Skip to main content
European Institute for Gender Equality

Main menu

  • Newsroom
    • Newsroom
    • Newsroom
      • News
      • Events
      • Director's corner
      • Subscribe to our updates
      • Frequently asked questions
    • In focus
      • EU Gender-based Violence Survey
      • Care and gender
      • Beijing Platform for Action
      • The Green Deal
      • Economic benefits of gender equality
      • View all campaigns
    • Justice on paper, barriers in practice: women’s experience of the system 

      Type
      News article
      'International Women's Day' and '#IWD' written on large block letters with drawn female characters sitting and looking optimistic on the hashtag
    • EU-wide survey highlights scale of psychological, economic, and cyber violence against women

      Type
      News article
      Illustration of three women side by side with serious expressions on their faces, and the report title 'EU gender-based violence survey: Evidence for policy and practice' written on their right
  • Publications and resources
    • Publications and resources
    • Publications
      • Search all publications
      • All on gender and climate
      • All on gender-based violence
    • Resources
      • Toolkits and guides
      • Videos
      • Glossary and thesaurus
    • Sharing care, closing gender gaps: CARE Survey 2024

      Type
      Publication
      Sharing care, closing gender gaps: CARE Survey 2024
    • Gender Equality Index 2025: Sharper data for a changing world

      Type
      Publication
      Gender Equality Index 2025: Sharper data for a changing world
  • Gender mainstreaming
    • Gender mainstreaming
    • Gender mainstreaming in the EU
      • What is gender mainstreaming
      • Institutions and structures
      • Policy areas
      • Country information
    • Resources
      • Step-by-step toolkits
      • More methods and tools
      • Good practices
      • Publications
      • Gender mainstreaming glossary
    • From reckoning to reform: gender mainstreaming in the EU

      Type
      News article
      EIGE Director Carlien Scheele
    • Institutional mechanisms for gender equality in the EU: Present realities, future priorities

      Type
      Publication
      Institutional mechanisms for gender equality in the EU present realities, future priorities
  • Gender-based violence
    • Gender-based violence
    • Gender-based violence in the EU
      • What is gender-based violence
      • Regulatory and legal framework
      • Costs of gender-based violence
      • How we support the Istanbul Convention
      • Publications
    • In focus
      • Gender-based violence in migration and conflict
      • Female genital mutilation
      • Cyber violence against women
      • Femicide
      • Administrative data collection
      • Risk assessment and risk management
      • Intimate partner violence and witness intervention
      • View all Focus areas
    • EU Gender-based Violence Survey: Evidence for Policy and Practice

      Type
      Publication
      EU Gender-based Violence Survey: Evidence for Policy and Practice
    • Improving the collection of national administrative data on femicide in the EU

      Type
      Publication
      Improving the collection of national administrative data on femicide in the EU
  • Gender Equality Index
  • Gender Statistics Database
    • Gender Statistics Database
    • Browse Gender Statistics
    • Data talks
    • Latest updates
    • FAQs
    • About
    • Search
  • About us
    • About us
    • Who we are
      • Our Work
      • Organisation
      • Contact us
    • How we work
      • Our partners
      • EU candidate countries and potential candidates
      • Projects
      • Consultations
      • Planning and reporting
      • Documents registry
      • Strategic foresight
      • Communications Lab 
    • Work with us
      • Recruitment
      • Procurement
    • How far have we come 30 years on? A comprehensive gender equality review

      Type
      Page
      Illustration of men and women, boys and girls in the various stages of life

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Gender-based violence
  3. Regulatory and legal framework

Legal Definitions in the EU Member States

This resource includes the legal definitions of different types of gender-based violence used in EU Member States, according to their legal terminology and national legislation. It was last updated in 2019 and makes a reference to the United Kingdom as a member state of the European Union.

Secondary menu

  • International regulations
  • EU regulations
  • Strategic framework on violence against women 2015-2018
  • Legal Definitions in the EU Member States

Filters

27 items / 3 pages

Pagination

  • First page « First
  • Previous page ‹‹
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Current page 3
  • Country
    Spain
    Topics
    • Violence
    • Justice

    Article 1. (Organic Act 1/2004 of28 Decemberon Integrated Protection Measures against Gender Violence)

    Purpose of the Act

    1. The purpose of this Act is to combat the violence exercised against women by their present or former spouses or by men with whom they maintain or have maintained analogous affective relations, with or without cohabitation, as an expression of discrimination, the situationof inequality and the power relations prevailing between the sexes.

    2. The present Act establishes integrated protection measures whose goal is to prevent, punish and eradicate this violence and lend assistance to its victims.

    3. The gender violence to which this Act refers encompasses all acts of physical and psychological violence, including offences against sexual liberty, threats, coercion and the arbitrary deprivation of liberty."

    Legal Source

    Organic Act 1/2004 of 28 December on Integrated Protection Measures against Gender Violence

    Legal provisions on protection orders

    Law 27/2003, of 31 July, governing the Protection Order for Victims of Domestic Violence.

  • Country
    Sweden
    Topics
    • Violence
    • Justice

    Violence where the perpetrator and the victim have or have had an intimate relation.

    Observations

    Special laws: Gross violation of women’s integrity: repeated violence within a marriage/love relation or other close relationship. If a person commits an offence falling under the provisions of chapters dealing with crimes against life and health, crimes against liberty and peace and sexual crimes against a partner with whom the offender has a close relationship or used to have a close relationship. Each of the acts must have been part of a repeated violation of the vulnerable person’s privacy and integrity and also have been likely to cause serious harm to the persons self-esteem

    Legal Source

    Criminal Code, Chapter 4, Section 4a

    Legal provisions on protection orders

    The prohibition of Visits Act: “if there is a risk that a person will commit a crime against another, or that he will maliciously follow a person, a restraining order can be issued against them.”

  • Country
    Non EU countries
    Topics
    • Violence
    • Justice

    Any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality.

    Legal Source

    The Domestic Violence (Crime and Victims) Act 2004 (strengthens protection orders by making breach of an order a criminal offence and, by virtue of Section 12 of the Act, extended the powers of courts to impose orders on perpetrators under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, regardless of any conviction for an offence)

    Legal provisions on protection orders

    Domestic Violence Protection Notice and Domestic Violence Prevention Order

27 items / 3 pages

Pagination

  • First page « First
  • Previous page ‹‹
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Current page 3

Share:

Cookie Preferences

Subscribe to email alerts

Get notifications about news alerts, publications and more

Contact us

Do you have feedback or media enquiries for us? You can leave them here.

Useful links

  • Who we are
  • Recruitment
  • News
  • Events

Popular pages

  • What is gender mainstreaming?
  • What is gender-based violence?
  • Forms of gender-based violence
  • Gender Equality Index
  • Glossary and Thesaurus

EIGE in social media

  • Linkedin
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Help us improve

European Institute for Gender Equality

© 2026 European Institute for Gender Equality

An EU Agency

Disclaimers

  • Web Accessibility
  • Legal notices
  • Data Protection
  • Cookies Policy
  • Login

To top