Gender-Based Violence and Reproductive Rights
Information about gender-based violence and reprodutive rights in the West Nordic region.
Denmark
There are a number of laws that deal with the gender inequality in Denmark. Despite these laws, violence against women in Denmark, like everywhere in Europe, remains a major problem that needs attention.
Here below are a few resources to understand gender-based violence and reproductive rights in Denmark.
Unges forhold til og forståelse af samtykke og grænser i seksuelle situationer. Thea Gregersen, Anne Windolf-Nielsen and Marie Haarmark Nielsen. Sex & Samfund. 2021. In Danish.
Report from Sex & samfund on young people’s relationship with and understanding of consent and boundaries in sexual situations.
Danner. In Danish.
Links to studies and reports from Danner, a crisis and knowledge center that fights for a world free of violence against women and children.
Partnervold i LGBT+-forhold. Oplevelser af partnervold og erfaringer med støttetilbud. Helle Max Martin, Josefine Frøslev-Thomsen and Juliane Birkedal Poulsen. Vive. 2022. In Danish.
Analysis of partner violence in LGBT+ relationships from VIVE.
The Faroe Islands
There is little knowledge about violence in the Faroe Islands, and to combat this, a comprehensive project has been initiated with an overall plan for addressing violence in relationships and close connections from 2023 to 2028. Twenty different measures are being implemented to strengthen and develop the area of violence in the Faroe Islands. Reproductive rights are limited, as abortion is only permitted under three circumstances: if the woman’s life or health is at risk, if the woman has been raped, or if the fetus is seriously ill. In recent years, feminist organizations have been advocating for the right to free abortion.
Here below are a few resources to understand gender-based violence and reproductive rights in the Faroe Islands.
“Study of violence”. The Prime Minister’s Office. 2021. In Faroese.
Study of violence in the Faroe Islands from 2021 by the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Violence in relationships and near relations”. The Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Health. 2011. In Faroese.
Study of violence in relationships and near relations on the Faroe Islands, published in 2011.
The Women’s house. In Faroese and English.
Website of The Women’s House where women and their children can seek shelter and help all hours of the day.
“Autonomy’s double bind. The rhetorical intersection of geopolitics and biopolitics in Danish media coverage of Faroese abortion rights”, PhD thesis. Turið Nolsøe, University of Copenhagen. 2023. In English.
PhD thesis about the rhetorical intersection of geopolitics and biopolitics in Danish media coverage of Faroese abortion rights.
“Reproductive manoeuvring: An ethnographic study about women’s abortion and other reproductive experiences in the Faroe Islands”, PhD thesis. Turið Hermansdóttir. University of Aarhus. 2023. In English.
An ethnographic study about women’s abortion and other reproductive experiences in the Faroe Islands.
Greenland
Here below are a few resources to understand gender-based violence and reproductive rights in Greenland.
Vold og seksuelle overgreb i Grønland. Et notat baseret på befolkningsundersøgelserne i Grønland. Christina Viskum, Lytken Larsen and Peter Bjerregaard. Statens Institut for Folkesundhed, 2019. In Danish.
A report from the Greenland Center for Public Health on sexual assault and physical violence in Greenland.
Human Rights in Focus. Report to Inatsiartut 2022-2023. Danish Institute for Human Rights, 2023. In English, Danish and Greenlandic.
A 2023 report from the Danish Institute for Human Rights to the Greenlandic parliament, Inatsisartut, on the status of human rights and women’s rights in Greenland, including gender-based violence and reproductive rights.
Spiralkampagnen (podcast). Danish Broadcasting Cooperation. In Danish.
An investigative report on the “IUD campaign”, where Danish doctors in Greenland inserted IUDs into up to half of Greenlandic women and girls of childbearing age in the late 1960s to mid-1970s, many apparently without giving consent.
Speaking up for women in Greenland spiral-case: “We were frozen in our bodies for decades”. UNRIC, 2024. In English.
Article published in UNRIC, the United Nations Regional Information Center for Western Europe, about the “IUD campaign” in Greenland and an interview with Naja Lyberth, a victim of the campaign.
Iceland
Recent studies have shown that around 40% of women in Iceland have suffered physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime and 32% have been sexually harassed in the workplace. Any woman has the right to have her pregnancy terminated up to the end of the 22nd week of pregnancy upon request.
Here below are a few resources to understand gender-based violence and reproductive rights in Iceland.
“Risk factors for workplace sexual harassment and violence among a national cohort of women in Iceland: a crosssectional study”. Svava Dogg Jonsdottir, Arna Hauksdottir, Thor Aspelund, Johanna Jakobsdottir, Harpa Runarsdottir, Berglind Gudmundsdottir, Gunnar Tomasson, Unnur Anna Valdimarsdottir, Thorhildur Halldorsdottir, Edda Bjork Thordardottir. Lancet, 2022. In English.
Article in the Lancet describing sexual harassment and violence in the workplace in Iceland.
Government Actions against Gender-based and Sexual Violence and Harassment 2020-2023. Government of Iceland, 2024. In English.
Government action plan to deal with gender-based and sexual violence in Iceland.
GREVIO Baseline Evaluation Report Iceland. The Council of Europe, 2022. In English.
The evaluation report of Iceland by the Group of Experts against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO), which monitors countries’ compliance with the Istanbul Convention.
Policy Brief on Iceland’s Roadmap for Ending Gender-based Violence by 2026. The Prime Minister Office and Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 2021. In English.
A policy paper outlining 23 commitments by the Government of Iceland to ending all forms of gender-based and sexual violence, as a part of the Generation Equality Forum initiative.
A Global Milestone: Why Iceland’s 2019 Law on the Termination of Pregnancy is one of the most Progressive Abortion Laws in the World. Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir. Verfassungsblog, 2023. In English.
An article about the background of abortion in Iceland and current abortion legislation.