Violence against men

Police in Edessa, northern Greece, have arrested a dangerous fugitive who has been convicted of multiple violent crimes, including rape, and is also wanted by authorities in Athens.

Pakistan will now chemically castrate convicted rapists after new laws were signed in by the government recently.

The country has brought in tough new laws seeking to tackle the rape epidemic in Pakistan following public outcry against sexual violence in the country.

Civil society organisations have accused the Bucharest government of allowing Romania to remain the country of origin of most victims of trafficking in the EU.

On 19 November, 2019, 63 NGOs addressed an open letter to the then new centre-right government, demanding that it take measures to more efficiently fight human trafficking.

Prominent Turkish novelist Hasan Ali Toptaş is facing dozens of allegations by women who have accused him of having sexually harassed them in the past, unleashing a #MeToo movement in Turkey's literature world.

Human trafficking is, in essence, a contemporary form of slavery, President Klaus Iohannis told the "Human Trafficking: New Path of Cooperation and Achievement" conference on Thursday.

Interim Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca underscored the importance for the authorities to raise public awareness on "modern-day slavery", stressing that it is essential to ensure "cooperation and coordination of actions" to combat this scourge, at national, European and international level.

There is a silent and invisible pandemic developing alongside the COVID-19 one, as cases of domestic violence against women spiked worldwide during lockdowns to contain the newly-discovered coronavirus. This was a comparison often made and a concern often raised by international and regional organizations, civil society organizations and state authorities.

A new report on human trafficking in Croatia by the Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, GRETA, published on Thursday, said that Croatia should strengthen its criminal justice response to human trafficking and enable victims to more effectively exercise their right to compensation.

Over 3 out of 10 women have been victims of domestic violence during the first lockdown in Greece, according to an online survey requested by the Citizen Protection Ministry and the Center for Security Research, and presented at an online discussion on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Wednesday.

Ljubljana/Velenje – Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, observed on Wednesday, Slovenia called for ending violence against women. Human Rights Ombudsman Peter Svetina said that raising awareness about such efforts is key, noting that Covid-19 has led to a rise in domestic violence.