National expert team sees substantial increase in cases on forced marriage, female genital mutilation and negative social control
Honour Based Violence
27 Nov 2023
The majority of the expert team’s cases are motivated by honour, the annual report from the Norwegian agency Bufdir shows.
Norway’s National Expert Team against Forced Marriage, Female Genital Mutilation and Negative Social Control worked on 891 cases in 2022. This is an increase of 17 percent (132 cases) compared with the 759 cases handled by the team in 2021.
And it is the highest number of cases the expert team has worked on since its establishment in 2004. For the period 2015–2022, the number of cases has more than doubled.
“The number of cases that reach the Expert Team does not necessarily reflect the actual scale of the problem in Norway. There is reason to believe that many cases go unreported and that not everyone receives assistance”, it is stated in an annual report from Bufdir, the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs.
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The steadily rising number of cases could be the result of both greater awareness and competence among workers in public services, the report states. And that could lead to more cases being uncovered. Another suggested explanation is the expert team is becoming more widely known, which also could lead to the uncovering of more cases.
Majority of cases are honour-based
The majority of the cases relate to women and girls. In 2022, as much as 75 per cent of the cases related to women/girls (670 cases), while 21 per cent related to men/boys (190 cases).
And the majority of cases are motivated, to a greater or lesser extent, by honour. Honour-based violence is “violence triggered by the need of the family or the group to protect or restore honour and prestige”.
The most common and a growing primary concern in the cases is “threats and violence”, which accounted for 41 per cent of all cases in 2022. In 2022, 368 cases had this primary concern, which is an increase of 50 per cent compared with 2021.
The Norwegian expert team comprises representatives from: The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir), the National Police Directorate (POD), the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Directorate (Avdir), the Norwegian Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi) and the Norwegian Directorate of Health (Hdir).
