The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 16) states that “marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.” As such, forced marriage is a clear violation of human rights.
The tactics used to force someone into marriage or to punish him or her for leaving a forced marriage are also human rights violations. The life of someone forced into marriage may consist of daily abuses, including rape, forced labor, domestic violence, and deprivation of the right to education, which can result in severe and long-term harm, including deteriorating medical and mental health.
The Tahirih Justice Institute's www.preventforcedmarriage.org website is an incredibly useful tool that serves as a resource library for service providers and includes over 10 recorded webinars on different topics related to providing services to forced marriage survivors and individuals at risk, as well as research papers, including the 2011 survey study on "Forced Marriage in Immigrant Communities in the United States", recommended books, and a news archive.
Also, check out the Forced Marriage 101 Webinar and the attached brochure and fact sheet to learn more about how forced marriage impacts individuals in the United States.
This video explains elements of intimate partner abuse and the resources available for support in American Sign Language to survivors in the Commonwealth.
This video was created by the Ensuring Accessibility to All Survivors project (an expansion of the I-CAN! Virginia project) in collaboration with the Partnership for People with Disabilities, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at Virginia Commonwealth University, and the School of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University.
To view the video, click here: https://youtu.be/OM4LxKmziIg
This page from the National Congress of American Indians helps to briefly review the application of VAWA as it relates to Tribal communities. Their intent is to push for more inclusion of tribe rights and power to enforce legal and community action towards those who are not included in the VAWA understanding of sexual violence. Current law only allows for tribes to act to address domestic violence towards women only, and limits the ability to prosecute offenders who are not tribal members.
This 7-minute video is provided free by the creators of Private Violence, a feature-length documentary that explores domestic violence in the U.S. This short video features survivors Bev Gooden, Kit Gruelle, Leslie Morgan Steiner and Mildred Muhammad. It is perfect for engaging discussion via social media and in any classroom, volunteer training, survivors' group, community task force meeting, school, legal or health care setting. Click here to view the video via YouTube.