Regardless of adjustments in each nationwide and EU legal guidelines, and years of public consciousness campaigns, violence towards girls continues to be a major problem throughout Europe. In some nations, it’s even getting worse.
Round one-in-three girls within the EU say they’ve skilled bodily and/or sexual violence after the age of 15, a determine nearly unchanged in contrast with a decade in the past.
Near one-in-10 girls say they’ve been bodily injured by a associate.
However reporting stays extraordinarily low, with solely round 12–14 % of victims reporting incidents to the police.
And within the case of associate violence it’s even decrease, nearer to 6 %.
In the meantime, a brand new EU regulation to fight violence towards girls and home violence has been adopted. It criminalises acts resembling compelled marriage and feminine genital mutilation, tackles sure types of on-line abuse, and units minimal requirements for sufferer help and penalties.
However member states should now flip these guidelines into nationwide regulation by 2027 — and efficient implementation can be key.
So how have totally different governments been attempting to take care of gender violence?
Poland‘s ‘Blue Card’ scheme failing?
In Poland, it’s troublesome to acquire correct figures on violence towards girls. However even the accessible statistics are terrifying.
Based on information from the nationwide police, 50,638 girls skilled home violence in 2024. However the scale of the issue is probably going far better.
Sadly, this isn’t the tip of the issue. A separate tragedy is femicide — essentially the most excessive type of violence towards girls and ladies, rooted in emotions of superiority, misogyny, and the will for management.
Based on a report revealed in September by the Femicide in Poland organisation, in half of the recorded femicide instances, the perpetrator had beforehand been topic to a ‘Blue Card’ process or convicted for home abuse.
Police or different professionals (social staff, docs, academics) can open a ‘Blue Card’ (process “Niebieska Karta”) file when there’s a suspicion of home abuse.
In an interview with Polish media, Joanna Gzyra-Iskandar, a spokesperson for violence prevention at Feminoteka, additionally emphasised that within the overwhelming majority of instances, a girl killed by a present or former associate had beforehand skilled abuse that escalated to essentially the most excessive kind.
“The dearth of correct monitoring of home violence and violence towards girls, the shortage of dependable, up-to-date and full information on the topic make it unattainable to successfully counteract this phenomenon and violate worldwide human rights obligations,” stated Marta Żejmo-Adamiuk from the ’Mamy Prawo’ Federation in an interview.
She additionally identified that Poland fails to submit experiences to the Istanbul Conference on time, which in follow implies that it fails to display progress in implementing its obligations beneath the conference.
Cyberbullying can be turning into more and more recognised as an issue in Europe, with one-in-three girls experiencing it, in response to a 2024 UN report.
“Nearly 100% of the so-called deepfakes of a sexual nature contain girls. The issue significantly impacts younger girls between the ages of 14 and 24. It covers such phenomena as hate speech and verbal abuse, blackmail, in addition to the unauthorised use and processing of victims’ pictures,” in response to the Polish parliament web site final yr in a abstract of a convention held with the participation of parliamentarians and specialists.
In the meantime, organisations in Poland are additionally growing their very own campaigns and technical options to enhance the safety of girls.
This consists of the HomeGirl app that enables girls strolling residence alone to speak to different girls to really feel safer, and the Protected YOU app, just lately launched in Poland, that sends an alert with the person’s location to trusted contacts if she is in peril.
Spain a frontrunner since 2004
For years, the Spanish authorities have emphasised that gender equality and girls’s rights are amongst their high priorities, and the nation is recognised as a European chief in combating violence towards girls.
In recent times, the Spanish authorities has tightened rules on sexual consent and gender-based violence, expanded the scope of sufferer safety, and launched mechanisms to observe equal pay and girls’s participation in firm administration.
As early as 2004, the federal government of former socialist prime minister José Zapatero drafted the primary regulation to fight gender-based violence, offering victims with social, authorized, and judicial help.
VioGén, a computerised system for monitoring and defending victims by the police, was additionally launched.
Relying on the extent of threat, every sufferer receives a personalised security plan and is assigned a police officer. These options work so nicely that different nations additionally use them commonly.
There are over 100 specialised courts all through Spain that deal solely with instances of gender-based violence. They function on a regular basis, even on weekends and public holidays.
Complaints are filed not solely by the ladies who’ve been harmed, however typically additionally by the state, following a report from neighbours or police intervention.
In 2021, the ‘Purple Level’ marketing campaign was additionally launched. Retailers, pharmacies, and corporations wishing to supply ‘secure areas’ the place girls can search assist in conditions of violence are collaborating within the marketing campaign.
The Spanish ministry of equality has declared that it’s going to allocate €2.4m to campaigns regarding gender-based violence in 2025.
Nonetheless, this doesn’t imply that the state of affairs within the nation is good.
