Forced Marriage
In a forced marriage a person is coerced into marrying someone against their will. They may be physically threatened or emotionally blackmailed to do so. It is an abuse of human rights and cannot be justified on any religious or cultural basis. There has to be a level of duress involved.
An arranged marriage is not the same thing as a forced marriage and the distinction is important when considering the new law in relation to forced marriage. An arranged marriage is where you have a choice as to whether to accept the arrangement or not. The tradition of arranged marriages has operated successfully within many communities and countries for a very long time and continues to do so.
Goodman Ray is a firm which has the expertise, experience and the commitment to represent, protect and support any client threatened with forced marriage, who has been forced into marriage and/or who is stranded abroad as a result of a forced marriage.
Our lawyers have undertaken forced marriage and so called honour based killing cases both in the High Court in Wardship cases under the inherent jurisdiction and under Part VI Family Law Act 1996. We have extensive experience over many years of acting for applicants seeking protective orders under the jurisdictions mentioned above.
All of our solicitors undertaking forced marriage work have undertaken specialist training and are acutely aware of all aspects of this complex work as well as being very familiar with the necessary court procedures under Wardship, the inherent jurisdiction, Forced Marriage (Civil Procedure) Protection Act 2007 and Part IV Family Law Act 1996. Our team have also given training in the area of forced marriage/honour based violence to Hackney Social Services, the NIA Project, IMECE (a Turkish women’s organisation) and domestic violence training to advocates.
Forced marriage cases also draw on the specific expertise of a number of our specialist teams (abduction, international children and domestic violence). We have also established the role of a forced marriage co-ordinator to specifically ensure the efficient working and liaison of the skills of each, drawing on the resources necessary for any specific case.
