International recommendation

General obligations, immediate response, prevention and protection

Issue date:
Human rights body:
Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO)
Theme:
Violence against women, girls and partners
Populations of concern:
Women
Relevant Istanbul Convention articles:
Art. 49 – General obligations (investigation and prosecution)Art. 50 – Immediate response, prevention and protection
Source:
GREVIO Baseline Evaluation Report on legislative and other measures giving effect to the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Norway)

Recommended measures (1)

Measure
Measure types:
Institutions, practices and guidelinesStatistics and researchResources
Responsible Ministry:
Ministry of Justice and Public Security

Conviction rates

47. GREVIO urges the Norwegian authorities to:
a. pursue efforts to review and analyse the disparity between the number of reported cases and those decided on in court in relation to all forms of violence covered by the Istanbul Convention, in order to identify shortcomings in the prosecution chain (investigation – prosecution – criminal proceedings) and use the findings for evidencebased policy making in order to address and eliminate any gaps in the response of the police and judicial institutions;
b. undertake practical steps, such as in-service training, to overcome persistent attitudes, beliefs and practices that stand in the way of the response of the police and judiciary to domestic violence and other forms of violence covered by the Istanbul Convention. Progress in this area should be measured through the collection of publicly available data illustrating prosecution and conviction rates for the different forms of violence covered by the scope of the Istanbul Convention, respecting the requirements defined in its Article 11, in particular that the recorded data on victim and perpetrator should be
disaggregated by sex and age of both the victim and the perpetrator, the type of violence and the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim, as well as geographical location.
48. GREVIO strongly encourages the Norwegian authorities to provide law-enforcement agencies with the requisite means and capacity to assist effectively and without delay all victims, in particular victims of domestic violence and rape, from the moment they report the violence, including
by expanding existing efforts to establish specialist units within the police and by promoting and further strengthening the proactive collection of evidence, such as taking photos of the crime scene, interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence in digital form.