Dr. Emma McClaren - UK Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) - DFID Girl Summit 2014

"The Forced Marriage Unit is unique....It is only through our partnerships at home and overseas, with NGOS and agencies, that... we... are able to help some young people... find an alternative ending to their particular story." Dr. Emma McClaren

Panel Discussion: Spotlight on Progress - "Prevention and Safeguarding: Protecting Those at Risk"

Context:  This presentation is from one of the 14 "Spotlights on Progress" video-recorded sessions from the Girl Summit 2014, London, United Kingdom (UK). The sessions were organised to share best practice between practitioners, grassroots activists, and government ministers across the issues of female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM). Girl Summit is a project of the Department for International Development (DFID), UK.

A featured panelist of this Spotlight session was Dr. Emma McClaren, Head of the UK’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU).

Profile of speaker: Dr. Emma McClaren led a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Home Office initiative, which works on the UK government’s forced marriage casework, outreach, and policy. "The FMU, established in 2005, operates both in UK, where support is provided to any individual, and overseas, where consular assistance is provided to British nationals and dual nationals." (Click here for their overview of forced marriage.)

Strategy overview: Dr. McClaren began her presentation with a short film contrasting the hopes and dreams of a young girl, which was filmed in a typical teenager's bedroom in the UK with a computer, internet-enabled phone, posters, etc., where the girl talks about her dreams of becoming a well-educated professional, while disclosing her mother's plans for her to have a traditional marriage in the mother's homeland. Interspersed are dramatised portions of a marriage that includes violence, abuse, poverty, intensive manual labour, and deprivation of human rights.

McClaren described the work of the FMU and the 1,300 cases in 2014 that parallel the situation in the film. She mentions a few ways in which the FMU can help in such situation (see below for more detail) but chose to describe how partnering with governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can help in forced marriage situations through four kinds of support:

1. Speaking out about and against forced marriage so that girls know that it is real and know how to seek help: 1) using social media and campaigning to provide information, or 2) partnering with NGOs, such as with Freedom Charity, which developed a mobile phone app to make it easy for victims to seek help.
2. Providing professionals with the knowledge, skills, and tools to take concrete action, including through outreach events, published guidelines, and information on UK criminalisation of forced marriage.
3. Connecting with overseas consular services and NGOs, which can help victims when they are not in the UK, for example, an NGO in Islamabad, Pakistan, that can offer safe housing while girls await their return to the UK.
4. Partnering with NGOs in the UK that can help returning victims rebuild their lives, including the NGO Southall Black Sisters.

UK’s FMU is "unique in bringing together the work of two different government departments to provide a response to the challenges presented by forced marriage both at home and overseas. The unit offers a range of responses, from issuing secret mobile phones, emergency travel documents and assisting returns, to running hundreds of outreach events each year and running a helpline for victims seeking advice."

Additional strategies include:

• Assistance provided ranges from: safety advice through to aiding a victim in order to prevent her unwanted spouse moving to the UK, and in extreme cases, to rescues of victims held against their will overseas.
• Partnering can include supporting NGOs within the UK undertaking work to tackle forced marriage.

 Overview of this Summit Session: From the Girl Summit summary document: "This spotlight explores what can be done to safeguard girls who are at risk of child, early and forced marriage or FGM, or who have already undergone one of these practices. Focusing on the roles that both communities and agencies can play, it showcases examples of programmes, tools and partnerships which can be used to help protect girls in a range of different contexts.

The session is opened by Marta Santos Pais UN Special Representative for the Secretary General on Violence against Children.

The speakers, in order of appearance, are:

Stella Nkrumah-Ababio, West Africa Region Child Protection Advisor, World Vision - Child protection initiatives, Sierra Leone, with insights from Nepal

Dr Emma McLaren, Joint Head, Forced Marriage Unit, Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office - The Forced Marriage Unit, Government of the United Kingdom 

Anne-Marie Hutchinson, OBE Partner, Dawson Cornwell - Force Marriage Civil Protection Orders, UK

Nafissatou Diop, Co-ordinator, UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on FGM/C - Service delivery for prevention, protection and response to FGM, Africa

Keith Niven, Detective Chief Superintendent, Metropolitan Police, London - Operation Limelight/Community Engagement FGM Conference, UK

The session is moderated by Ikenna Azuike, the founder of What's Up Africa, an internet programme about African news, initiatives and people."

Footage of this (available below) and other "Spotlights" are available on DFID’s YouTube channel.

The Girl Summit is a project of DFID. Click here and scroll down to see the full list of individuals and organisations committed to working on girls' issues, as well as a list of Girl Summit Charter signatories.