International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2012

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The United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in memory of the brutal assassination in 1960 of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo.

The United Nations General Assembly determines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life". The 1993 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women states that violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination of over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full advancement of women, and that violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men.

Statistical monitoring of violence against women is still a challenge

Women all over the world are victims of rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence, while the extent and the real dimension of this issue often remain hidden. For official statistics this area is still a challenge for the future.

According to police data, most women in Slovenia are victims of domestic violence. In 2011 the number was 1,584 and in 2010 1,909. Women are also frequently victims of bodily harm; in 2011 529 and in 2010 606. In 2011, 379 girls were victims of neglect or maltreatment, while in 2010 the number was 324.

One of the most frequent forms of violence is sexual violence. In 2011, 222 women were victims of sexual violence, most of them (130) girls younger than 15. In 2010, the number was 285, of whom 158 girls younger than 15.

In 2011 and also in 2010, 10 women were murdered.

Table 1: Number of women victims of the most frequent types of violence, Slovenia 

Note: A victim of violence is counted only once in the reference year, irrespective of how many times she was a victim of violence.
Source: Police

The most frequently women victims of violence are aged 34 to 43 years, and the least frequently 16 or 17 years. There is also a lot of violence against girls up to 6 years of age. In 2011 170 such victims and in 2010 149 such victims were recorded by the police.

Most complaints and convictions for crimes involving bodily harm

Statistics of violent crimes unfortunately does not have data on the gender of denounced perpetrators and victims of criminal offences for us to be able to show separately violence against women.

Perpetrators were the most frequently denounced for the crime of causing bodily harm; in 2011 the number was 1,654 and in 2010 1,768. In 2011, 1,092 adults were denounced for the crime of domestic violence and in 2010 the number was 1,168.

Table 2: Number of adults denounced for committing some types of violence, Slovenia

Note: The table covers all denounced persons, irrespective of gender.
Source: SURS

Perpetrators of criminal offences were the most frequently convicted of crimes involving bodily harm: in 2011 570 men and 38 women and a year before 535 men and 41 women.

In 2011 207 and in 2010 186 perpetrators were convicted of domestic violence. These crimes are mostly committed by men, only exceptionally by women. All perpetrators convicted of crimes of sexual violence were men, while as regards the crime of neglect or maltreatment of a child in 2011 the share of convicted women (53%) was higher than in 2010 (37%). Murders are again almost exclusively committed by men.

Table 3: Number of adults convicted of some types of crimes, Slovenia

Note: The table covers all convicted persons, irrespective of the gender of the victim. Source: SURS