A woman in Birmingham has been told she faces jail if she has sex with her mentally disabled husband because he does not have the capacity to consent to sex.  The woman was warned by a judge at the Court of Protection that she faces life in prison if she does have sex with him. Despite […]

Legislation designed to stop women being forced into marriage needs strengthening, a High Court judge has suggested. Mr Justice Holman said ministers should consider improving the effectiveness of forced marriage protection orders. He was speaking at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London after dismissing contempt of court applications made against two women accused of […]

THE High Court annulled a marriage between a 16 year old Egyptian girl who married a 29 year old man against her wishes.   The marriage between the couple, who are both of the Islamic faith, was declared null and void after gardai and others raised concerns that the teen was the subject of a […]

Ireland: NEW laws may be necessary to protect very young people from being subjected to ‘forced’ marriages, a judge has warned. His comment came after the High Court annulled the union between a 16-year-old Egyptian girl and a 29-year-old man whom she married against her wishes. The marriage between the couple, who are both of […]

The figures on the number of women in the UK who have suffered female genital mutilation are radically out of date, meaning the problem could be far worse than feared, campaigners say. The Home Office has agreed to fund a new study into the number of women living in the UK who have been “cut”, usually abroad, […]

NSPCC launches free 24 hour female genital mutilation (FGM) helpline. The Home Office is supporting the launch of a new NSPCC helpline to help protect more children in the UK from mutilation. FGM is illegal in Britain Information gathered from calls to the NSPCC helpline will provide police and child protection agencies with intelligence so action […]

The official number of British girls at risk of female genital mutilation is set to increase after the Home Office announced it is updating its figures. Currently 66,000 women in Britain are estimated to have fallen victim to the practice and a further 24,000 are at risk. But researchers said the numbers are out of […]

Ireland:  NEW laws may be needed to help young people placed in arranged or forced marriages, a Supreme Court judge has said. The system for seeking exemptions from the legal age limit for marriage may also need to be reviewed as it raises child welfare questions, according to Mr Justice John MacMenamin of the Supreme […]

The challenge is to let people – men and women – have their voices heard on the issue, Unicef says More than 30 million girls are at risk of being subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) over the next decade, a study by Unicef has found. It said more than 125 million girls and women alive […]