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Inquiry into Enhancing Civil Protections and Remedies for Forced Marriage
In September 2024, The Salvation Army provided a submission to the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department, responding to the Inquiry into Enhancing Civil Protections and Remedies for Forced Marriage.
The Salvation Army's submission draws upon our frontline experience supporting victim-survivors of forced marriage, modern slavery, and family and domestic violence, primarily from the perspective of our Slavery and Trafficking Safehouse in NSW.
The submission advocates for forced marriage to be explicitly included in the statutory definition of family violence and incorporated into domestic, family and sexual violence frameworks.
We hold the view that in doing so, victim survivors will have better access broader and more established supports such as specialised courts, protections, and assistance, without having to navigate multiple systems. In our response, we identified that in integrating forced marriage responses into family violence frameworks, there is a need:
- To ensure the nuances and complexities associated with forced marriage are acknowledged and incorporated, and that highly specialised responses which address related intersectional forms of modern slavery are accessible.
- For the Australian Government to commit to adequate family, domestic and sexual violence service funding to ensure a well-funded and resourced sector and to ensure that existing services are not overburdened with an inevitable increase in demand. Increased investment should include additional targeted funding for specialised responses to forced marriage.
- To provide additional guidance and upskilling across the whole sector.
- To bolster a whole-of-system response to ensure a frontline safety net is available for support alongside civil orders – including child protection, safe and suitable accommodation, and policing responses – to people at risk of, or who have been forced to marry.
- To promote choice and autonomy as a fundamental element which enhances person-centred care and improves outcomes for victim-survivors.
- To cement voices of lived experience in any decision regarding systemic reform, policy, and legislative responses.
At the heart of our submission we acknowledged that despite the benefits of integrating responses into existing frameworks, there is a need to ensure the nuances and complexities associated with forced marriage are still acknowledged and incorporated into definitions and responses.
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