Country Profile Slovakia

General Country Information

Summary

There is one national women’s helpline in Slovakia, which is free of charge, available 24/7 and offers multilingual support. There are ten women-only shelters with 273 beds and 22 women’s centres in the country. Primary prevention is included in the National Action Plan for the Prevention and Elimination of Violence Against Women 2022–2027; Slovak public authorities collect limited output-based data, and no specific budget is allocated to primary prevention activities. The state collects data on women’s specialist services, which is available upon request and is gathered by the Institute for Labour and Family Research together with the Coordinating-Methodical Centre for the Prevention of Violence against Women.

Women’s Specialist Services

There is one national women’s helpline in Slovakia, called the National Helpline for Women Experiencing Violence (Národná linka pre ženy zažívajúce násilie, tel.: +421 800212212). It is run by the Institute for Labour and Family Research, operates free of charge, and is available 24/7. Therefore, the helpline meets the standards set by the Istanbul Convention. The helpline offers support in Slovak and English and provides assistance to women affected by all forms of gender-based violence, including physical, psychological, sexualised, and economic violence. It also receives calls from individuals seeking advice on supporting survivors or addressing related issues such as parental conflicts and mental health. Women experiencing intimate partner violence often contact the helpline repeatedly within a month. In 2024, the helpline received 2,527 contacts from 1,197 callers, with domestic violence being the most commonly reported form of violence. The helpline is funded through the European Social Fund under the Operational Programme Employment and Social Inclusion.
In 2024, 17 women’s centres reported operating a crisis helpline providing comprehensive services, charged at standard operator rates. Nine of them provided data on the number of calls, reporting a total of 1,543 calls. Most of these helplines operate only during working days.

There are ten women-only shelters in Slovakia, providing more than 273 beds.¹ Several organisations have reported that the number of available places is insufficient, with four shelters specifically noting a shortage of capacity for women with multiple children. Most of the shelters offer 24/7 access. Accommodation is either free of charge for the first months or subject to small fees, and later contributions are usually adjusted according to the woman’s income and financial situation. Women are generally allowed to stay in the shelters for up to one year, though this may be extended in exceptional cases if necessary. Providers often emphasise that longer stays can be counterproductive, as the aim is to support women in stabilising their lives and moving towards independent living. Services provided by shelters include casework, counselling and psychological support, legal advice, referrals and cooperation with external services, as well as practical advice.

Most women-only shelters can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits and undocumented women, refugee women, homeless women, women with physical, cognitive and/or sensory disabilities, older women, transgender women, women with older sons and women with children with disabilities. Some shelters can accommodate women with substance abuse issues. No shelters are equipped to support unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. There are no specialised shelters in Slovakia designated exclusively for specific groups of survivors. Most shelters provide support to all women in need, regardless of their background or circumstances, and some shelters report that their staff receive specialised training to work with certain groups, including women with disabilities, older women, migrants, and Black and minority ethnic women.

Women-only shelters in Slovakia are funded through the state, donations and international sources. Five shelters are operated by women’s NGOs with a gender-specific or feminist approach, while the remaining five are run by other NGOs. Shelters are available in all regions of the country. In 2024, shelters reported having to decline referrals due to lack of capacity in accommodating women with children, no space to support the survivor, or because survivors were deemed ineligible for support. The most common forms of violence reported by survivors were physical, psychological, and economic violence. Data on the total number of women and children accommodated is incomplete, as not all shelters collect this information. Data provided by five shelters indicates that 454 clients were accommodated in 2024.

In addition to women-only shelters, other types of shelters are available in Slovakia that may provide support to survivors of violence against women.

There are 22 women’s centres in Slovakia. Of these, 13 provide services exclusively for women survivors of violence against women, while nine are open to all survivors of gender-based violence, including women. The services most frequently provided by women’s centres include counselling and psychological support (available in all centres) and referrals or collaboration with other services (20 centres). Legal advice is offered in 15 centres, financial and social welfare support or advocacy in 10, housing advice in nine, and employment-related support in seven. Eleven centres provide representation at court, police, or social services, while five centres also offer residential support services such as emergency accommodation. Four women’s centres also provide specialised support for survivors of sexualised violence, including needs assessments, specialist psychological care, community awareness and prevention activities, and legal advice.

Most women’s centres can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits and undocumented women, refugee women, women with physical, cognitive and/or sensory disabilities, older women, transgender women and unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. There are no women’s centres in Slovakia specialised exclusively in supporting survivors of specific forms of violence nor dedicated to specific groups of women. Women’s centres generally provide services to all women affected by gender-based violence, regardless of their background or specific vulnerabilities. While some centres report that staff have received training to better support such groups, these are exceptions, and the overall approach remains general rather than specialised.

Women’s NGOs are running 13 women’s centres in Slovakia, seven are run by other NGOs, one by the State and one intervention centre for survivors of domestic violence is operated by a law firm. Main funding sources are the state, donations and international funding and women’s centres are located in all regions of the country. The total number of women supported by all women’s centres in 2024 was 3,845.

There are no services for women and girls who have experienced sexualised violence in Slovakia. Some women’s centres can provide support to survivors of sexualised violence.

Slovak public authorities collect some data on primary prevention activities, but this is limited to outputs such as the number of campaigns or trainings, rather than systematic, outcome-based monitoring. The National Action Plan for the Prevention and Elimination of Violence Against Women 2022–2027 includes a dedicated prevention pillar, as well as provisions on integrated policies and data collection. However, it remains unclear to what extent the prevention component incorporates evidence-based strategies addressing structural issues such as gender inequality and power imbalances. The Coordinating-Methodical Centre (KMC) for Gender-Based and Domestic Violence is developing methodologies, standards, and systems for primary prevention, with the aim of embedding gender-sensitive and rights-based approaches across professional sectors.

The Slovak Republic, through the KMC and the national platform Zastavme násilie (Let’s stop violence), has adopted an official definition of primary prevention, which is also referenced in the National Action Plan. No specific budget is allocated to primary prevention activities at the national, regional, or local level. Current prevention measures include school-based programmes, feminist self-defence training, and education of future professionals, with most activities organised by non-governmental organisations.

1. One shelter did not provide data on the number of beds. ↩︎