What is forced marriage?
A forced marriage is one where one or both parties are coerced into a marriage against their will and under duress.
Duress includes both physical and emotional pressure. Victims can suffer many forms of physical and emotional damage including being held unlawfully captive, assaulted and repeatedly raped.
Forced marriage is an abuse of human rights and cannot be justified on any religious or cultural basis.
It is very different from arranged marriage, where both parties give their full and free consent to the marriage. The tradition of arranged marriages has operated successfully within many communities and many countries for a very long time.
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How big is the problem?
"Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouse"
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16
The total number of people forced into marriage in Scotland or indeed the UK is not known as cases are under reported, however, the UK Government's Forced Marriage Unit deals with approximately 300-400 cases a year, of which 15% involve male victims and 30% of all victims are minors.
Prevalence of Forced Marriage in Scotland
Limited information is available on how many of these cases involve Scots. In January this year the Forced Marriage Unit began to record the origin of reported incidences of forced marriage/potential forced marriage on a regional basis. During the period January to October 2008, 40 of these incidents came from Scotland.
Of these, five were cases directly supported by the Forced Marriage Unit, nine were reluctant sponsor (immigration) cases and 26 were calls relating to a specific incident or suspicion (including referrals to other agencies).