Increasing Reports of Honour-Related Violence in the Netherlands
New annual figures from the national police expertise centre show 757 reported cases last year, up from 673 in 2024. A third of all cases now involve the Syrian community, a dramatic shift from a decade ago.
Reports of honour-related violence in the Netherlands increased significantly in 2025, according to the annual report of the Landelijk Expertise Centrum Eergerelateerd Geweld (LEC EGG), the national police expertise centre that supports investigations where family honour may be a motive. The rise continues a trend of year-on-year increases that the centre has observed for more than a decade.
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What the figures show
In 2025 the centre registered 757 cases, up from 673 the year before. The most common forms are threats and assault. Other cases involve coercion, stalking or rape. The centre does not record whether incidents involve male or female victims, but according to Wilfred Janmaat, head of the expertise centre, the large majority of victims are women, though male victims also occur.
A third of all reported cases in 2025 involved the Syrian community, at 34 percent. That represents a dramatic increase over ten years: in 2016 there were 37 reported cases involving people of Syrian origin, while in 2025 that number stood at 257. Cases within Turkish and Moroccan communities followed at 15 and 11 percent respectively.
Why the Syrian share has grown so sharply
Researchers and the expertise centre itself point to several intersecting factors. The LEC EGG believes it is seeing more cases involving people of Syrian origin partly because that community has grown in size in the Netherlands, and partly because such cases are experienced as particularly complex. Research by the Kennisplatform Inclusief Samenleven also indicates that Syrian girls and women are relatively more assertive, which means they are quicker to report honour-related violence.
Research by KIS found that the position of women in Syria worsened after the outbreak of the civil war, and that risks continue after arrival in the Netherlands: women who came later than their husbands, or who seek more freedom of movement or want a divorce, can trigger conflict. Men may experience loss of status because they are no longer the breadwinner, or because women have more rights in the Netherlands.
The expertise centre notes that people who have come from war zones have often been confronted with serious violence, which can lower the threshold for violence in honour disputes.
Killings have fallen but remain a concern
The number of fatal victims of honour-related violence has fallen in recent years. In 2024 the expertise centre recorded five murders or cases of manslaughter linked to honour-related motives. Four of the victims were women; one was a minor. Between 2013 and 2024 the centre counted 121 deaths in total, of whom 66 were male and 55 female.
The report notes that while homicide figures are declining, the broader category of femicide is receiving increasing attention. It states that women face particular risk within intimate and family relationships, but also emphasises that a significant proportion of fatal victims are men, a reality often overlooked in public debate.
What makes honour-related violence different
Honour-related violence differs from other forms of domestic violence primarily because the entire family or community may be involved, rather than a single perpetrator. Janmaat explained: "At eergerelateerd geweld, the honour is carried collectively by the whole family. So you can give the father a restraining order, but then there are more people who can pose a danger to the victim. It is then better to place the woman in a shelter for her own safety." He added that the change needed to come from within communities themselves: "It is a socio-cultural problem, so it has time. It will not change from one day to the next."
The response: civics education and specialist policing
To help address the problem, extra information is now being provided during the civic integration process, teaching newcomers that the Netherlands has a different view of the position of women than some other countries.
The rise in reported cases may reflect that violence is genuinely more common, but it may also reflect increased awareness and a greater willingness among victims to come forward. The centre notes both possibilities without drawing a definitive conclusion.
