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Jasvinder Sanghera CBE

Karma Nirvana

The National Conference on the criminalisation of Forced Marriage

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Increase reporting, reduce isolation & save lives

National Challenges 2014

Jasvinder Sanghera CBE

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Victims Experiences/Challenges

• Multiple perpetrators - Immediate, extended family UK/abroad

• Self policing - organised networks, collusion, use of professionals

• Reporting - Not being believed, undermining perception of risks, lack of understanding impacts on response

• Responses dealt with as different - Cultural, not as CP/PP, professionals from same ethnicity, breeches of trust, missed indicators

• Inappropriate family engagement- Believing family over victim, use of interpreters, mediation

• Increased risk upon leaving - Tracked down by family, lack of communication between force areas, multi-agency communication

Consequences of FM/HBV 4

• Repeated rape - Ongoing DV including by family members

• Children witness abuse- Promised into marriages

• Self harming & suicide- Higher incidences of South Asian

• Overseas - Perpetrators, imprisonment, abduction

• Murder - Family organise meetings to deal with victims, involvement of family UK, overseas, bounty hunters

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• Identification of risk- Risk management

• Community Impact- Community engagement, denial, challenges

• Investigative challenges- Multiple perpetrators, wall of silence, fear, hostility, use of interpreters

• Training - Lack of awareness, awareness of first response officers

• Cultural Sensitivities- Impacts on professional confidence, fear of offending, community relations

• Lack of Force-Wide Ownership - Impacts on responses, reliance on one or two officers, front line policing knowledge, force policy/action plan?

Policing Challenges

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‘your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than the love of your child”

“Shafilea was a determined, able and ambitious girl who wanted to live a life which was normal in the country and in the town in which you had chosen to live and bring up your children”

“The killing was motivated by cultural issues”

Sentencing Remarks - Justice Roderick Evan

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Risk Indicators

Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC• Describes 3 choices within

family dynamic:

• “Escape, submit or die”

• “Alesha has escaped, Mevish has submitted and Shafilea has died”

• Parents sentenced 2012 to 25 years

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Forced Marriage Protection Orders

•2009 – 101 FMPO’s •2010 – 149 FMPO’s•2011 – 157 FMPO’s•2012 – 124 FMPO’s•2013 – 103 FMPO’s

* Statistics based upon Ministry of Justice data collation

641 Orders in total

Approximately: 54% of applications made are for under 17’s

Died Age 17Died Age 17 9

Shafilea Ahmed9

DOB: 14th July 14 1986 DOB: 14th July 14 1986

'Happy Families‘

I don't pretend like we're the perfect family no more

Desire to live is burningMy stomach is burning

But all they think about is honour

I was like a normal teenage kid

Didn't ask 2 muchI jus wanted to fit inBut my culture was

differentBut my family ignored

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Email: info@karmanirvana.org.ukWebsite: www.karmanirvana.org.uk Helpline Number: 0800 5 999 247

Follow us on:

Karma Nirvana@KarmaNirvanaUK

Please pick up copies of our literature for distribution

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Survivor Ambassador

The National Conference on the criminalisation of Forced Marriage

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Video address

Rt Hon Norman Baker MP

Minister of State for Crime Prevention

The National Conference on the criminalisation of Forced Marriage

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Refreshment break

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Survivor Ambassador

The National Conference on the criminalisation of Forced Marriage

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Helen Jones MPShadow Minister (Home Affairs)

The National Conference on the criminalisation of Forced Marriage

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Chaz AkoshileJoint Head Forced

Marriage Unit

The National Conference on the criminalisation of Forced Marriage

National Conferenceon the criminalisation of Forced Marriage

ReasonsRisksResponse

Chaz AkoshileJoint Head, Forced Marriage Unit 6 May 2014

Forced Marriage Unit

FMU established in 2005.

Government’s main delivery arm for:

• Development of effective policy

• Awareness raising

• Casework

Domestic

Consular

Reluctant Sponsors

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2013 Data

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FMU provided advice or support in over 1300 cases related to an actual or potential forced marriage.

  15% of calls involved victims below 16 years of age

25% involved victims aged 16-17 48% involved victims aged 18-25

7% involved victims aged 26-30

82% involved female victims and 18% involved male victims.

97 instances involving those with disabilities.

12 instances involved victims who identified as LGBT.

Countries of origin

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 Pakistan (42.7%), India (10.9%), Bangladesh (9.8%), Afghanistan (2.8%) Somalia (2.5%),

Iraq (1.5%), Nigeria (1.1%), Saudi Arabia (1.1%),

Yemen (1.0%), Iran (0.8%), Tunisia (0.8%), The Gambia (0.7%)

Egypt (0.6%) and Morocco (0.4%).

The origin was unknown in 5.4% of cases.  

* Overall the FMU handled cases involving 74 different countries.

