Forced marriage consultation

Karma Nirvana receives on average approximately 5,000 calls a year on our national helpline supporting all victims and survivors of forced marriage and honour based abuse. We strive to ensure that all victims are afforded protection, guidance and support when they need it the most.

The Home Office has recently launched a 12 week consultation seeking public opinion on whether a specific criminal offence should be created to combat forced marriage and, if so, how it would be formulated. The consultation also seeks to public opinion on how the government might implement breaches of the civil Forced Marriage Protection Orders.

Karma Nirvana fully supports this consultation and the need to criminalise forced marriages within their own right. Crucially, we believe that this action is one step closer towards:

Changing public attitudes towards forced marriages;

Empowering more victims to come forward and report to all agencies; and

Providing professional confidence to agencies dealing with forced marriage, many of whom are quite simply afraid to challenge these issues for fear of being deemed racist or culturally insensitive

The consultation is a large document and as such Karma Nirvana has drawn out some of the key questions to the consultation to circulate in the hope that more people can respond. Please share a few minutes of your time to provide a response. Your views and opinion are valued and crucial to enabling change and to combat the issue of forced marriage,

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Question 1

a)Do you think a criminal offence should be created for the act of forcing someone to marry against their will?

b)Please provide your answer for why you believe forced marriage should/should not be criminalised.

Question 2

a)Do you think that the current civil remedies and criminal sanctions are being used effectively in tackling forced marriage?

b)Please provide examples, where possible, of how current law is/is not being used effectively?

Question 3

a)What issues should be considered to ensure that a new offence does not deter people from reporting the crime?

Question 4

a)Do you think that the creation of a new criminal offence would make the law clearer?

b)Please provide your answer for why you believe the creation of a new law would/would not make the law clearer.

Question 5

a)Do you think the creation of a new criminal offence would make it easier for professionals to tackle the problem?

b)Please provide your answer for why you believe creation of a new criminal offence would/would not make it easier for professionals to tackle the problem.

Question 6

a)Do you think that criminalising forcing someone to marry would change public opinion towards forced marriage, particularly in those communities most affected?

b)Please provide your answer for why you believecriminalising forcing someone to marry would/would not change public opinion towards forced marriage, particularly in those communities most affected.

DEADLINE TO RESPOND = 10TH FEBRUARY 2012

Thank you for providing your response. We will endeavour to collate your feedback and feed this into the consultation.

*Please note we are hosting a small number of public consultations across the country. If you would like to find out more about these, please contact Natasha Rattu 0113 218 0114.