Country Profile Finland

General Country Information

Summary

There is one national women’s helpline in Finland that is free of charge, operates 24/7, and offers multilingual support. Additionally, there are other helplines supporting women survivors of different forms of violence. There are two women-only shelters in Finland with 23 rooms, as well as 26 other shelters accessible to women with a total of 228 beds. There are 28 women’s centres in Finland, as well as one rape crisis centre and 25 sexual violence referral centres, called SERI Support Centres, for survivors of sexualised violence. Public authorities in Finland do not consistently collect data on primary prevention activities and there is no specific budget allocated to such activities. Provisions on primary prevention are, however, included in state Action Plans. The Finnish state does not collect data on women’s specialist services as public authorities do not recognise women’s specialist services as an entity. Most of the women’s specialist services are run by NGOs and there is no data collection on the services provided by these NGOs. Although public authorities do collect numerical data on shelters run by NGOs, this includes all shelters in Finland, of which only two are gender specific.

Women’s Specialist Services

There is one national women’s helpline in Finland called Zeroline (Nollalinja, tel.: +358 80005005), coordinated by the National Institute for Health and Welfare and serviced by the NGO Setlementti Tampere. The helpline is free of charge, available 24/7, and offers multilingual support in Finnish, Swedish, English, Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Somali, Sorani, Spanish, Thai, Ukrainian, and Russian. In addition, survivors can also get in touch with a crisis worker via the Nollalinja chat service. The chat is open Monday to Wednesday 9:00–15:00, and Thursday to Friday 14:00–20:00 (excluding public holidays). The Nollalinja website offers information about domestic violence and shelters in Finnish (in plain language as well as sign language), Swedish, English, Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Sami (North Sami, Inari Sami, Skolt Sami), Somali, Sorani, Spanish, Thai, Ukrainian, and Russian. The helpline offers support to all survivors of domestic violence in close relationships and for women specifically in relation to violence or threat of violence in and also outside of close relationships. Finland, therefore, does meet the Istanbul Convention minimum standards for the provisions of a national women’s helpline. Nollalinja is a special government service funded by the Finnish state through victim surcharges paid by offenders in criminal cases. In 2024, the helpline received 15,167 calls, of which 9,878 were answered, as well as 1,076 chat conversations. The most common forms of violence reported by callers in 2024 were psychological violence (76,7%), physical violence (39,5%), threat of violence (33,5%), and coercive control (20,5%).

There are other national helplines supporting survivors of violence in Finland. The Women’s Line (Naisten Linja, tel.: +358 80002400) is run by an NGO with the same name and provides support to women survivors of all forms of violence. It is free of charge and offers multilingual support in Finnish, Swedish and English. In 2024, Naisten Linja received 4,053 calls, of which 1,181 were answered, as well as 324 chat conversations. The Crisis Center Monika’s Helpline (Kriisikeskus Monikan auttava puhelin, tel.: +358 80005058) is run by Monika’s Women Association (Monika-naiset liitto ry) and provides support to immigrant women on all forms of violence or threat of violence. The helpline offers multilingual support in Arabic, Dari, English, Farsi, Persian, French, Finnish, Belarusian and Russian. Suvanto Helpline, run by Suvanto Association (Suvanto, turvallisen vanhuuden puolesta ry, tel.: +358 80006766), provides support to survivors of elder abuse and is specialised in supporting elderly women. Funding for this helpline comes from the Centre for Social Welfare and Health Organisations (STEA). There is also a national helpline for survivors of human trafficking (Ihmiskaupan uhrien auttamisjärjestelmä, tel.: +358 0295463177) run by the Assistance System for Victims of Human Trafficking and funded by the Finnish government.

There are two women-only shelters in Finland which are accessible 24/7 with 23 spaces that can accommodate individuals or family units. In autumn 2025, a women-only unit with six places was also established within the shelter in Oulu (which is not a women-only shelter). One of the women-only shelters is the Shelter Mona (Turvakoti Mona) run by the Monika’s Women Association, which provides specialised support to migrant women survivors of violence. Women are not expected to pay for their accommodation in the shelters and receive free meals as well as basic necessities such as bed linen and some hygiene products, if needed. The types of in-house services most often provided by the women-only shelters are counselling/psychological support, referrals/collaboration with other services, and practical advice.

The women-only shelters can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, refugee women, homeless women, women with physical, cognitive, or sensory disabilities, older women (65 years and above), transgender women, and women with children with disabilities. Women-only shelters can accommodate women affected by substance use, provided that no alcohol or drug use occurs during their stay. However, they are not equipped to support unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. The Shelter Mona provides specialised support to women survivors (at risk) of honour-based violence, forced marriage and trafficking. In 2025, three places will be established in Tampere specifically for women with active substance abuse issues. The places will be in addiction treatment units, and shelter workers will work in the substance abuse unit with a maximum of three women.

The women-only shelters are funded by the state, located in Tampere and the capital area, and run by women’s NGOs with a gender-specific and feminist approach. The main reason why the women-only shelters had to decline referrals was no space or capacity to support the survivor. Sometimes special needs cannot be met as the shelters have a limited number of, for example, wheelchair accessible rooms. All survivors accommodated in the shelters have experienced domestic violence and the most common forms of violence reported by survivors in 2024 were physical, psychological, and economic violence. In 2024, 318 women and children were accommodated in the Shelter Mona.

