Britain’s politicians have been feeling gutsy of late, with the air in Westminster thick with views on various sensitive minority issues.
This week, it’s forced marriages.
Today Conservative party leader David Cameron announced that a future Tory government would criminalise forcing someone into marriage.
Cameron said the existing legislation, enacted last year, is not tough enough. At present, forced marriage is a mere civil offence.
Some 300 forced marriages are reported to the government’s Forced Marriage Unit each year. But the real figure may be in the thousands, Cameron warned.
This is ground recently covered by the Centre for Social Cohesion. Earlier this month the centre released “Crimes of the Community: Honour-Based Violence in the UK”, a study of forced marriages, honour killings and other forms of abuse – chiefly against women – plaguing Britain’s ethnic and religious minorities.
The report draws on the testimony of dozens of victims and victim advocacy groups from around the country.