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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. It is important to note that in 2005 the Government made the decision not to make forced marriage a specific criminal offence and today there remains no specific criminal law in England and Wales.
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:
ü Changing public attitudes towards forced marriages;
ü Empowering more victims to come forward and report to all agencies; and
ü 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.