Country Profile France

General Country Information

Summary

There is one national women’s helpline operating free of charge, available 24/7 and offering multilingual support, as well as other specialised helplines. There are 52 women-only shelters and approximately 200 other shelters, offering a total of 11,000 bed spaces. There are around 260 women’s centres in France, as well as different support services for survivors of sexualised violence. Measures related to primary prevention are included in official documents such as the National Action Plan, but no dedicated budget is allocated to such activities, and there is no unified national data collection system for primary prevention activities. The State collects data on women’s specialist services, and this information is available upon request.

Women’s Specialist Services

There is one national helpline for women, called Violence against Women Info (Violence Femmes Info, tel.: +33 3913), which is run by the National Network on Women Solidarity (FNSF – Fédération Nationale Solidarité Femmes). The helpline is available 24/7, free of charge, and offers multilingual support in over 200 languages, thanks to an interpreting service. Therefore, it meets the standards of the Istanbul Convention. The helpline provides support for survivors of violence, including domestic violence, sexualised violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, sexist and sexual harassment in the workplace, and for survivors of sexual exploitation. The funding for the helpline comes from state funding, as well as donations. In 2024, the helpline received 152,220 calls from 113,731 callers. The most common forms of violence reported by callers were domestic violence, sexualised violence, and sexual harassment in the workplace.

In addition, other national helplines in France offer specialist support for survivors of different forms of violence, such as in forced marriage cases (SOS Mariages Forcés, tel.: +33 130310505), and sexual harassment at work (Violence Faites aux Femmes au Travail – AVFT, tel.: +33 145842424). These helplines are free of charge, but they are not available 24/7, nor do they offer multilingual support. Other specialised helplines include the Family Planning helpline for questions about contraception, abortion, sexually transmitted infections, and sexualised violence (Planning Familial, tel.: +33 800081111), the helpline for women with disabilities (Femmes pour le Dire Femmes pour Agir, tel.: +33 140470606), and the National Foundation for Women’s and Family Rights Information Centres (Fondation Nationale des Centres d’Information sur les Droits des Femmes et de la Famille – FNCIDFF, tel.: +33 142171200).

Fifty-two associations affiliated with the FNSF Network run one or more women-only shelters in France and provide more than 5,000 bed spaces. In total, there are 250 shelters in the country offering approximately 11,000 bed spaces, but details about other shelters accessible to women are not available. Most of the shelters offer 24/7 access, but this varies greatly across regions, and there is no centralised approach to help women find accommodation. Women-only shelters in France are financed by state funding and donations, and women, depending on their financial circumstances, are expected to pay for their accommodation. Survivors can normally stay in the shelters for three to six months. The women-only shelters provide casework, counselling, referrals, and practical as well as legal advice.

All women-only shelters in France can accommodate homeless women, while most shelters are equipped to support women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, refugee women, and older women. Some shelters can accommodate and are accessible to women with physical, cognitive and sensory disabilities, women with substance abuse issues, transgender women, women with older sons, women with children with disabilities and unaccompanied girls under 18. Additionally, there is a shelter specialised in supporting refugee women who are survivors of sexual exploitation.

In France, different types of organisations run women’s shelters. There are organisations with a gender/feminist approach (FNSF, La Maison des Femmes), women’s NGOs (Centres for Information on Women’s and Families’ Rights – Centres d’Information sur les Droits des Femmes et des Familles – CIDFF, SOS Femmes), faith-based organisations (Secours Catholique) and other associations and local services (Amicale, Accommodation and Social Reintegration Centre – Centre d’hébergement et de réinsertion sociale – CHRS, Integrated Reception and Orientation Services – Service Intégré d’Accueil et d’Orientation – SIAO). Women-only shelters exist in most regions of France. The main reasons why women-only shelters decline referrals are that no space is available, the survivors are ineligible for support, and/or the shelters are not adequately equipped for the needs of the women and their children. The three most common forms of violence reported by clients to the women-only shelters in 2024 were domestic violence, sexualised violence, and intra-family violence. Within the FNSF Network, between 7,000 and 8,000 women were supported by shelters in 2024.

