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Promoting Human Rights, Respecting Individual Dignity: New Measures To Tackle Forced Marriage

27 October 2004

The possibility of new laws and a specialist, cross-government taskforce to promote human rights and protect victims are at the heart of a Government drive to prevent forced marriages, the Home Office and Foreign Office announced today.

The new measures build on existing work with public agencies, the voluntary sector and community leaders to raise awareness of forced marriage and to encourage victims to seek support and advice. They also strengthen immigration controls in order to break the cycles of violence that follow forced marriage.

The package includes: a new joint Home Office-Foreign Office Forced Marriage Unit; a consultation to be launched later this year on whether to create a specific criminal offence of forcing someone into marriage; forced marriage to be targeted as a specific abuse in the revision of key inter-agency guidance on safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children which will have statutory backing; the minimum age for marriage entry clearance will be raised from 16 to 18 and an additional forced marriage entry clearance post to be created in Islamabad to help reluctant spouses and increase our ability to support victims.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said:

"Forced marriage is simply an abuse of human rights. It is a form of domestic violence that dehumanises people by denying them their right to choose how to live their lives. Valuing individual citizens, their dignity and the contribution they have to make to society in their own right is a central part of our drive for strong, active communities. The appalling practice of forced marriage represents the opposite extreme and that is why Government is taking tough action to eradicate it.

"It is very encouraging that a large number of community and faith leaders and voluntary organisations have come forward to take a full part in raising awareness of these problems and the support that is available. We look forward to working in close co-operation with them and hearing what they have to say through our consultation exercise."

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said:

"The new joint Forced Marriage Unit will develop the good work of our Community Liaison Unit which, over the last four years, has dealt with almost 1000 cases of forced marriage and has rescued and repatriated around 200 young people from overseas.

"Our High Commissions and Embassies work intensively with police and judiciary overseas to stop Britons being forced into marriage. In difficult and stressful conditions our consular staff have removed victims from situations of extreme emotional and physical trauma. They have rescued victims who have been held captive, raped or forced into an abortion.

"However, more can certainly be done and we hope these new measures will drive forward increasingly effective co-operation between all those groups who are determined to tackle the abuse, both in the UK and overseas."

Notes to Editors

1. The key features of the package are:
   
   • making common assault an arrestable offence;
   • making breach of a non-molestation order a criminal offence, punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment; and
   • giving courts the power to impose a restraining order where a defendant has been acquitted but the court believes the victim needs protection.
   • A joint Home Office-Foreign Office Forced Marriage Unit, to be operational by the end of the year. This will be the government’s central unit dealing with forced marriage casework, policy and projects. It will provide information and assistance both to potential victims and to concerned professionals.
   • A consultation later this year on whether to create a specific criminal offence of forcing someone into marriage. This will fully engage with victims of forced marriage, women’s groups and NGOs to consider how best the law can be used to support victims.
   • Forced marriage will be targeted as a specific abuse that the Government is determined to tackle in the revision of the key inter-agency guidance on safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. This guidance will have statutory backing. This will help to ensure best practice guidance for social workers (issued in March of this year) and education professionals (to be issued in December of this year) on how to tackle forced marriage will be implemented across the country, with many more cases being successfully identified and dealt with.
   • The minimum age for marriage entry clearance will be raised from 16 to 18. This is to give those who face forced marriage extra time in which to mature and resist familial pressure to enter a marriage that they do not want. In support of this an extra entry clearance officer will be established in Islamabad. This officer will help these reluctant spouses, as well as assisting those who have been abandoned in Pakistan by their partners, and who have a right to return to the UK. This will increase our ability to support victims and stop further abuse in the wake of forced marriage.
2. The measures were announced by the Home Secretary in the House of Commons today, and by Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons in the House of Lords.
3. Forced marriage is one where one or both of the individuals concerned do not consent to the marriage or consent is extracted under duress. Duress can include both physical and emotional pressure. It is quite different from arranged marriages, which must have the consent of both sides.
4. Anonymous Case Study:

   Note: The name of the victim and some of the details of the case have been changed to protect anonymity.

   Shella, aged 17, found herself in trouble with her family when they discovered that she had a boyfriend. Shella’s parents responded by trying to stop her from meeting him and when she continued to do so, they removed her from school. Shella ran away to the police alleging that her family was beating her up. The police referred her to social services and Shella was put in foster care. However, she felt isolated and it was arranged for her to go back to her parents, after social services extracted a promise from them that she would be free to move around and would not be beaten up. Later that night Shella was woken by her mother and the whole family were on a flight overseas.

   Once overseas, she was taken to a small village and forced to marry. Shella was then forced to consummate the marriage – raped. Shella was very unhappy and desperate to come back. Her husband and in laws were watching her all the time, but she managed to call her social worker, who contacted the FCO’s Community Liaison Unit (CLU).

   The CLU contacted the British High Commission overseas and arranged for consular staff with local police escort to go to the address. They spoke to Shella in private and she confirmed that she was being held against her will and had been forced into a marriage. She left with the High Commission staff and was repatriated back to safety in the UK.

5. Further information on Government work to tackle forced marriage is available at
6. www.fco.gov.uk (new window)or www.homeoffice.gov.uk/comrace/race/forcedmarriage/index.html (new window)
7. Over the last five years the Government has achieved increasing success in dealing with this abuse, including:
   • The establishment in 2000 of the Community Liaison Unit (CLU) in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which has dealt with almost 1000 cases of forced marriage and has rescued and repatriated around 200 young people from overseas.
   • The production of extensive guidance for social workers and police officers. This has lead to increasing awareness in the statutory sector of the abuse, with hundreds of cases coming to light and being successfully resolved. Further guidelines for education professionals will be released at the end of this year.
   • Close work with refuges, NGOs and community groups to raise awareness of the abuse amongst potential victims. We have produced and distributed widely the leaflet ‘Forced Marriages Abroad: Your Right to Choose’, which was designed jointly with women’s groups working on the issue
   • The Government’s Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill is the biggest overhaul of domestic violence law in 30 years, proposing tough powers for the police and the courts to protect victims and prosecute abusers. These include:
     • It builds on the Government’s ongoing reform of the criminal justice system, rebalancing the process in favour of victims and witnesses.
     • The Bill gives victims guaranteed rights, for the first time, to support, information and the advice they need, and creates an independent Commissioner for victims and witnesses, so they have voice across Government.
     • It also includes proposals to strengthen the law in familial homicide cases, where parents co-accused of their child’s murder have in the past escaped punishment by blaming each other.

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