Country Profile Liechtenstein

General Country Information

Summary

There is one national women’s helpline in Liechtenstein which operates 24/7, is free of charge and offers multilingual support. There is one women-only shelter with three rooms (for three women and up to seven children), and two women’s centres. There are no specific sexualised violence services. In Liechtenstein, there is no national strategy to prevent and combat violence against women, nor structured primary prevention programmes. The state collects data on women’s specialist services, which is available upon request.

Women’s Specialist Services

There is one national women’s helpline in Liechtenstein, called 24-hour Emergency Number (24 Stunden Notruf, tel.: +423 3800203). It is operated by the Frauenhaus Liechtenstein, is free of charge, and available 24/7. Therefore, it meets the standards of the Istanbul Convention for the provision of a helpline. In addition to German, callers can receive assistance in English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Turkish, Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian, Albanian, Czech, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and Hindi, with interpreters provided where necessary. It provides support across a broad spectrum of violence types, from physical abuse to economic and psychological violence. According to statistics from 2024, the most common forms of violence reported by callers were psychological violence, physical violence, and violence directly or indirectly involving children. The service is funded through state support as an officially recognised social service, complemented by donations and membership contributions.

In addition to the national women’s helpline, other support lines are available. The Victims Assistance Centre (Opferhilfestelle, tel.: +423 2367696) provides legal, psychological, and social support to survivors and their relatives. The Information and Counselling Centre for Women (Infra, tel.: +423 2320880) offers counselling and legal advice. The Crisis Intervention Team (KIT, tel.: +423 2300506) provides immediate help in acute crises, while the Office for Social Services (tel.: +423 2367272) can be contacted for broader social support. The Helpline for children and young people (Sorgentelefon für Kinder und Jugendliche, tel.: +423 147) is a national helpline for children and youth, available free of charge 24/7, and the Helping Hand helpline (Dargebotene Hand, tel.: +423 143) offers telephone counselling for adults.

There is one women-only shelter in Liechtenstein, the Frauenhaus Liechtenstein, which has three rooms with 10 beds in total, and can accommodate three women with their children. The shelter is accessible 24/7, and women are not expected to pay for their stay. Funding for the shelter comes from the state and donations. Women can stay in the shelter between one night and six months, but their stay can be extended if needed.

The women-only shelter is accessible to women with uncertain residence status, homeless women, older women, and women with older sons. Women with disabilities can find support in a specialised organisation called LBV (Liechtensteiner Behinderten-Verband – LBV). The shelter is not accessible to women with physical disabilities, and women with substance abuse issues can find accommodation in a specific shelter called Association for Assisted Living (Verein für betreutes Wohnen).

The main reason why the women-only shelter had to decline referrals is that they do not have the space to accommodate survivors from other countries, as at least one-bed space must always be available for Liechtenstein residents, or they are not adequately equipped for the needs of women/children. The most common types of violence reported by clients were physical and psychological violence. In addition to accommodation, the shelter also offers counselling, referrals, and legal advice to survivors and their children.

In 2024, 19 women and 23 children were admitted to and supported at the Women’s Shelter Liechtenstein. Three women were aged between 18–29, 16 were between 30 and 64 years old. In 17 cases the perpetrator of violence was the husband, in two the intimate partner. After their residential stay, two women and three children were taken into an external apartment and continued to receive support. The number of people seeking protection as well as the number of occupancy days has risen significantly since 2023 – in total 1,480 days in the women’s shelter and 338 days in the external apartment. In 2024, the shelter recorded an average daily occupancy of 4.1 persons.¹

There are two women’s centres in Liechtenstein that support women survivors of violence against women: Infra (Informations- und Beratungsstelle für Frauen – Infra), which is run by a women’s NGO, and a new counselling centre operated by Frauenhaus Liechtenstein. Infra offers women information and counselling services in areas such as legal advice, separation and divorce, marriage and cohabitation, sexual harassment, domestic violence, stalking, retirement planning, finances, and gender equality in the workplace. In addition, the women’s centre offers legal counselling by female lawyers as well as counselling for migrant women in their native language. Since January 2024, the Frauenhaus Liechtenstein has operated its counselling centre for domestic violence from Mondays to Thursdays from 9:00–13:00 (and by appointment). It offers free, confidential support for women affected by domestic violence, their relatives, supporters, and professionals.

Additionally, the state operates one Victims Assistance Centre (Opferhilfestelle), which provides confidential counselling and comprehensive support to persons affected by crime and their relatives in coping with its consequences.
The Victims Assistance Centre is funded by the state. Infra relies both on state funding and donations, while the counselling centre of Frauenhaus Liechtenstein only relies on donations in 2024 and 2025, and will receive state funding starting from 2026.

In Liechtenstein, there are no specific support services for survivors of sexualised violence. Medical services are provided at hospitals, and women survivors of sexualised violence are normally referred to the Immediate Help Centre after Sexual Violence at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen (Switzerland). Complementary services include forensic nursing at the Liechtenstein National Hospital (+423 2354416), which documents injuries (stemming from, for instance, domestic violence) without requiring a police report. Women’s centres also support survivors of sexualised violence.

In Liechtenstein, there is a lack of a comprehensive national strategy, such as a National Action Plan, to prevent and combat gender-based violence against women.² Although some primary prevention measures are in place to empower women and reduce their vulnerability to violence, for instance, through awareness-raising campaigns and informing them about their rights, such measures are not offered regularly.³ There are other measures in the country, such as the planned introduction of mandatory offender counselling, the Forensic Nursing Consultation at the Landesspital, and professional exchanges and training, but these focus mainly on intervention and documentation rather than on primary prevention.⁴

1. Data from the Annual Report 2024 of the Women’s Shelter Liechtenstein, https://www.frauenhaus.li/?page=10003 ↩︎
2. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of Liechtenstein, published on 24 February 2025. ↩︎
3. GREVIO Baseline Evaluation Report for Liechtenstein, published on 4 December 2023. ↩︎
4. Annual Report 2023/2024 of the Coordination Group for the Implementation of the Istanbul Convention, published in November 2024. ↩︎