Country Profile Denmark

General Country Information

Summary

Denmark has two national women’s helplines, which are free of charge, operate 24/7 and offer multilingual support. There are 79 women-only shelters with a total of 775 beds, as well as 16 other shelters available to women with 191 beds. Six women’s centres offer a range of services and specialised support, and there are specialised services for survivors of sexualised violence including nine regional Sexual Assault Centres/Centres for Rape Victims. While no systematic data collection specifically focused on primary prevention activities exists, there are several National Action Plans addressing violence against women in Denmark, which include specific provisions on primary prevention. The state collects data on women’s specialist services, and this information is publicly available.

Women’s Specialist Services

Two national women’s helplines operate in Denmark. One of them is the state-funded Live Without Violence’s National Hotline (Lev Uden Volds nationale hotline, tel.: +45 1888). It is run by Lev Uden Vold, is free of charge, available 24/7 and provides multilingual support in any language provided by the interpretation service. The helpline does not exclusively operate for women as any survivor of domestic or intimate partner violence, as well as relatives, survivors of rape, and perpetrators can call for assistance. In 2024, Lev Uden Vold’s helpline registered 12,612 calls, of which 8,687 led to counselling conversations, with psychological violence reported in 84% of cases, physical violence in 38%, and 85% of violence occurring in close relationships. The second Danish women’s helpline, Danner’s National Crisis Hotline (Danners krisetelefon, tel.: +45 33330047), also provides its services free of charge, operates 24/7 and offers support in Danish and English. It is mostly funded by donations. Both helplines meet the Istanbul Convention standards for the provision of a national women’s helpline.

In addition, there are other helplines offering support to women exposed to violence in Denmark. Key services are, Break the Silence (Bryd Tavsheden, tel.: +45 29271717), which offers anonymous counselling via phone and chat to children and youth exposed to domestic or dating violence and Dialogue Against Violence (Dialog mod Vold, tel.: +45 35301717), supporting both perpetrators and survivors of domestic violence. Moreover, Mother’s Aid – Hold Point (Mødrehjælpen – Holdepunkt, tel.: +45 33458600) supports women and families affected by intimate partner violence. Additionally, Medusa – A Life Without Violence (tel.: +45 70277607) offers counselling to women exposed to intimate partner violence and the Danish Stalking Centre (Dansk Stalking Centre, tel.: +45 30704047) provides counselling and legal guidance to survivors of stalking.

Denmark has a total of 79 women-only shelters offering 775 beds with mostly 24/7 access. Women are generally expected to make a small daily co-payment of DKK 101,19 (€13,53) although exemptions are available to those with low income or existing housing costs. The average length of stay in women-shelters is more than a year. The types of in-house services most often provided by women-only shelters are casework, counselling and psychological help, referrals and collaboration with other services, as well as practical and legal advice.

In Denmark, all women-only shelters are equipped to support older women, and most can support women with uncertain residence status. Some shelters can be accessed by and are accessible to women with physical, cognitive and/or sensory disabilities, women with substance abuse issues, transgender women, women with older sons, women with children with disabilities and unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. None of the women-only shelters are able to accommodate refugee women. There are specific shelters for particular groups, such as LGBTQI+ people and survivors of honour-based violence.

Women-only shelters are mainly funded by national and local authorities. Accommodation is paid for by the municipality with a 50% state reimbursement. Women-only shelters are located in all regions of Denmark and run by women’s NGOs with a gender-specific and feminist approach, followed by other NGOs, the state at various levels, faith-based organisations, and other entities such as government-organised NGOs. In 2024, the most common reasons for declining referrals were lack of space, the survivor being ineligible for support and insufficient equipment to meet specific needs such as accessibility for women with disabilities. The main forms of violence reported by survivors were domestic, physical and psychological violence. In 2024, 5,783 women and children were accommodated in women-only shelters.

In addition to women-only shelters, Denmark has 16 other shelters for survivors of violence, offering a total of 191 beds. These include shelters for both men and women, as well as LGBTQI+ shelters, and men-only shelters. They are available to women, men, transgender women and men, and non-binary people. Some of these shelters offer 24/7 access.

