In this action plan the Government wants to provide a comprehensive description of political goals, strategies and measures to promote gender equality. The plan will be a tool to help implement and further develop equality policy in the years to come.

Through this Action Plan, the Government is introducing measures that will help ensure that the police, educational institutions and support services are better trained, better coordinated and more capable of detecting, preventing and dealing with the many complex issues raised by domestic violendce. The measures contained in ths Action Paln will be implemented in the period 2008-2011.

The action plan is a contribution in the efforts to promote the fundamental human rights and health of girls and women, and is a follow-up to the Norwegian Government’s Action Plan for Combating Poverty in the South, which was launched in March 2002.

The Action Plan contains measures designed both to prevent, detect and prosecute crimes linked to trafficking in women and children, and to protect and assist those who have been and are victims of such crimes.

The action plan against genital mutilation was put forward in December 2000. The plan includes many measures.

In 1997 the Storting (Parliament) asked the then current government to make an action plan against forced marriages. The plan aims to prevent young people from being exposed to forced marriage and to provide better help and support to young people who are, or have been exposed to forced marriage.