Research and publications

Findings from Bawso forced marriage research report  

Forced marriage affects over 15.4 million people worldwide, of which 88% are women and girls. The practice limits women’s choices in life dictating the person they should marry, the friends they associate with, and other life choices. Forced marriage is a form of abuse against women and girls and should be treated as a crime.  

Addressing forced marriage and Honor -Based Abuse (HBA) that is often associated with marriage, needs a better understanding of the scale of the practice and the factors that contribute to it. As an organization that supports victims and survivors of forced marriage and HBA, we undertook a study that aimed at gaining an in-depth understanding of the ideologies that contribute to forced marriage and HBV. This study was carried out from 2022 and completed in September 2023. The report was launched in October 2023 by the minister for Social Justice and Chief Whip, Jane Hutt (Welsh Government).  

A key recommendation from the research was for a need for support agencies to put in place a comprehensive end – to – end support system for survivors, from the point an incident has been reported to a time when the survivor no longer requires direct support regardless of their immigration status.   

For detailed findings and recommendations from the report, follow the link here to the full report and link for a summary report.