Research carried out in 2008 in Surkhet and Dang districts in Nepal reveals that 81 percent of women face domestic violence frequently. This is a clear indication of the high level of domestic violence prevalent in Nepali society. Nepali women and girls are vulnerable to both domestic violence and public violence.

The Tahirih Justice Center (Tahirih) is one of the nation’s foremost legal defense organizations protecting women and girls fleeing human rights abuses. Through direct legal services, public policy advocacy, and public education and outreach, since 1997, Tahirih has assisted over 12,000 immigrant women and children from all over the world fleeing such abuses as domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, torture, female genital mutilation, “honor” crimes, and forced marriage. Tahirih also leads national advocacy campaigns on a range of issues, building on our direct services experiences, to press for systemic changes in laws, policies, and practices to better protect women and girls from violence.

This report was written by Eleanor Stobart on behalf of the Forced Marriage Unit (a joint Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Home Office Unit) in collaboration with the Association of Chief Police Officers, Crown Prosecution Service, Department for Children, Schools and Families, Department for Communities and Local Government, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Department of Health, Ministry of Justice and the Welsh Assembly Government. The Forced Marriage Unit would like to express their gratitude to all those involved in the drafting of these guidelines.

Child marriage is increasingly recognized as a serious problem, both as a violation of girls' human rights and as a hindrance to key development outcomes. As more resources and action are committed to addressing this problem, it becomes important to examine past efforts and how well they have worked. ICRW summarizes a systematic review of child marriage prevention programs that have documented evaluations. Based on this synthesis of evaluated programs, the authors offer an analysis of the broader implications for viable solutions to child marriage.

The British High Commission has commissioned three short animated documentaries on the issue of Forced Marriages in Pakistan in an attempt to raise awareness of this human rights violation. Watch 'Sara's Story' below.

There are many reasons why Violence Against Women is possibly the most widespread and intractable human rights violations in human history: It is embedded in social structures; It is part of cultural customs; It is due to gender inequality; It is due to gender-based economic inequality; It is due to patriarchal strictures… the list of factors goes on and on and many have expounded on it.

Yet even while it is so entrenched an issue, many people have problems recognising gender-based violence even when they are come face-to-face with it simply because:

Helping Forced marriages and honour killings are often intertwined. Marriage can be forced to save honour, and women can be murdered for rejecting a forced marriage.^[5]

The issue of ‘honour’ is also one of links with the community. Unlike domestic violence, a woman who runs away from a forced marriage or honour killing will be severing links with her family and her culture. There may be no help coming from those parties.