Forced Marriage Awareness Training
What is it and who is it for?
Our Forced Marriage Awareness training has been developed to meet statutory requirements to combat forced marriage in the UK. It has been designed to meet the needs of two different beneficiary groups; firstly, those individuals or family members, particularly in the South Asian community where forced marriage is a real concern and secondly, those professionals and front-line care providers who work with this community. Over the course of one or two, two-hour discussion groups that use real case examples, the respective beneficiaries will be taken through the issues and the legal, health and religious realities of forced marriage.
Why is this an issue?
Forced marriage became illegal in 2014 and was recognised as a form of violence and an abuse of human rights in the UK, but since then there have been only three convictions. This figure is disproportionate to the number of reports received to the Home Office’s Forced Marriage Unit, where in 2018 alone they received information relating to almost 1,200 cases of possible forced marriage. For many professionals they are wary of intervening in suspected cases because they are not only ill-equipped to understand the cultural issues, but also simply don’t realise that it is illegal. Equally, for many people who are perpetrators or victims, they simply do not understand the legal, health and religious realities of forced marriage.
Who should fund this type of work?
Our work in this area is primarily aimed at funding from statutory sources, who have a UK wide duty of care, however it also affects local authorities directly, particularly those who have large South Asian communities. Outside of these, then we are looking to work with any funder who seeks to support basic human-rights, particularly for women, or who wants to work with marginalised communities as part of their greater integration to UK society.