ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author tells the story of her involvement in a feminist human rights intervention in Finland, one born of frustration with the impoverished institutional space within which feminist legal scholars can challenge legal and public discourse about violence against women. In Finland, domestic violence and sexual violence within the family have long been accepted as ways to control women. But the 1990s was a turning point. Marital rape and assault in private premises were criminalised and reforms to the Criminal Code introduced systematically gender-neutral language. The assumption was that there were no femicides in egalitarian Finland, that Finnish men respected women. The Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women Committee has specifically emphasised the obligation of state parties to act with due diligence in its jurisprudence regarding domestic violence, that is, when acts take place between intimate partners.
