Country Profile Greece

General Country Information

Summary

There are two state-wide women’s helplines in Greece, which operate free of charge, are available 24/7 and offer multilingual support. There are 20 state-run women-only shelters that offer 400 beds, and 44 state-run women’s centres. Additionally, there are other women’s shelters and women’s centres that are run by NGOs. There are no specialised services for women and girls who have experienced sexualised violence. There is a National Action Plan for Gender Equality, which includes specific provisions on primary prevention. The state collects data on state-operated women’s specialist services, which is publicly available.

Women’s Specialist Services

There are two state-wide women’s helplines in Greece, both of which are free of charge and available 24/7, meeting the standards of the Istanbul Convention. The main helpline is called SOS Helpline 15900 (Γραμμή SOS, tel.: +30 15900) and is run by the General Secretariat for Equality and Human Rights. This helpline is state-funded and offers support in English and Greek. In 2024, Arabic and Farsi were also available for two hours per week. Psychologists and social workers provide emergency support for urgent cases, as well as information and counselling to survivors of all forms of gender-based violence. The second state-wide helpline is run by the Union of Women Associations of Heraklion Prefecture (UWAH) and is called Line of Hope (Γραμμή Ελπίδας, tel.: +30 8011116000), is free of charge and available 24/7. It is operated by psychologists working in the Survivor Support Unit of UWAH. This helpline offers support in Greek and English to survivors of different forms of domestic violence, gender-based violence and intimate partner violence. This helpline is self-funded through donations. Available data¹ from the SOS Helpline 15900 for the period January to September 2024 reported 6,488 calls, of which 4,250 for “incidents of violence” and 1,339 for “useful information”. Of the calls concerning incidents of violence, 71% were made by female beneficiaries and 29% by third parties. The most common type of violence reported by callers in 2024 was domestic violence (84%), with the most frequent forms being psychological (71%), verbal (60%), physical (45%), economic (8%) and sexualised (5%) violence.

Additionally, there is another helpline developed by A21 (tel.: +30 1109) which is equipped to support survivors of trafficking in persons, offers multilingual support in over 200 languages through tele-interpretation, and is available 24/7.

In Greece, there are twenty state-run shelters, as well as shelters run by NGOs, including UWAH in Heraklion, and Action for Women and Caritas in Athens. Most of these shelters can accommodate around 20 women; therefore, the 20 state-run shelters offer approximately 400 beds, but no official data is available about the number of beds in other shelters. None of the state shelters offer immediate access and women are not expected to pay for their accommodation. The state funds only state-owned shelters via EU resources. The length of stay is three months, with a possibility to prolong it for three more months. The most common types of services offered are counselling and psychological support. Some NGOs also collaborate with lawyers and provide support regarding employment, housing and healthcare through social workers or by collaborating with other services and organisations. Additionally, women’s shelters in Greece offer casework and referrals and collaboration with other services.

Most women-only shelters are equipped to support women with physical disabilities. Some shelters can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits and undocumented women, refugee women, homeless women, women with cognitive and/or sensory disabilities and unaccompanied girls under the age of 18, while women with substance abuse, psychiatric disorders and transgender women cannot be accommodated in such shelters. In Greece, there are also other shelters specialised in supporting specific groups: the NGO Action for Women focuses on providing support to refugee and migrant women, including transgender women; Ananda Marge Universal Relief Team Ladies (AMURTEL) is equipped to support pregnant women and is based in Athens; A21 runs a short-term shelter for all survivors of trafficking in persons and is based in Thessaloniki.

Funding for shelters stems mainly from the state in the case of state-owned shelters. The remaining, NGO-operated shelters are not funded by the state. Women-only shelters are located in most regions of Greece, with state-run shelters available in 18 different municipalities and NGO-run shelters mostly available in Athens and Heraklion.
Reasons for declining referrals were not having the space and/or capacity to support the survivor, the survivor being ineligible for support (e.g., women having a male child over the age of 12 or women with a transmissible disease, substance addiction or psychiatric disorder), and the shelter not being adequately equipped for the needs of the women and children. The most common forms of violence reported were domestic, physical and sexualised violence. From January to September 2024, according to data from the General Secretariat of Equality and Human Rights, 491 persons (248 women and 243 children) were accommodated in state-run shelters.

There are 44 state-run women’s centres in Greece supporting survivors of violence against women and other women’s centres run by NGOs, although no official data is available on their availability. Women’s centres provide counselling and psychological support, social welfare support, housing advice, employment counselling, legal counselling and referrals and collaboration with other services; some centres, in cooperation with Bar Associations, provide representation at court, while police and residential support services are provided only for women who need interpretation.
All women’s centres are equipped to support refugee women and older women. Some centres can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits and undocumented women, women with physical, cognitive and/or sensory disabilities, as well as transgender women. Additionally, there are NGO-run centres specialised in supporting survivors (at risk) of trafficking in persons, women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, refugee women and Black and minority ethnic women. Moreover, there are NGO-run women’s centres specialised in supporting girls under the age of 18, transgender women and non-binary people.

Only state-operated women’s centres are state-funded through EU resources; the remaining funding stems from donations and international funding. Ten of the state-run women’s centres are located in the Attica Periphery, and the remaining 34 are in the remaining 12 regions of Greece. Between January and September 2024, 3,626 women survivors of violence received support through Greece’s network of state-run counselling centres.

There are no specific services for women and girls who have experienced sexualised violence. Women’s centres can provide counselling to survivors of sexualised violence, but no specialist support.

In Greece, primary prevention of violence against women and girls is addressed in the National Action Plan for Gender Equality 2021–2025, which includes gender-based violence prevention as one of its four priority axes. The plan foresees training of professionals and awareness-raising campaigns, including targeting men and boys, although implementation has not yet taken place. School-based programmes are not introduced by the Ministry of Education, and there is no official definition of primary prevention. Women’s centres and NGOs conduct primary prevention activities, but these are carried out among other duties, without systematic implementation, and rely mainly on EU funding rather than state resources.

The National Action Plan is financed through national and European sources. Data collection and evaluation are the responsibility of the General Secretariat for Equality and Human Rights, and Law No. 4604/2019 mandates gender impact assessments and the collection of gender-disaggregated data. However, the effectiveness of data collection efforts is limited by weak coordination between public authorities, academic institutions, and NGOs. Direct funding of evaluations by national or regional authorities is limited, with most evaluations conducted through EU programmes or NGO-led initiatives.

1. General Secretariat for Equality and Human Rights, Annual Report on Violence Against Women 2024, accessible at: https://isotita.gr/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/5%CE%B7-etisia-ekthesi-gia-ti-via-kata-twn-gynaikwn.pdf ↩︎
2. Number of beds in the 20 state-run shelters. ↩︎
3. Number of state-run women’s centres. Data about NGO-run women’s centres is not available. ↩︎