Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- List of Authors
- The Child in the Intersections between Society, Family, Faith and Culture
- Born or Becoming: Children, Religion and Identity
- State Curriculum and Parents' Convictions under the European Convention on Human Rights
- Care Placements of Children Outside their Parental Home - Concerns of Culture
- Child Marriages and the Law - with Special Reference to Swedish Developments
- Circumcision of Young Boys: A Conflict between Parental and Child Rights. The Swedish Experience from a Medical Point of View
- The Body as Identity Marker. Circumcision of Boys Caught between Contrasting Views on the Best Interests of the Child
- Malta Process and Cross-Cultural Aspects in Family Disputes
- The Child as the “Sacrificial Lamb” to Society, Family, Religion and Culture. A Comment
- Annex
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Annex
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2017
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- List of Authors
- The Child in the Intersections between Society, Family, Faith and Culture
- Born or Becoming: Children, Religion and Identity
- State Curriculum and Parents' Convictions under the European Convention on Human Rights
- Care Placements of Children Outside their Parental Home - Concerns of Culture
- Child Marriages and the Law - with Special Reference to Swedish Developments
- Circumcision of Young Boys: A Conflict between Parental and Child Rights. The Swedish Experience from a Medical Point of View
- The Body as Identity Marker. Circumcision of Boys Caught between Contrasting Views on the Best Interests of the Child
- Malta Process and Cross-Cultural Aspects in Family Disputes
- The Child as the “Sacrificial Lamb” to Society, Family, Religion and Culture. A Comment
- Annex
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
Summary of the Report of the Swedish Law Commission:Strengthened Protection against Forced Marriages and Child Marriages (Statens Offentliga Utredningar 2012:35)
THE PROBLEM AND THE PROPOSALS
How extensive is the problem of forced marriages and child marriages? It would be good to have some figures. How many people are married off against their will, how many are afraid that this will be the case, how many child marriages are there?
However, it is the stories of individuals that really convince us regarding the need for enhanced protection against forced marriages and child marriages. The story of the 15-year-old girl who was sent to Iraq, married off to a considerably older cousin and ever since has been informing the world around by means of a hidden computer of the abuse she is subjected to. The story of the young woman who wanted to get an education in Sweden but became part of a barter transaction between two families, protested but was threatened, assaulted and finally married off. Or the story of the girl who escaped from a forced marriage and had a child with the man she loved, a child whom the family subsequently killed.
As the inquiry neared completion, a nineteen-year-old woman was stabbed to death. Her sixteen-year-old brother is a suspect and is at present in police custody. As a child the victim had been taken to another country and there been married off against her will at the age of fourteen. After a while she succeeded in fleeing back to Sweden. As we write, a police inquiry has just been initiated and a discussion is ongoing concerning why the young woman was not given the protection she needed to survive.
There are many of these stories, each one more gripping than the other. They bear witness to a widespread lack of freedom and young people who are not aware that they themselves have the right to decide over their lives.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Child's Interests in ConflictThe Intersections between Society, Family, Faith and Culture, pp. 187 - 200Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2016