Submission Link: ASA Submission link
Submission Summary:
The OHCHR Secretary-General undertook a Call for Inputs on the progress towards ending child, early and forced marriage worldwide. Anti-Slavery Australia’s submission presents the context of forced marriage in Australia as a form of gender-based violence, with multiple drivers and intersectionality with other forms of disadvantage and marginalisation.
The submission highlights Anti-Slavery Australia’s advocacy on improving the remedies for victim-survivors through a National Victims’ Compensation Scheme and a Federal Charter of Victims’ Rights to be established in Australia. The submission recommends a stronger social response to aid victim-survivors of forced marriage including additional funding and referral pathways to government programs, improved mental health services to victim-survivors of forced marriage, improved frontline worker engagement with victim-survivors, and leveraging existing government services to aid those currently ineligible for the Australian Government Support for Trafficked People Program. The submission also points out the structural drivers of forced marriage that require review such as Australia’s asylum and migration regimes.
The submission highlights the importance of awareness raising among frontline workers and young people in preventing forced marriage. Anti-Slavery Australia addresses this through their Speak Now forced marriage prevention project where they have developed a suite of resources aimed at frontline workers in key sectors, a free online course, a podcast, embedded youth voices in the project, conducted a National Tour educating and training frontline workers on identifying and responding to individuals at risk of or in a forced marriage. In addition, the submission discusses innovative strategies the Speak Now project has conducted to address child, early and forced marriage including a peer research study on intergenerational relationships and embedding the survivor voice in Australia’s research and policy development.