1 Introduction
Our inquiry
1. In 2008 our predecessor Committee published
a detailed Report on Domestic Violence, Forced Marriage and
"Honour"-Based Violence, which drew attention to
the abusive practice of forced marriage, highlighted its scale
and noted significant weaknesses in the response from Government
and frontline professionals. The Committee made a number of recommendations
for improving action to prevent forced marriage and to support
victims, which were on the whole favourably received by the previous
Government. We decided to investigate how much progress had been
made in implementing these recommendations over the past three
years.
2. To this end, we took oral evidence from Karma
Nirvana, one of the few national organisations dedicated to supporting
victims of forced marriage and campaigning on their behalf, from
a survivor of forced marriage and from the Minister for Equalities,
Lynne Featherstone MP, on 22 March 2011. We received written evidence
from Southall Black Sisters, a London-based organisation working
with black and minority ethnic female victims of violence, Cris
McCurley, a family law practitioner from the North-East of England,
and relevant Government Departments. We also took evidence from
further witnesses on other aspects of our predecessor's Report,
particularly the funding of domestic violence support services,
to which we intend to return later in the Parliament and therefore
do not consider here. We thank all those who contributed to our
inquiry.
Nature and prevalence of forced
marriage
3. Forced marriage is "a marriage conducted
without the valid consent of both parties where duress (emotional
pressure in addition to physical abuse) is a factor".[1]
It is not an arranged marriage into which, while families
may be involved in choosing the marriage partner, both parties
probably, on the whole, enter freely; nor is it a religious practice.
While our predecessors observed that forced marriage has historically
been practised in many different communities, they found that
in 2008, due to their relative size within the UK population,
forced marriage was most common amongst Pakistani, Bangladeshi
and Indian communities. At the time of the inquiry the Government's
Forced Marriage Unit handled around 300 cases of forced marriage
each year but it was considered that this was likely to represent
"only the tip of the iceberg."[2]
Subsequent research commissioned by the then-Department for Children,
Schools and Families, at the Committee's behest, estimated that
the national prevalence of reported cases of forced marriage in
England was between 5,000 and 8,000.[3]
4. The number of cases of forced marriage dealt
with by the Forced Marriage Unit rose to 430 in 2008 and remained
at around 400 in 2009 and 2010, with the ratio of male to female
victims also remaining stable over this period at around 86% female
to 14% male.[4] Jasvinder
Sanghera told us that Karma Nirvana had recently become aware
of instances of forced marriage taking place in a broader range
of communities than before, citing cases from Egypt and an increase
in at-risk dual heritage children.[5]
Karma Nirvana reported a rise in callers to their national Honour
Network Helpline since 2008, peaking at 5,599, and in particular
an increase in the number of males reporting; the ratio of callers
is now 70% female to 30% male.[6]
5. The increase in the number of cases handled
by the Forced Marriage Unit and the number of calls made to the
Honour Network Helpline since our predecessor Committee's inquiry
in 2007-08 demonstrates that forced marriage remains a serious
concern, affecting thousands of young people in the UK. The fact
that more young women and, increasingly, young men are coming
forward to seek help is encouraging but underlines the requirement
for sufficient support mechanisms to be in place to meet their
needs.
1 Home Affairs Committee, Sixth Report of Session 2007-08,
Domestic Violence, Forced Marriage and "Honour"-Based
Violence, HC 263, para 11 Back
2
Home Affairs Committee, Sixth Report of Session 2007-08, Domestic
Violence, Forced Marriage and "Honour"-Based Violence,
HC 263, para 31 Back
3
Department for Children, Schools and Families, Forced Marriage-Prevalence
and Service Response, DCSF-RB128, July 2009 Back
4
Data provided by the Forced Marriage Unit to the Equalities Committee
of the Scottish Parliament, December 2010, www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/equal/inquiries/documents/SuzelleDickson.pdf
Back
5
Q 26 Back
6
Qq 40, 66 Back
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