The publication in brief

Honour-based violence and oppression constitute a serious violation of fundamental human rights and an obstacle to both gender equality and the full exercise of rights by LGBTI persons. To provide an overview of the work being done to combat honour-based violence and oppression in the Nordic region, the Nordic Council of Ministers has commissioned Nordic Information on Gender (NIKK) to map the research area. The commission resulted in this publication, among other things, which describes how the work to combat honour-based violence and oppression is organised in the Nordic countries as well as in the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland. It focuses on strategic work, use of terminology, steering documents on the vulnerability of LGBTI people to violence, and relevant criminal legislation. The analyses in the publication are based on a review of national strategies, action plans, steering documents and legislation, as well as material from relevant authorities and key actors.

The publication consists of three parts:

A study of strategic efforts to combat honour-based violence and oppression, focusing on how the concept of honour-based violence and oppression is defined, what problems and challenges have been identified and how efforts to address these challenges are organised.
An overview and analysis of national steering documents and other relevant material dealing with the vulnerability of LGBTI persons to violence.
A review and analysis of legislation in national criminal law relating to honour-based violence and oppression.

The first part of the publication shows that efforts to combat honour-based violence and oppression in the Nordic countries are characterised by a common foundation in human rights and gender equality, while also being marked by significant variations in the use of concepts, problem understandings and organisation. The study shows that concepts such as ‘honour-based violence and oppression’, ‘honour-based conflicts’ and ‘negative social control’ are used in parallel in the Nordic countries but with different emphases. The differences relate, among other things, to how the causes of violence are understood, which groups are considered particularly vulnerable and how the relationship between individual rights and collective norms is described. These conceptual differences have direct consequences for how work is structured at the policy level and which measures are prioritised.

The study shows that certain countries, particularly Denmark and Norway, have developed specific national strategies targeted at honour-based violence and negative social control. In these contexts, the issue is often positioned within the framework of integration policy, with a focus on new arrivals and ethnic minorities. Sweden, Finland and Iceland have mainly integrated the issue of honour-based violence and oppression into broader strategies to combat men’s violence against women, violence in close relationships and violence against children. The study shows that this difference in strategic framing affects the division of responsibility between authorities, the degree of specialisation and how preventive, supportive and legal measures are designed.

The first part of the publication presents three main theoretical perspectives that can be identified in the various steering documents analysed: a distinctiveness or cultural perspective, a gender-based perspective on power and an intersectional perspective. All Nordic countries have ratified the Istanbul Convention, which clearly states that honour-based violence and oppression should be understood as a form of gender-based violence and that culture, custom, religion or so-called honour can never serve as justifications for violence. Despite this, a review of steering documents and the reviews of the Council of Europe’s expert group GREVIO shows that in several countries there is a tendency to approach honour-based violence and oppression from a cultural or integration perspective, which, according to the study, risks obscuring the gendered nature of such violence and its underlying patriarchal power structures.

The second part of the publication shows that the vulnerability of LGBTI people to violence is highlighted to varying degrees in national steering documents. The overview and analysis of the relevant national steering documents and other materials shows that LGBTI persons are often identified as particularly vulnerable to honour-based violence and oppression, mainly due to heteronormative ideas and norms concerning gender, sexuality and family control. At the same time, the vulnerability of LGBTI persons is rarely addressed in a comprehensive or systematic manner but is instead often included in a general manner in broader descriptions of vulnerability to violence. The analysis shows that there is a lack of specific action plans in the Nordic countries that solely address honour-based violence and oppression against LGBTI persons. Instead, the issue is addressed through a variety of approaches in action plans on LGBTI rights and in general steering documents on violence. Denmark and Norway highlight vulnerability linked to ethnic minorities and negative social control, Sweden addresses the issue within the focus area of violence and abuse, Iceland addresses vulnerability to violence without a specific focus on honour-based violence and oppression and Finland lacks a separate LGBTI action plan but highlights LGBTI people as a risk group. In several cases, there is a lack of concrete measures, follow-ups and in-depth knowledge building, while intersectional dimensions often receive little analytical attention. The analysis highlights recurring intersectional vulnerability for people with foreign backgrounds, the role of religion in both vulnerability and issues of identity, conversion attempts as a particular expression of violence and control, and challenges related to asylum and integration.

The review of criminal law presented in the third and final part of the publication shows that the Nordic countries mainly deal with honour-based violence and oppression through existing criminal legislation, such as provisions on assault, unlawful threats, unlawful deprivation of liberty, forced marriage, child marriage and female genital cutting. The review shows that Sweden differs from the other Nordic countries and autonomous regions in that it has introduced honour-based oppression as a specific offence and established specific grounds for imposing stricter penalties for honour-based offences. The purpose of these provisions is to better capture the repetitive, systematic and sometimes collective nature of such violence. In the other Nordic countries and autonomous regions, there are no specific, equivalent criminal classifications, and honour-based motives are instead handled within the framework of general criminal legal provisions.

The review and analysis of legislation highlights a fundamental legal challenge that is common to the Nordic countries: honour-based violence is often perpetrated by several people within a collective, while criminal law is founded on individual responsibility. This complicates investigation, evidence gathering and prosecution with regard to crimes characterised by collective control, loyalty bonds and informal sanctions.

Overall, the publication shows that efforts to combat honour-based violence and oppression in the Nordic region are extensive and continually being developed but that they are characterised by differences with respect to terminology, strategic framing and legal regulation. These differences affect how the of the problem is understood, which groups are highlighted, and which measures are prioritised in both policy and practice.