Country Profile Estonia

General Country Information

Summary

There is one national women’s helpline in Estonia that is free of charge, operates 24/7 and provides multilingual support. There are 19 women-only shelters with approximately 170 available beds. All women-only shelters also provide non-residential services such as counselling and also operate as women’s support centres. Estonia also has five rape crisis centres located in regional hospitals. Public authorities in Estonia do not collect data on primary prevention activities, although provisions on primary prevention are included in official documents such as National Action Plans. There is no specific budget allocated to primary prevention activities. The state does collect data on women’s specialist support services, and this information is available upon request.

Women’s Specialist Services

There is one national women’s helpline in Estonia called the Victim’s Support Crisis Helpline (Ohvriabi kriisitelefon, tel.: 116006). The helpline is run by the Victim Support Unit of the state-run Social Insurance Board and is free of charge, available 24/7, and offers multilingual support in Estonian, Russian and English. Therefore, Estonia does meet the Istanbul Convention standards for the provision of a national women’s helpline. The helpline is funded by the state and provides support to all survivors of violence including domestic violence, physical violence, sexualised violence, psychological violence, human trafficking and can also support survivors of cyberviolence. In 2024, the helpline received 5,647 calls from 1,299 callers, 58% of whom were from women. The most common forms of violence reported to the state-wide helpline were domestic violence, psychological violence, and violence directly or indirectly affecting children.

There are other helplines supporting survivors of violence against women in Estonia, including 16 regional helplines run by women’s support centres and operating 24/7.¹ In addition, the organisation Lifeline (NPO Eluliin) runs a specific helpline for survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, available during limited hours.² Lifeline also runs a helpline providing emotional support to anyone in a crisis situation, including for survivors of violence, in English (tel.: +372 6558088) and in Russian (tel.: +372 6555688), available Monday to Friday from 19:00–07:00.

There are 19 women-only shelters in Estonia with approximately 170 beds. One new women-only shelter opened since 2022. The number of beds is approximate, as there is no clear requirement from the state regarding bed spaces needed. There are roughly five bed spaces in shelters in smaller counties and around 10 bed spaces in shelters in bigger counties. The current number of beds in women-only shelters meets the country’s needs, and there is in fact an underusage of beds as in 2024, only around 7% of women who came to a women’s support centre needed accommodation. Most women-only shelters offer 24/7 access, and the intake of survivors can vary by shelter. In the case of acute need, crisis support and emergency shelter accommodation will be provided. Women are not expected to pay for their accommodation in a women-only shelter, and women can stay up to six months. However, in 2024, the average stay in a women-only shelter was 30 nights for women and 38 nights for women with children. The types of in-house services most often provided by shelters include casework, counselling and psychological support, referrals and collaboration with other services, practical advice, and legal advice. Usually, the support is tailored to the specific needs of the women and children, and some shelters provide other services such as group work and empowerment workshops. There are also options for referral to other services for longer-term support, in case a women’s support centres does not have enough resources.

Most women-only shelters can accommodate women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, refugee women, older women (65 years and above), and women with children with disabilities. Some shelters can be accessed by and are accessible to homeless women, women with physical disabilities or sensory disabilities, women with substance abuse issues, transgender women, and women with older sons (14 years and above). However, no women-only shelters are equipped to support women with cognitive disabilities or unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. There are no specialised shelters supporting particular groups of survivors nor women survivors or those at risk of specific forms of violence in Estonia. As all shelters are located in privately rented spaces, it is not possible to renovate these to meet the needs of survivors with disabilities. As an alternative, women’s support centres can visit survivors in their home to provide counselling and support through multistakeholder cooperation.

Funding for women-only shelters comes from the state as well as donations, although state funding remains low and only covers basic support including rent for shelters and counselling centres, crisis and social counsellors’ salaries, and any necessary or critical supplies for women and children who stay in shelters. In cases where survivors need more than basis support, women-only shelters must seek additional funding although there is often limited capacity to do so. Twelve women-only shelters are run by NGOs, four by women’s NGOs with a gender-specific and feminist approach, and three by the state (two in Tallinn and one in Pärnu). Women-only shelters are located in all regions of Estonia. The main reasons why shelters had to decline referrals were no space/capacity to support the survivor, the survivor being ineligible for support, and the shelter not being adequately equipped for the needs of the women/children, such as women with psychological/mental health issues (as there is a lack of specialists who can be present in the shelter 24/7). However, inability to accommodate women and children in need is extremely rare, as shelters are usually empty. The most common forms of violence reported by survivors in 2024 were psychological violence, economic violence, and physical violence. In 2024, 243 survivors were accommodated in women-only shelters, 103 women and 113 children. Although women-only shelters see fluctuation in numbers year by year, women generally are less in need of shelter accommodation since 2022 due to improved support from their social network. There are no other shelters in Estonia which can provide support to women survivors of violence.

