Victim-survivors of Forced Marriage

The Australian Human Rights Commission (Commission) is pleased to provide its submission to the NSW Department of Communities and Justice's Discussion Paper on the Review of NSW legal protections for victim-survivors of forced marriage. 

Forced marriage 

Forced marriage is a serious human rights violation, which disproportionately affects women and girls. 

The most recent estimates suggest that in 2021, there were approximately 22 million people around the world who were living in a forced marriage on any given day, with two-thirds of victim-survivors being women and girls.

Australia is not immune to this problem. Forced marriage is the most common form of modern slavery reported to Australian authorities, with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) receiving 84 reports of forced marriage in 2021-22.

When considering these statistics, it is important to emphasise that this is still, in many respects, a hidden crime. For example, Anti-Slavery Australia estimates that only 1 in 5 victims of modern slavery are detected in Australia.

Cooperation

It is acknowledged throughout the Discussion Paper that there are relevant laws and supports also provided at the Commonwealth level. 

Ensuring that there is a coordinated approach across federal and state jurisdictions to providing protection and support for victim-survivors is critical. 

It is impossible to obtain a true understanding of the supports available and whether existing provisions are sufficient without looking beyond NSW alone and considering the combined effect of laws and services at both the federal and state levels. 

The prospective establishment of independent Anti-slavery Commissioners at both the NSW and Commonwealth levels provides a unique opportunity to work collaboratively to examine the adequacy of existing protections for victim-survivors at a cross-jurisdictional level, and determine whether improvements can be made to ensure the co-ordinated delivery of support.

Definitional issues

The current legal conceptualisations of forced marriage tend to focus on a single point in time as being the moment of legal significance. 

For example, the definition of forced marriage under s 270.7A of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) focuses on the entering into the marriage as being the particular act on which the subsequent offences in s 270.7B are based. 

However, forced marriage is best described as ‘a process rather than an event’. A forced marriage ‘can involve a spectrum of coercive and controlling behaviours’ and ‘the coercion or threats that cause a non-consenting party to enter into a marriage can encompass conduct that began long before the marriage’.

A deeper understanding of forced marriage that recognises the surrounding behaviours and understands forced marriage as ‘a process rather than an event’ is needed to better inform policymakers considering the adequacy of protections and supports provided.

Our submission

To learn more about these issues, and more, please download and read the full available submission.