There are other shelters in France which can provide support to survivors of different forms of gender-based violence, including women, men, non-binary people, transgender women and men, and other groups of survivors. Some of these shelters offer 24/7 access.

There are more than 260 women’s centres in France, among which 98 are part of the National Federation of CIDFF (Fédération nationale des CIDFF – FNCIDFF), 79 are affiliated with FNSF, and 80 are from Planning Familial. Women’s centres provide counselling, psychological support, legal advice, financial and social welfare support, housing advice, referrals, representation at court/police/social services, as well as residential support services. Additionally, women’s centres can also provide specialist support for survivors of sexualised violence, including specialist forensic and medical care, needs assessment, specialist psychological care, advocacy services, community awareness and education for prevention, and legal advice.
All women’s centres are equipped to support women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, refugee women, older women and unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. Most centres are accessible to women with physical, cognitive and sensory disabilities, as well as transgender women. Additionally, there are women’s centres specialised in supporting survivors and those at risk of specific forms of violence, such as forced marriage, honour-based violence, female genital mutilation, and trafficking in persons, as well as centres specialised in supporting women with physical, cognitive, and sensory disabilities.

The state, religious institutions and donations are the major sources of funding for women’s centres, which are located in most regions.

In France, support to survivors of sexualised violence is provided by rape crisis centres (between 35 and 50 centres available), sexual violence referral centres (mostly services offered in hospitals with specialised units or consultation services), crisis/medical services (between 90 and 110 services available) and specialised helplines. These support services offer specialist forensic and medical care, needs assessment, specialist psychological care, specialist advocacy services, community awareness and education for prevention, and legal advice. The services are provided jointly by Women’s Houses (Maisons des Femmes), university hospitals, CIDFF, and associations such as the Feminist Collective Against Rape (Collectif Féministe Contre le Viol – CFCV). Funding for sexualised violence services is provided by the state and donations. Such services are available in most regions, and support different groups: women, young people under the age of 18, as well as transgender women, non-binary individuals, women with physical, cognitive, sensory disabilities, older women, and women with precarious legal status (undocumented migrants, asylum seekers).

Additionally, there is an online portal to support survivors of sexualised violence (Portail de signalment des violences sexuelles et sexistes, via the website service-public.fr). It is free of charge and available 24/7 and consists of a chat with police officers trained to support and counsel survivors of sexualised violence. There is a helpline supporting survivors of sexualised violence in the country (Viols Femmes Informations, tel.: +33 800059595).

There is no unified national data collection system on primary prevention activities in France. However, some local authorities (e.g., departmental councils, regional health agencies, education authorities) and ministries (Education, Gender Equality, Justice) may occasionally fund or assess initiatives in this field. Associations often evaluate their field activities for reporting purposes or funding renewal. The 2023–2027 National Action Plan to combat violence against women includes measures related to awareness, education on equality, and prevention. While the concept of primary prevention is implicitly present in public policies, there is no standardised or explicitly formulated definition in official documents such as the National Action Plan. There is also no dedicated budget line for primary prevention in public documents and policies. Funding comes from various mechanisms (regional health agencies, local authorities, projects from the Ministry of Equality, etc.). Budgets often relate to awareness-raising, equality education and support to associations, but without precise allocation to primary prevention. The primary prevention activities conducted in the country include feminist self-defence trainings, empowerment activities for girls and women, school-based programmes, training for primary prevention practitioners, bystander intervention training, self-care activities and awareness-raising campaigns or programmes. Some evaluations are occasionally conducted by state services or local authorities, often as part of funded projects. Associations like En Avant Toute(s) or CIDFF incorporate evaluation tools into their programmes. However, there is no national framework for systematic evaluation.