Forced Marriage put on the Agenda in Toowoomba

Learning about this Assault on Human Dignity
A series of events in Toowoomba has created awareness of the risk of forced marriage of young women and provided support for people in how best to respond. The Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba organised the visit by Liz Payne, a forced marriage expert with ACRATH who facilitated the events covering schools (students and teachers), community groups and civic leaders. Some schools in the region participated via video link.
ACRATH works to ensure the rights of girls and young women who are vulnerable to being trafficked into a forced marriage. Each year in Australia girls are forced to marry. Some are taken overseas to be married and others are married in Australia. The exact numbers are unknown because very few girls report a forced marriage. But the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has investigated 174 cases of forced marriage since 2013, when legislation, outlawing forced marriage, was introduced. Read more…