prohibiting female genital cutting, which was in force from 1995 to 2015.
It should be noted that while the classification of the crime is gender neutral, the crime itself is only applicable if the procedure is performed on a woman. Female genital cutting is therefore a crime that can only be committed against women (or girls), which distinguishes it from the medically proven procedure on men or boys, which is referred to as circumcision (omskjæring).
It should also be noted that the requirement of permanent change, combined with the fact that consent does not exempt from liability, means that the threshold for a crime of normal severity to be committed is very low. It also means that procedures requested by a woman for cosmetic rather than ritual or religious reasons are also punishable.
Conversion attempts
The General Penal Code §§ 270 and 270a classify conversion attempts as an offence in both the normal and serious degrees. A conversion attempt is defined as a violation that involves influencing a person to change, deny or suppress their sexual orientation or gender identity in a systematic way. ‘Systematic’ refers to the use of psychotherapeutic, medical, alternative medical, religious or similar methods. For offences of a normal degree, the range of punishment spans fines to prison sentences of up to three years (§ 270). For serious offences, a sentence of up to six years in prison can be imposed. General Penal Code § 270 sub-paragraph 2 emphasises that the offence is also applicable when the methods are used against children under the age of 18 and that it does not matter whether the suspected perpetrator knew that the child was a minor. However, the description of the offence and the range of punishment are the same as for acts committed against adults.
When assessing the severity of an offence, particular consideration shall be given to whether the acts cause significant damage to the body or health, whether the ‘conversion attempt’ continues over a long time and whether the acts are committed by several perpetrators.
The fact that the forms of retribution listed are described as systematic means that the acts may fall under what Norwegian policy refers to as ‘negative social control’, which is one of the concepts used to specify that acts are honour related (Friberg & Bjørnset, 2019). It also means that it is implicitly required that the acts be repeated to be considered ‘systematic’. One of the requirements for a serious offence is also that several perpetrators are part of the systematic conversion attempt. Since honour is practised collectively for the good of a family or clan, and since the ‘shame’ of one member becomes a collective concern, conversion attempts carried out in an honour context in principle always constitute a serious offence.
Double criminality
According to the General Penal Code § 5, a Norwegian citizen, a person residing in Norway or a person working on behalf of a Norwegian-registered company may be convicted for, among other things, child marriage, forced marriage and/or female genital cutting, even if the crime was committed abroad. Conversion attempts performed abroad are also punishable under Norwegian law. Similarly, Norwegian criminal law may apply to persons who, regardless of Norwegian or other national ties, commit the aforementioned crimes against a Norwegian citizen or person residing in Norway, provided that the crime is subject to a minimum sentence of six years in prison (§ 5 sub-paragraph 5 of the General Penal Code). In other words, the legislation takes into account that crimes associated with honour-based practices can be committed both by and against persons with strong ties to Norway. However, the normal degree of punishment for some of the crimes discussed above is waived as a result of the limitation on the penalty value.