APPENDIX 40
Memorandum submitted by The Family Justice
Council Diversity Sub-Committee
INTRODUCTION
This response focuses specifically on
forced marriage and "honour based" violence.
The Domestic Violence Working Group of
the FJC has made submissions in respect of the wider, overarching
issues and this document is to be read in conjunction with those
submissions.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The FJC submits that:
— resources should be earmarked
to track and monitor the use of the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection)
Act 2007;
— a long term strategy where
Government works in partnership with relevant NGO and community
groups is needed to combat forced marriage and honour based violence;
and
— there is a need for properly
funded training on forced marriage and honour based violence for
a range of key professional groups and agencies including the
police, social workers, lawyers, the judiciary and medical practitioners.
SUBMISSIONS
Whilst the focus of these particular
submissions is fairly narrow, the FJC Diversity Sub-Committee
wishes to emphasise its view that domestic abuse continues to
be an issue for ALL communities. There should be no complacency
nor feeling that because the spotlight may currently be on one,
or more, specific communities, that this means that DV issues
in other communities have some how been dealt with, or, are of
lower priority. It follows that, whatever work or policy initiatives
arise out of this inquiry, they should be fully resourced without
detracting from existing projects and without drawing resources
away from existing work. In short, progress on the issues of forced
marriage and "honour" violence should be as well
as not instead of progress on other work.
It also bears saying that whilst the
term "honour based violence" identifies a particular
phenomenon, it should not be forgotten that what it describes
is the motivation behind the violence and that, whatever the background
or reason, the result is still domestic violence.
We feel that considerable strides have
been made in terms of bringing the issues of forced marriage (FM)
and honour based violence (HBV) into the public eye and to the
attention of Parliament. In our view, this is largely due to the
many women's and community organisations that have campaigned
over many years, largely in the face of official indifference
to raise awareness of these issues.
The recent Forced Marriage Act (Civil
Protection) Act 2007, with which members of this Sub-Committee
have been closely involved, is a major step in the right direction
and we welcome its addition to the statute books. It is too early
to assess its impact and it is crucial that its use and progress
are closely monitored. The bringing into force of this Act should
be viewed as the beginning, not the end, of the process. It is
vitally important that the Act is fully and properly used and,
to that end, we recommend that comprehensive training should be
made available to the judiciary, and to legal and other professionals
to enable them to identify cases and deal with situations where
forced marriage may be an issue, especially those where
it is not presented as such.
We are not able to comment further on
the impact of the Act at this stage as it has only recently come
into force. We feel it would be helpful if the Committee were
to recommend that funding and resources should be made available
for the specific purpose of tracking its use.
We consider that a preliminary evaluation
could be made after it has been in force for a year, but that
a clear picture of its true impact is unlikely to emerge in less
than three years.
With respect to the concept of HBV, again,
we believe that the recent work around the Forced Marriage Act
and associated issues, coupled with the long years of campaigning
work have had a considerable impact on public awareness of the
existence of HBV. This awareness is, however, largely embryonic
and needs to be consolidated and built upon by ensuring that HBV
remains at the forefront of government and NGO strategic thinking.
We are concerned that the issue is currently at risk of being
seen as fashionable and that once its current popularity passes,
interest and resources may wane. We want to emphasise that in
order for real progress to be made in assisting the victims of
this type of violence, a sustained and long term approach
is essential.
We are also concerned that much of the
information about HBV seems to concentrate on incidents involving
the death of the victim. It needs to be understood that for every
one of these incidents, there are a multitude of less high profile
incidents, where the HBV takes a less dramatic from, and where
the victim is subjected to "punishment" for "bringing
dishonour on the family" by being subjected to long term
low level physical abuse and bullying. Such abuse is often carried
out by multiple perpetrators and may, therefore, be harder to
pinpoint and may also make the victim feel that the task of escape
is impossible. We need to be alive to the fact that victims of
this type of abuse may find it extremely hard to take steps to
extricate themselves from their plight, particularly as, in so
doing, they may feel that they really are bringing shame
on the family by revealing the abuse that they have suffered.
In short, then, the main thrust of these
brief submissions is that we consider that there is a wealth of
valuable work currently being undertaken in both the areas of
FM and HBV. This is an extremely positive development. The challenge
will be to take that work in the long term to ensure that real
and lasting changes are made and sustained.
13 October 2007
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