Government should recognise seriousness of honour-based abuse by criminalising it under law, says new report

A new report has called for honour-based abuse to be recognised by law in order to lessen the difficulties of low conviction rates. 

New research from Manchester Metropolitan University has discovered deficiencies in the legal system has resulted in a conviction rate of less than 3% in 2023.

Honour-based abuse (HBA) is a form of violence committed against mostly women and girls, motivated by the enforcement of so called “honour” in a family or community. It can take many forms; including, emotional and physical abuse, forced marriage, kidnapping, and murder.

As honour-based abuse and forced marriage have a history of low prosecution and conviction rates, new research from Manchester Metropolitan has recommended improvements in the justice system to bring perpetrators to justice at the courts and better help the victims.

The recommendations are brought together in an extensive report, Honour-Based Abuse in the Courts, launched yesterday, March 27.

Dr Maz Idriss, author of the report and Senior Lecturer in Law at Manchester Metropolitan, said: “Despite the misconceptions, honour-based abuse and forced marriages are not purely an Islamic phenomenon. They cut across many countries and communities. I’ve spent over 19 years studying honour-based abuse and I’ve noticed the lack of legal research on the issue.

“Many brilliant people work in this field, but we have a lack of legal scholars. As legal researchers, we can look specifically at the law and the legal impact it has with the aim of suggesting reforms.”

One of the recommendations the report is for the Government to make it illegal to commit acts of HBA and recognise the seriousness of such acts. It would also enable proper recording and statistical data collection.

The report also has recommendations for the police, the CPS, the courts and the Government rather than focusing on one factor. It also emphasised the importance of grassroots organisations, especially considering the context of cultural issues.

Uniquely, the report looks at how honour-based abuse harms men and recommends how the Home Office should create an improved and separate strategy for male victims. Over the years, much has been written about how the patriarchy hurts men but it has been rarely studied through the lens of honour-based abuse and how it may affect men.

Dr Idriss said: “The main reason for the low prosecution and conviction rates is that victims do not want to prosecute their family members. Even contacting the police would be detrimental to family reputation.

“I think the United Kingdom is the leading country on research of honour-based abuse. We have our police forces, our CPS and our government working on this. Other countries don’t assign the issue this much of their resources.

“But if we’re going to continue to be the leading country on HBA studies and intervention, we need to be the gold standard. There is room for improvement in all areas.”