In 2024, greater than 34,000 girls have been registered as victims of gender-based violence in Spain, in comparison with over 36,000 the earlier yr.
Based on a report by the Spanish Observatory for the Prevention of Gender-Primarily based Violence, in 2024 there have been 94 murders of girls by males in Spain.
Final yr, there was a lot controversy in Spain after the invention of flaws within the digital bracelet system designed to guard victims of violence.
The bracelets are worn by perpetrators beneath court docket order permitting their location and any potential strategy to the sufferer to be tracked. An alarm is triggered and an emergency name can be made.
It turned out, nonetheless, that some bracelets have been simple to take away, had battery and vary issues, and generated false alarms. This led to a wave of criticism of the federal government.
Solely 15% of French girls report violence to police
Violence towards girls additionally stays a major problem in France.
Whereas correct statistics are as soon as once more arduous to acquire, it’s estimated that a mean of 213,000 girls per yr have been victims of bodily or sexual violence by a associate or former associate between 2011 and 2018. Amongst these victims, 29 % have been between the ages of 18 and 29.
Based on information from the French ministry of the inside, between 2018 and 2022, the variety of reported instances of home violence elevated by 83 %, and within the case of sexual violence, the numbers are even greater.
Though the variety of reported instances of this sort has elevated lately, it’s estimated that solely 15 % of girls who’ve been victims of violence in France have reported it to the police.
In 2024, the French authorities allotted greater than €184m to fight violence towards girls. Funding for the equality programme was additionally elevated by greater than 10 %.
Nonetheless, native organisations emphasise that this quantity is much from enough and that the state ought to allocate €2.6bn per yr, or about 0.5 % of the nationwide price range, to combating varied types of violence towards girls and serving to victims.
In France, varied campaigns are additionally organised to lift public consciousness on this space. In 2023, Inter Orga Féminicides, an affiliation bringing collectively a number of organisations, was established to lift consciousness of femicide instances in France. To this finish, they preserve correct statistics and publicise particular tales.
There may be additionally an official authorities web site known as ‘Let’s Cease Violence’ the place victims can search assist 24 hours a day.
In 2024, France (and the remainder of Europe) was shaken by the Gisèle Pelicot rape case. For a decade, her husband drugged and sedated Gisèle and invited strangers to rape her.
The revelation of this case led to mass protests in lots of French cities, with individuals demanding pressing systemic adjustments to guard girls from violence and abuse.
Lithuania’s ‘home violence safety’ order
Lithuania can be attempting to take concrete motion to fight violence towards girls. Based on native surveys, 60 % of people that have skilled home violence didn’t search assist, and the victims are most frequently girls aged 30-59.
Based on the EU Gender Equality Index 2025, roughly 25 % of girls in Lithuania have skilled sexual or bodily violence for the reason that age of 15.
Lithuanian authorities level to the home violence safety order launched in 2023 as a key answer to enhancing the state of affairs.
This enables the police to order a person suspected of violence to instantly go away the sufferer’s residence for 15 days. Importantly, no court docket ruling is required; an intervention confirming a excessive threat of violence is enough.
Because the rules got here into drive, the Lithuanian police have issued greater than 46,000 such orders as of November 2025.
One other instance of a state initiative is the Nationwide Centre for Info on Sexual Violence, the primary establishment in Lithuania to supply help to victims of violence and their family members.
The Lithuanian authorities allocates €100,000 yearly to fund its operations. There are additionally help centres, principally funded by the state, which provide authorized and psychological help.
Definition of rape in Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is one among a number of European nations that haven’t ratified the Istanbul Conference, arguing that they see no necessity to implement its provisions.
Nonetheless, it’s estimated that one-in-three girls within the Czech Republic has skilled home violence.
The Czech authorities have adopted different options, together with altering the definition of rape in 2024 from a compelled act to sexual activity regardless of opposition.
There may be additionally a authorities plan to forestall home violence which supplies that the state ought to elevate public consciousness on this space and strengthen sufferer safety.
Campaigns and help actions on this space within the Czech Republic are primarily carried out by varied organisations.
For instance, the organisation Rosa supplies a variety of knowledge for victims of violence and likewise operates a helpline.
Based on their web site, a complete of 1,762 calls have been made to the helpline between 27 November 2024 and 25 November 2025. This represents a 47 % enhance in comparison with the identical interval final yr.
Between 2020 and 2024, Czech organisations additionally ran a marketing campaign known as ‘That is Equality’ to advertise equal remedy and supply coaching for academics and state directors on stopping gender-based violence.
Collaboration: Ana Somavilla (El Confidencial), Juste Ancevičiūte (Delfi.lt), Anna Absolonová (Deník Referendum). The textual content was first revealed by Gazeta Wyborcza. It was written as a part of the PULSE challenge, a European initiative supporting worldwide journalistic collaboration. The textual content was translated by Maciej Tichy (Voxeurop)