In addition, there are 26 other shelters accessible to women in Finland with a total of 228 beds¹ for families and individuals. These general shelters are for all survivors including women, men, non-binary people, transgender women and transgender men. Although these shelters are open to all, they are predominantly accessed by women and apply a gender-sensitive approach. They are all accessible 24/7 and are run by different NGOs, predominantly by the Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters (Ensi- ja Turvakotien Liitto). Shelters are coordinated and funded by the National Institute for Health and Welfare, an expert agency working under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. All shelters in Finland are free of charge and state-funded since 2015, when the Istanbul Convention was ratified. In general, women can stay in the shelters for a maximum of three months, and the aim is for survivors to stay for a short period until safe accommodation is funded. The average length of stay in 2024 was 18 days. Eighty percent of shelter stays lasted less than one month. Sixteen percent of the stays lasted more than one month but less than two months. A very small portion, only 4% of the shelter stays, lasted more than two months. Shelters are located across the country, but since Finland is large with a small and scattered population, providing services, including specialised and especially gender-specific ones, remains challenging. General shelters are located in rural areas too, but the distances between shelters can be very far, especially in Northern Finland, where the population is extremely scattered.

There are 28 women’s centres in Finland, three of which are women-only and 25 centres are for all survivors of violence. All women’s centres provide counselling/psychological advice, financial and social welfare support/advocacy, housing advice, and collaboration with other services. Some centres collaborate with legal counsellors to offer legal support and some also provide representation at court/police/social services, although separate support services also exist for crime victims in criminal investigations and court processes. At least two women’s centres provide residential support services. Finally, women’s centres also provide specialist support for survivors of sexualised violence including specialist psychological care, specialist sexualised violence advocacy services, community awareness and education for prevention, and legal advice. The Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters (Ensi- ja Turvakotien Liitto) has 22 daytime centres for survivors of domestic violence and other forms of violence against women. Daytime centres aim to help survivors break free from violence and provide non-residential support services such as information and advice, counselling, advocacy, practical support, empowering support, and legal advice.
All women’s centres can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, refugee women, women with physical, cognitive, or sensory disabilities, older women (65 years and above), and transgender women. Some women’s centres are equipped to support unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. All women’s centres can also support survivors or those at risk of forced marriage, honour-based violence, female genital mutilation, trafficking in persons, and black and minority ethnic women. However, only one women’s centre provides specialised support to these groups of women, Crisis Center Monika (Kriisikeskus Monika). There are other specialised services supporting particular groups, but these are not necessarily focusing on violence against women. In addition to the 28 women’s centres, there are also nine gender-specific services for minors and young adults, so-called “Girls’ houses”.

Two women’s centres are run by women’s NGOs and the rest by other NGOs. Women’s centres are funded by the state and through donations as well as international funding. Women’s centres are located in most regions of Finland, although areas with dispersed settlements may lack service providers close by. However, services are offered by women’s centres via remote access (such as phone or video calls). In 2024, 6,749 women and 2,059 underage girls were supported by women’s centres in Finland².

In Finland, there is one rape crisis centre and 25 sexual violence referral centres (SVRCs), called SERI Support Centres which also act as rape crisis centres. The SVRCs are part of a national co-ordination structure and provide support to anyone over 16 years old who have experienced rape in the preceding month. The one and only rape crisis centre is run by an NGO, Tukinainen ry, and offers support to all survivors of sexualised violence, regardless of when the violence occurred. The rape crisis centre also runs a specialised helpline (Raiskauskriisikeskus Tukinainen, tel.: +358 080097899) as well as a legal helpline staffed by lawyers (tel.: +358 080097895). The rape crisis centre offers crisis and legal support, while SERI support centres provide forensic medical examinations, medical care, trauma support, psychological counselling, and therapy. SERI support centres are located in local and university hospitals and all but one operate their own 24/7 helpline. Specialised psychological care and legal advice is provided; however, the state co-ordinated services offer them on a limited basis. The NGO-run rape crisis centre can only offer these services when funding allows. Services for survivors of sexualised violence are present in most regions in Finland. More SERI support centres have been established in recent years, some of which are also located in smaller towns. These services are funded by the state and through donations.

There are other organisations supporting survivors of sexualised violence in Finland. This includes Nuorten exit, which seeks to prevent sexualised violence and offers free support to all aged 13–29 experiencing sexualised violence and harassment, Pro-tukipiste, which works against violence in the sex industry and provides help and support to survivors of violence and human trafficking in the sex industry (located in Tampere, Turku and Helsinki), and Delfins, which offers support to adults who experienced sexual abuse as children. All of these services are run by NGOs.

Public authorities in Finland do not consistently collect data on primary prevention activities. Finland has an Action Plan on the Istanbul Convention for the period 2022–2025, which does include specific provisions on primary prevention. The measures included in the Action Plan emphasise the gendered nature of violence and highlight the specificity of violence against women. These complement, where appropriate, other ongoing and planned violence prevention work, the activities of which have been included in other national programmes. There is no specific budget allocated to primary prevention activities in Finland. Some primary prevention measures are budgeted, although this depends on the interests of the government and other national decision-makers. Available primary prevention activities in Finland include empowerment activities for girls and women, primary prevention activities specifically targeting men and boys, school-based primary prevention programmes, training for primary prevention practitioners, and awareness-raising campaigns or programmes. These activities are evaluated within the state’s Action Plan. The focus of prevention work is related to general awareness-raising and training at different educational levels, including professionals working in those fields. It should be noted that prevention work in Finland is quite general and not gender specific.

1. This is the total number of beds accessible to women in all shelters. The 23 spaces in the two women-only shelters are also included in this figure. ↩︎
2. These figures only include data from 22 out of 28 women’s centres. ↩︎