The New Nation - Internet Edition

David Miliband

Last week, British diplomats sped to a village near Mirpur in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. The Foreign Office in the UK had been tipped off that a young British girl was being held prisoner by her father. He was beating her to get her to agree to a marriage she did not want, to a man she had never met. She was just fifteen years old.

The team from the British High Commission in Islamabad were able to help her get out of the situation she was in and get back to the UK - She was one of the lucky ones. So far this year, the British government's Forced Marriage Unit, set up in 2005, has handled over 1500 reports of forced marriage, supporting an individual, advising the police, or intervening directly by locating and, on occasion, rescuing the victims in the UK or overseas. Our diplomats across the world have helped over 400 people facing possible forced marriage or being forced to sponsor a visa after the marriage has taken place.

But there are others we don't get to hear about, who we can't help. Every year hundreds of young British men and women undergo this sort of abuse, without ever coming to the attention of the authorities.

Some will find it hard to believe forced marriage can still take place. What makes a family choose to ignore the wishes of their child or to value, for example, tradition or their own social standing above the happiness, welfare, safety and human rights of their child? It happens in a number of cultures and communities. But whatever the reason and whatever the community, " cultural sensitivity " must never be used as an excuse for moral blindness.

Next Tuesday, the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 enters into force in the UK. This is an important step forward. It gives the courts a new weapon, in the form of Forced Marriage Protection Orders, to protect the vulnerable. These will ensure potential victims are not forced to marry, and those already married are not forced to carry on with the relationship. If the Orders are breached the person responsible may be arrested. They will be in contempt of court, and may be imprisoned.

The government has also introduced guidance for public service workers to make clear the help they must give to victims. We've moved a long way from the early days where young people were turned away by hospitals or police stations unfamiliar with the problem, and even sent back to the very families from whom they sought protection. But there is still much more to do.

The new law is only part of our wider effort to tackle forced marriage. This includes a national awareness-raising campaign; a programme of continuous training for front-line staff; the commissioning of further academic research and a renewed effort at community outreach through partnerships with schools, police forces, local authorities, community leaders and - the real champions of this work - the charities and NGOs that have been struggling for years to help victims.

We are not trying to tell families how to raise their children. And we are certainly not confusing forced marriage with arranged marriage, the rich tradition in some communities of families match-making with the individuals still having the ultimate say. What we are doing is taking a clear stand against a practice that sees hundreds, maybe thousands, of young women and men in the UK taken from the life that they want to live, imprisoned, abused, and - in the words of one survivor - sold to be raped.

However, action by governments can only get us so far. For this abuse to stop, we need communities to speak out clearly as well - to say that this will no longer be tolerated. Across the UK families that themselves would never consider subjecting their children to a forced marriage are turning a blind eye to others that are.

And although it's a difficult thing to fly in the face of a culture of acceptance, that acceptance is being increasingly challenged. The Forced Marriage Unit is getting more and more calls that are helping to save lives and protect people's fundamental human rights.

And while diplomats mounting rescue missions is a part of the answer, it is only a part. The practice of forced marriage is a stain on those who carry it out, those that condone and those that ignore it as well. Stopping it is an aim around which everyone can and must unite.

Next month sees the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which changed the nature of governments' responsibilities to their people. But human rights cannot exist solely as an abstract legal concept, or even as a set of obligations for governments alone. They need to be cherished in the hearts of people and we must be prepared to act to defend them.

(David Miliband MP, is the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. The op-ed was published in The Telegraph [UK] on 23 November 2008)