Leeds HALT: Tackling the scourge of forced marriages

Posted on November 17, 2009
Filed Under Faith, Family Marriage Partners, Violence Against Women, Women's Group, Yorkshire & Humberside | Comments Off

Forced marriages must not be tolerated, warns a pioneering domestic violence project in Leeds.

The historic practice is said to be going on in West Yorkshire, but steps to prevent it happening are in place, thanks to a new law introduced a year ago.

Leeds project Halt (Help, Advice and the Law Team) which also gives advice and support to more than a thousand women each year, with all violence being stopped in 84 per cent of all high risk cases.

The project has already helped issue one injunction using the Forced Marriage Act, the first of its kind in the UK, working alongside the Home Office.

The Act, introduced in November 2008, stops any wedding taking place and can confiscate passports and investigate circumstances, and even take legal action, once a complaint is made.

Nik Peasgood, director of Halt, who runs the Leeds domestic violence project, said: “There is a radical difference between arranged marriage and forced marriage.

“Arranged is when the family or extended family take the lead in matching couple, but both parties have a choice whether to proceed or not.

“Forced marriage on the other hand is often undertaken under duress, emotional abuse and manipulation, bullying threats or actual violence. Non compliance can result in death.

“Full and free consent must be part of any marriage, otherwise it is domestic violence and an abuse of Human Rights.”

She added that honour crime and honour killings were still going on.

Forced marriages usually affect females of south east Asian origin aged 13-30 years living in the UK, being matched with a male partner from abroad. But it also affects communities and families from the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

Since the expansion of Specialist Domestic Violence Courts the Home Office and Ministry of Justice have been rolling out the development of Independent Domestic Violence Advocacy (IDVA) Services, of which Halt was the first in the UK.

Ms Peasgood said Halt has been involved in supporting a young woman who was protected by the first Forced Marriage Protection Order (Injunction) that was awarded at Leeds County Court, earlier this year.

She said: “This woman in her early 20s was certainly in fear for her life.

“We have supported her and since re-housed her elsewhere. She was smothered by her family and was being forced into marriage, which didn’t go ahead after we intervened and used the Act to confiscate her passport and those of six family members.”

Ms Peasgood recently spoke at the Family Law Barristers Association seminar with Clive Heaton, QC, a Leeds barrister and Recorder (judge), who has written the first book on the subject of the Forced Marriage Act.

The book has a foreword by Keighley MP Ann Cryer. She will also speak at a conference organised by Zenith Chambers and Switalski’s solicitors on November 23 in Bradford.

Ms Peasgood added: “We are aiming to increase awareness amongst the community of the forced marriage provisions, and increase the profile of our work, which would mean we get to help more women in this situation.”

For confidential advice on domestic violence issues telephone Halt on 0113 243-2632 or see the website at http://www.halt.org.uk/Framesetwelcome.htm

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Leeds-HALT-Tackling-the-scourge.5760768.jp

See also: Ending the silence on ‘honour killing’
The number of young women – and men – being killed or assaulted after supposedly bringing shame on their families keeps on rising. But more than ever before, those who have escaped violence are speaking out to break the code of silence. Old attitudes of accepting the crimes in the name of cultural sensitivity have also disappeared and the police are targeting the abusers.

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