women in london

New report exposes a high level of illegal practices against girls in the UK and recommends urgent training for frontline professionals

Leading Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) women’s organisation, Imkaan, has written to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, (on 25 November: the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) urging him to work with key ministers to develop the government’s violence against women and girls action plan to eradicate forced marriage, ‘honour-based’ violence and female genital mutilation (sometimes referred to as ‘female circumcision’) in the UK. (Download copy of letter in pdf format)

Imkaan has enclosed a copy of its new 86 page report, which was commissioned by the Mayor of London and is entitled ‘The Missing Link: A Joined-Up Approach to Addressing Harmful Practices in London’ (1).

The study reveals that despite the Home Office’s intention to ‘see violence against women eradicated in the UK’ there are some startling gaps and failures in policies and procedures.

As a result, women and girls are being left in life-threatening situations.

The data from the report shows that:

*The number of births in London by women with female genital mutilation has increased to around 7,000 a year. A significant number are likely to be girls at risk of female genital mutilation.
* In 2010 the government’s Forced Marriage Unit dealt with 330 cases of women and girls at risk of forced marriage in London.
* Scores of women and girls are contacting specialist women’s services every week saying they are suffering from, or are threatened with, ‘honour-based’ violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
* The women and girls are from Afghan, Turkish, South Asian, Kurdish, Arab, African, Irish Traveller communities.

The report is also damning in its broad finding that despite the thousands of girls at risk in the UK, there is no consistent approach by authorities to deal with these issues. Health workers including GPs, social workers and teachers receive no mandatory training in this area and there is a real and dangerous postcode lottery of support services for girls and women should they try to find help.

Imkaan Director, Marai Larasi MBE, said:

“It is not acceptable that in 2011 many girls and women living in Britain face extreme, violent threats to their safety and even to their lives”.

“These issues are being neglected because of fears in many cases of being labelled at best culturally insensitive and at worst racist. This will not do”.

“There would be outrage and a national scandal if this were happening to little white girls. Every girl should be protected, no matter her background. We need to seriously up our game on ensuring every frontline professional is trained in these issues, and that the full force of child protection is brought to bear here”.

“Although there are clear differences of opinion about whether a separate piece of criminal legislation is required to address forced marriage, there is consensus among survivors and practitioners that women and girls need high quality specialist support services”.

Female genital mutilation is a criminal offence in the UK, and it is unlawful to take a child overseas to have the procedure performed. Yet, to date, there have been no prosecutions.

Potential offences in relation to forced marriage or ‘honour-based’ violence are encompassed in existing legislation (e.g. Domestic Violence Act 2004) and may include kidnapping, abduction, common assault, grievous bodily harm, sexual or domestic violence and murder. There were seventeen criminal prosecutions for offences committed in relation to forced marriage and ‘honour-based’ violence during April to September 2010.

The UK’s child protection system is automatically initiated by professionals (social workers, health workers and others) when a child is suspected of being abused or neglected. However, the Imkaan report notes that professionals that leads on child protection are not routinely utilising existing safeguarding policies and procedures to protect girls. There is an expectation that girls will know what is happening to them, that they will be able to interpret this as violence and know who to approach for help. In reality, this is unlikely and places a huge burden on girls to deal with the violence without support. Therefore, the current system is failing girls.

There are also serious problems with existing services in this area; most, such as hospital clinics, are targeted at adults who have already undergone female genital mutilation while little is done to prevent ‘cutting’ of girls. Girls are likely to be cut before they reach secondary school and the data indicates that girls may be as young as 9 in cases of forced marriage. The services that do exist are woefully underfunded and yet these are the very services that women and girls are most likely to approach for help. Girls consulted in the study said they wanted to feel confident that teachers, social workers and other professionals would know how to respond and needed the government to provide safe spaces for girls to share their concerns and fears with their peers, and get help.

There is a lack of early intervention and prevention. Very little work is carried out consistently in both primary and secondary schools. The work that does take place is in secondary schools. An example of promising practice highlighted in the report is the work of Ashiana, which runs a secondary schools-based programme for girls and young women from ages 13-21, offering counselling and awareness-raising workshops. Ashiana’s involvement clearly shows that work in schools has led to the direct prevention of forced marriage in that school. This is of course a programme initiated by enthusiastic individuals. More consistency is needed so that all teachers are equipped to understand the issues and intervene appropriately. However, for some girls this is already too late. There is an urgent need to overcome reluctance to broach these issues in primary schools; this is when many teachers and girls need information and support

Marai Larasi concluded:

“We have been talking about these issues for far too long but in the absence of targeted action where it is most needed and would have the greatest impact. It is hugely disappointing that girls living here in the UK are having their most basic human rights violated on a daily basis and are not being kept safe by the system which is supposed to protect them”. “We need to have a vision of a truly safe future for all women and girls in the UK, and we need a specific plan to get us there. We call on the Prime Minister to take the first step today.”

Note

1. The Imkaan report, The Missing Link, is a London study. However it is well known that there are many towns and cities in other parts of the UK where these forms of violence occur and need urgent attention. Imkaan is calling on the government to develop the national action plan on VAWG to improve current responses and to urgently take on board the recommendations from the report.