2013 National scale

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• London 24.9%• West Midlands 13.6%• South East 9.9%• North West 9.3% • Yorkshire and Humberside 6.8% • East Midlands 4.2% • East 3.5%• Scotland 2.9%• North East 2.0% • South West 1.6% • Wales 1.6% • Northern Ireland 0.3%

19.4% of cases were classed as unknown.

How we help in the UK

Reassure confidentiality when a call is made to our public helpline.

Work with police, social workers, teachers, welfare officers, health professionals and others in UK to protect people at risk and highlight warning signs.

Provide support, information and contacts.

Arrange safe accommodation in UK.

Collaborate with UK Visas and Immigration to prevent entry clearance or have an individual removed from the UK.

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Assisting Overseas

• Signposting to BHC/Embassies.

• Arrange safe accommodation overseas.

• Assistance with their return to the UK – providing local knowledge linked to exit visas.

• Organise repatriation - and rescues in extreme cases.

• Accompanying victims to the airport – especially in the case of minors.

• Organise emergency flights/ travel documents with safe pick-up and transport from airport.

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Legal Assistance

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FORCED MARRIAGE PROTECTION ORDERS

(FMPOs)

Who can take one out?

VICTIM

A person ‘at risk’ could effectively take out an order themselves.

3RD PARTY• Social Services.• NSPCC.• Police. • Local authorities. • NGOs.

ANY PERSON GIVEN (LEAVE) PERMISSION BY THE COURT.

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Forced Marriage Protection Orders (FMPOs)

• Effective method of assisting victims both in UK and overseas.

• Contains legally binding conditions targeting any number of perpetrators, with the aim of ensuring victims are not forced into a marriage against their will.

• FMPOs allow for a victim to be protected, assisted and supported without the need to bring the situation into the criminal justice system.

• Please note: If a child is under 16, it is invariably necessary to also

obtain an Interim Court Order – thereby giving the Court powers to make decisions for the child’s wellbeing.

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Policy Development

LEGISLATION

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Future for Victims

Although forcing someone into a marriage and/or luring someone overseas for the purpose of marriage will become a criminal offence – the civil route and the use of FMPOs will still be available and can be used as an alternative to entering the Criminal Justice System.

Perpetrators may be prosecuted if it is overwhelmingly in the public interest to do so, however, victims should be able to choose how they want to be assisted.

New offence will come into effect in June 2014.

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Penalties

Forced Marriage offence• Maximum penalty on conviction on indictment will be imprisonment for a

term not exceeding seven years and/or a fine.• Maximum penalty on summary conviction will be imprisonment for a term not

exceeding six months and/or a fine.

Breach of FMPO• Maximum penalty on conviction on indictment will be imprisonment for a

term not exceeding five years and/or a fine.• Maximum penalty on summary conviction will be imprisonment for a term not

exceeding six months and/or a fine.

 

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Benefits

Further protection

Deterrent

Support for professionals

Clarity of message

EMPOWERS THE VICTIMS

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Statutory Guidance

• Senior Management Commitment.• Defined Roles & Responsibilities.• Clear Lines of Accountability.• Staff Training & Awareness Raising.• Signposting Practice Guidelines.• Record Keeping.• Risk Assessment – on-going/links.• Victim-centred approach.• Danger of Family Mediation.• Agency-specific requirements.

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Multi-Agency Practice Guidelines

• Police, Social Care, Health, Education and Housing Professionals.

• Best practice guidance: UK & overseas, including legal remedies.

• Detailed step-by-step guidance.• E-Learning course for practitioners.• Forced Marriage & Learning Disabilities.

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• Survivors’ Handbook.• Forced Marriage and Learning Disabilities.• Guidance for Registrars.• Guidance for MPs and Councillors.• LGBT booklet.• Smartphone app

Publicity materials

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Get in touch

• Call us on (+44) 207 008 0151

• E-mail us at: fmu@fco.gov.uk

• Follow us on

• http://www.facebook.com/forcedmarriage

• www.gov.uk/forced-marriage

• @FMUnit

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Nazir Afzal OBEChief Crown Prosecutor for the North West of

England

“Women in Chains”

The National Conference on the criminalisation of Forced Marriage

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Lunch

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Tom WinsorHM Chief Inspector

of Constabulary

The National Conference on the criminalisation of Forced Marriage

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Commander Makhdum (Mak) Ali

Chishty ACPO National lead for

HBV and Forced MarriageThe National Conference on the

criminalisation of Forced Marriage

Tackling Honour Based Violence

...moving beyond transaction into service

Commander Mak Chishty QPMNational Policing Lead for HBV, FM, FGM

Notable UK cases

Rukhsana NAZ (pregnant- held down by mother and strangled by brother)Heshu YONES (killed by her father)Benaz MAHMOD (killed by father, uncle & Kurdish community members)Tulay GOREN (killed by her father)Shafilia AHMED (killed by her mother & father)

Honouring their

lives and learning

from their

deaths

Honour based violence

•Crime - criminals who deserve prison

•Human Rights Abuse - torture and slavery

•Child Abuse - child protection plans

•Sex Crimes - rapes

•Which community, race, faith, culture can claim honour in any of these?

