Forced marriage

This is a human rights abuse and falls within the Crown Prosecution Service definition of domestic violence. Young people at risk of a forced marriage are usually experiencing emotional and/or physical abuse at home.

Schools often feel that it is not their place to tackle this issue and that doing so intrudes on private and cultural family matters. This anxiety is unnecessary for the following reasons.

No culture or religion sanctions forced marriages — this is quite different to an arranged marriage where parties consent of their own free will.
Forced marriage is a human rights abuse in the same way as child abuse and domestic violence and as such must not be ignored.
Forced marriage directly impedes a school's ability to fulfil its basic function of equal and effective delivery of education and fulfilment of potential for all its pupils.

Information, guidance and practice guidelines

Read more about this issue, and the available resources and guidance, on the 'Forced marriage' page in the Every Child Matters (ECM) website and the 'Forced Marriage Unit' section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website.

The DCSF has produced awareness-raising materials specifically for schools and young people to raise awareness of the issues surrounding forced marriage and provide information about sources of support.

On the FCO's site, Multi-agency practice guidelines: Handling cases of forced marriage is a set of revised practice guidelines, published in July 2009. These have been designed to provide step-by-step advice to frontline workers, including in schools. They complement the statutory guidance for agencies, The right to choose: Multi-agency statutory guidance on forced marriage, which came into force with the launch of the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act in November 2008.