Stopping men’s violence against women has been a priority for the Government in both the current and previous electoral periods. In 2016, the Government adopted a ten-year national strategy to prevent and combat men’s violence against women, with an accompanying programme of measures for 2017–2020. Since then, the focus has been building a long-term sustainable structure at national, regional and local level. The package of measures now being presented intensifies this work.

“As long as one single woman is murdered by her partner or former partner, we have not done enough. No teenage girl should be subjected to violence by their boyfriend. The Government is today presenting measures to put an end to violence here and now, give affected women support and protection, and take preventive action so that no more women are beaten and no men resort to violence,” says Märta Stenevi, Minister for Gender Equality. 

The package of measures to stop men’s violence against women that the Government is now presenting contains 40 points. It includes measures to help achieve all four of the objectives in the national strategy to prevent and combat men’s violence against women:   

• Increased and effective preventive work to combat violence
• Improved detection of violence and stronger protection for and support to women and children subjected to violence
• More effective law enforcement
• Better knowledge and methodological development.

“In recent years, the Government has taken a number of important measures to impose stricter punishments on men who commit crimes against women. The punishment should reflect the seriousness of the crime, and further proposals in line with this are presented here. Men’s violence against women can never be accepted, and the judicial system must take a severe view of these crimes,” says Minister for Justice and Migration Morgan Johansson.

“Men’s violence against women is a high priority for the Government. The authorities in the judicial system are central to the efforts to combat men’s violence against women. Making progress in these efforts requires our authorities to join forces and cooperate, based on their different areas of responsibility. It is important that the authorities have the right tools and the right expertise so that we can put our full strength into achieving the objectives in the package of measures and stopping the violence,” says Minister for Home Affairs Mikael Damberg.