There are six women’s centres in Denmark, from which four are exclusively for women survivors of violence and two support all survivors of violence. These centres follow a feminist and human rights-based approach, offering individualised counselling, legal and social support, and proactive outreach. Organisations such as The Joan Sisters (Joan-Søstrene), Tell Someone (Sig det til nogen), and Out of the Shadow of Violence (Mødrehjælpen – Ud af Voldens Skygge) offer support to women survivors. All these centres provide counselling and psychological support, three centres offer legal advice, and one offers referrals and collaboration with other services. Moreover, women’s centres provide specialist support for survivors of sexualised violence, including specialist psychological care, specialist sexualised violence advocacy services and legal advice.

All women’s centres in Denmark are equipped to support older women. Most can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits, undocumented women, refugee women, women with physical, cognitive, and/or sensory disabilities and transgender women. Some shelters can support unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. There are centres that provide specialised support to survivors of honour-based violence and trafficking.

Four women’s centres are run by women’s NGOs, one by another NGO and one by the state. Main funding sources for women’s centres in Denmark are national and local authorities as well as donations. Geographically, women’s centres are present in most regions. In 2024, only one centre, Mødrehjælpen’s Ud af Voldens Skygge, reported public figures and assisted 168 women and 163 children.

Denmark provides a comprehensive system of specialised services for women and girls who have experienced sexualised violence including rape crisis centres, sexual violence referral centres (SVRCs), crisis/medical services, and specialised helplines. In Denmark, SVRCs exist under the name of Sexual Assault Centres (Center for Seksuelle Overgreb) and are integrated into the public hospital system. These centres provide acute, free, and multidisciplinary support to survivors of sexualised violence, including forensic medical examinations, collection and preservation of evidence (for use in police investigations or legal proceedings), psychological first aid and follow-up, medical treatment (including STI testing, emergency contraception, injury care) and support with police reporting (optional). These services are available without referral and independent of police involvement, and they are accessible 24/7 at hospitals in major cities including Copenhagen (Rigshospitalet), Aarhus, Odense, Aalborg, and Esbjerg. In total, there are nine such regional services which are also referred to as Centres for Rape Victims (Center for Voldtægtsofre). They are located throughout the country and cover most regions in Denmark. The country’s two largest centres (the centres in Aarhus and Copenhagen) also have a knowledge centre function, which involves the collection and dissemination of knowledge on sexual abuse. These centres also operate a helpline, the phone number varies by hospital (e.g., +45 35457898 at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen) and provides medical and psychological support after rape or assault.

In addition to these medical services, women’s centres such as Joan-Søstrene, Danner, and Mødrehjælpen provide non-residential, trauma-informed support to women survivors of sexualised violence. These include psychosocial counselling, legal guidance, peer support, safety planning and empowerment-based recovery. Confidential support to survivors of sexualised violence is offered via national helplines such as 116 006 and Danner’s helpline. Sexualised violence services in Denmark are primarily state funded (with additional support from donations), free of charge, and available to adult women and girls under 18.

In Denmark, there is currently no systematic or centralised data collection specifically focused on primary prevention activities aimed at preventing violence against women and girls. While national data is generally gathered through administrative registers and surveys coordinated by Statistics Denmark and relevant ministries, these do not specifically track primary prevention efforts. Denmark has adopted several National Action Plans addressing violence in close relationships, which include primary prevention measures such as awareness-raising campaigns, school-based education programmes, and professional training. However, these documents do not include a definition of primary prevention.

Despite the lack of a clear definition or coordinated data system, Denmark does implement various primary prevention initiatives. These include empowerment activities for girls and women, school-based programmes, and public awareness-raising campaigns. There is no centralised system to evaluate the scope or effectiveness of these activities, and it is not known whether a specific budget is allocated to them. Reports by GREVIO and national stakeholders have highlighted the need for more structured and targeted data collection on both the reach and impact of primary prevention activities in Denmark.

1. These numbers only refer to the Lev Uden Vold national helpline. ↩︎
2. This applies to women-only shelters, only some of the other shelters accessible to women offer 24/7 access. ↩︎