•Child Abuse

Suicide

RapeFemale Infanticide

Acid Attacks Bride Price

Slavery

Blood Feuds

Forced MarriageChild Marriage

Female Genital Mutilation

Honour Killing

TortureLand Feuds

Kidnapping

There is no typical case, murders in the name of so called honour (honour killings) are “atypical” and they fall within the

"umbrella" of honour crimes and honour based violence –a collection of practices, linked by the motives that drive them.

Our duty• Protect - people from harm of Death, Injury, Loss, and Distress

• Prevent - abandonment of practice through community driven solutions

• Pursue and Prosecute - Police/CPS joint investigative strategies

Present status

• Processes and systems - flagging, risk assessing, case tracking

• Framework - local, national, cross governmental

• Strategy and plan - Ending Violence against Girls and Women

•Well done and thank you... but we need to move beyond transactional approaches into the next stage of service

work in progress

• Good practice Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements

• Regional and National problem profiles

• Good practice Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences

• Neighbourhood level engagement

• 2014 joint National Conference with Karman Nirvana - victim and survivor led

• Police / CPS joint training sessions for FM & FGM (across 13 CPS Regions & associated police forces)

• Police / CPS Protocol [38/42 Forces signed up so far]

• National Policing Curriculum: Level I & II public protection training for police officers – incl HBV, FM, FGM. Supported by 6 scenario based e-learning modules (College of Policing – COP)

• Authorised Professional Practice – HBV, FM & FGM (COP)

• Updated ACPO HBV Strategy (draft) , Comms , Tactics etc.

• Partnership with Europol & Member States law enforcement agencies to tackle travelling offenders, exploit Intelligence

A case of reflection and a cause for change

•ASB - ‘A Step in the Right Direction’

•Domestic Abuse - ‘Everyones Business’

•Hate Crime - ‘Getting Away with Murder’

•Savile - ‘Giving Victims a Voice’

•Child Sexual Exploitation - ‘Don’t Look Away’

HBV - The real challenge

•Vastly under-reported and requiring victim, survivor and community confidence

•Attitude - Our culture (domestic abuse)

•Aptitude - Knowledge and Ability gained

•Appetite - Protection for all must be a priority

Forced marriage - a new opportunity to Bridge Process and culture

together

•A marriage conducted without the valid consent of both parties, where duress is a factor

•A criminal offence - a first conference to talk about this well needed statutory legislation

• Forced Marriage Legislation – Enactment June 2014

Present Approach• HM Government’s Violence Against

• Women & Girls Strategy & Police Service

• Public Protection

• UK National Policing structure

• 9 ACPO Regional leads

• 43 Force champions

• NGO & IAG specialist support

• HM Government’s FM Unit

ACPO national Action plan - themes of work

1.Making HBV unacceptable in all communities

2.Victim Confidence

3.Breaking offending behaviour

4.Justice Seen, Justice Done

5.Continuous Learning

6.Communication and engagement

1. Making HBV unacceptablein all communities

•Recognise change – the world in 2014

•Community driven solutions

•Breaking the generational cycle

•Challenge where appropriate

•Fundamental Human Rights

•….The majority of young people from immigrant communities are well integrated. Yet in many households, old traditions are still a powerful force ……’

• [Why? ………the community ‘back home’ has also been moving on. Things haves been changing ……….]

2. Victim Confidence

• Trust & belief in police & others - work with KN survivors

• Early identification of HBV

• Right Service, First Time. Never turn a victim away

• Meeting needs of victims

• Accessibility

• No judgement

• Respect & dignity [fundamental right to be believed].

3. Breaking offending behaviour

• Risk assessment & safety planning

• National Intelligence Model – Intelligence requirement

• People at risk of offending [ID of intervention opportunities]

• Making it shameful

• Early intervention

• Positive role models

4. Justice Seen, Justice Done

• The legal framework (criminal / civil)

• Specialist prosecutors

• Specialist courts

• What does justice mean?

• Community buy in

• Restorative Justice?

• Enhanced sentencing

5. Continuous Learning

• Not just a police issue

• Community reach

• Community values

• Democracy

• Rights & Entitlements

• We must learn from each other & other people to be the best that we can be

6. Communication &Engagement

• Victims & potential victims

• Offenders & potential offenders

• Communities (UK / international)

• Inter-agencies

• Information sharing

• Whole (cross) government approach

• Vertical / Horizontal approach

Thank you