There are 19 women’s support centres in Estonia only for women survivors of violence and their children. All women’s centres provide referrals and collaboration with other services as well as residential support services. Seventeen centres provide counselling and psychological support as well as legal advice. Some women’s centres offer financial and social welfare support or advocacy, housing advice, and representation at court/police/social services. Some women’s centres in Estonia are able to base their services on the individual needs of survivors and can also provide further support such as financial literacy, employment practice interviews, and CV writing skills, among others. This however depends on the capacity and resources of the women’s centre.

All women’s centres are equipped to support older women (65 years and above), and some can support women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women and refugee women. Some women’s centres can be accessed by and are accessible to women with physical, cognitive or sensory disabilities, transgender women, and unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. In terms of specialist support, all women’s centres can provide specialist support to black and minority ethnic women as well as women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women and older women. Two centres provide specialist support to women with disabilities, transgender women and non-binary people, and one centre provides specialist support to survivors of trafficking. Some women’s centres also provide specialist support to survivors of sexualised violence, including specialist sexualised violence advocacy series.

Each county in Estonia has a women’s support centre, which is almost always connected to a women-only shelter. The Social Insurance Board Victim’s Support Services (Sotsiaalkindlustusameti Ohvriabi) oversees services provided by NGO’s who have won the contract. Women’s centres are financed by the state as well as through donations. Twelve centres are run by NGOs, four by women’s NGOs with a gender-specific and feminist approach, and three by the state (two in Tallinn and one in Pärnu). In 2024, a total of 1,893 women were supported by women’s centres.

There are services for survivors of sexualised violence in Estonia, including five rape crisis centres located in regional hospitals. These centres provide mainly specialist forensic and medical care such as examinations, collecting evidence and injury notes, and storing data and information. They can also provide crisis counselling if needed, but for further support, they would refer the survivor to a women’s support centre. One rape crisis centre opened in 2024 in Saaremaa. Continuous psychological care and legal advice is provided through referrals by the Social Insurance Board Victims Support Unit or the local women’s support centre. Referrals depend on the capacity and availability of regional women’s support centres. Funding for rape crisis centres comes from the state as well as donations and are available to all survivors of rape, including women. These centres serve all counties and four are located in each geographical point of the country (North-East and South-West) as well as one on the biggest island (Saaremaa). The reality is that women in peripheral areas do not have an easy access to rape crisis centres and may prefer not to go to such centres.

Public authorities in Estonia do not collect data on primary prevention activities, although provisions on primary prevention are included in the Violence Prevention Agreement 2021–2025³ as well as in the Action Plan on the Prevention of Domestic Violence for 2024–2027 signed by four ministries: Social, Internal, Justice, and Education.⁴ Currently, there are discussions surrounding the development of the agreement for the next period, 2026–2031. Understanding of violence prevention is based on the World Health Organisation’s recommendations on a public health model, which emphasises the need to address the root causes of violence rather than just the symptoms. There is, however, no specific budget allocated to primary prevention activities. Available activities include feminist self-defence training, provided by the NGO Kaidsõq, and awareness-raising campaigns or programmes conducted in the frame of international project funding or when private businesses want to support such activities. There is also one NGO working on education and public advocacy, Feministeerium, and some women’s support centres also provide training to specialists in the field of violence against women and girls and conduct awareness-raising campaigns, based on available project funding.

1. Information on the different crisis helplines run by women’s support centres available here: https://www.palunabi.ee/en/womens-support-centres. ↩︎
2. Information on the different operating hours and phone numbers available here: https://eluliin.ee/inimkaubandusohvrite-ja-prostitutsiooni-kaasat-ute-noustamine. ↩︎
3. Available here: https://www.justdigi.ee/sites/default/files/documents/2021-11/V%C3%A4givallaennetuse%20kokkulepe.pdf ↩︎
4. Available here: https://www.justdigi.ee/uudised/neli-ministrit-allkirjastasid-lahisuhtevagivalla-ennetamise-kokkuleppe-koos-uue ↩︎