Bridenapping in Nepal

The cultural tradition of kidnapping women and girls for marriage persists among indigenous groups in western Nepal.  The husband of one bridenapping victim told Women’s eNews:

Even if men and women like each other, there’s this tradition of ‘stealing’ the girl and eloping. When you steal a girl, it is more reputed. But sometimes, when the girl isn’t ready, there could be a big fight between the two families.

Plan UK reports that Nepal has one of the highest rated of forced and early marriage worldwide, with an average age under 18 at the time of first marriage.  Although bridenapping is a criminal offense in Nepal, the harmful cultural practice continues.  According to Chairman of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities, Rajkumar Lekhi, “There isn’t an age limit for marriage in this community. It depends on the family environment and the situation then and there. They also marry within their same community, even with first cousins.”

READ MORE: Group in Nepal Takes Pride in Kidnapping Brides, By  Lochana Sharma, Women’s eNews (January 10, 2012).

LEP candidate fights for right to run for public office

Spanish is the pervasive language spoken in San Luis, Arizona.  Yet, the city’s Latino Mayor has challenged the eligibility of a Hispanic candidate for City Council on the grounds that she has limited English proficiency (LEP).  The LEP candidate, Alejandrina Cabrera, is a U.S. citizen and a graduate of the same high school from which the Mayor graduated.  The Mayor cites a 1950′s Arizona law (echoing AZ’s state Constitution, adopted in 1910) providing that a “person who is unable to speak, write and read the English language is not eligible to hold a state, county, city, town or precinct office in the state.”  All AZ state-level officials must be able to “read, write, speak, and understand the English language sufficiently well to conduct the duties of the office without the aid of an interpreter.”  A state trial judge removed Ms. Cabrera’s name from the ballot after a court-appointed expert tested her English skills and deemed her not English-proficient.  Cabrera is taking her case up to the Arizona Supremes in hopes that the state’s highest Court will restore her name to the ballot in time for the March primary election.

READ MORE: English Language Proficiency and Elective Office in the Southwest: An Arizona Ballot-Access Case Poses Important Questions, Verdict (February 2, 2012).

Royal pains

A Saudi Prince is the subject of an arrest warrant based on allegations that he kidnapped his daughter and held her in the Royal Kingdom in violation of a French family court order awarding custody to the girl’s French Jewish mother.  Digital Journal called the French custody order “meaningless” in light of a conflicting Saudi Shari’a law favoring the father.  Diplomatic negotiations have failed, and The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not ratified the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.  The Prince told The Telegraph, ”France hasn’t got the right to take her back.  She is a Saudi citizen and a  princess.  They cannot oblige a princess to leave this country.”

U.S. forced-marriage survivor shares her moving story

IPS captures the moving story of forced marriage survivor turned advocate, Vidya Sri. Sri endured a forced marriage for 17 years before she mustered the courage to leave. When, at age 40, she defied tradition and obtained a divorce, Sri recalls, “My sense of balance, sense of right and wrong completely changed and fell back into place…it was like a fog had lifted.”  Sri recently founded Gangashakti.org, a survivor-led grassroots movement working to empower victims and eliminate forced marriage.  GJI’s Julia Alanen told IPS:

[The] U.K. has been dealing with this issue head on for years. They’ve passed national legislation, they’ve created a forced marriage unit and a forced marriage hotline. There are training manuals for educators, healthcare providers, social services providers, lawyers and there are resources for both the advocates and victims. In the U.S., we have none of that.

Alanen predicts that U.S. advocacy around the issue of forced marriage will increase dramatically in the coming years.  READ MORE: Forced Marriages Still an Ugly Secret, By Charundi Panagoda, IPS (January 26, 2012).

Effectively serving low-income LEP seniors

Earlier today, GJI stumbled across an exciting new National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC) blog - Ten Things You Need to Know About Language Access Advocacy for Seniors - geared to help advocates more effectively serve the more than 3.3 million limited- and non-English proficient (LEP/NEP) seniors living in the United States.  Seniors are an often neglected demographic with unique needs and barriers to critical information and services. NSCLC has amassed some helpful key resources for low-income LEP seniors.

Dad gets brief access to kidnapped sons in Egypt

Following a 6-month-long negotiation aided by Senator John Kerry and facilitated by the U.S. Embassy, Colin Bower saw his sons for the first time since their non-custodial mother, Mirvat El Nady, allegedly abducted the boys from Massachusetts to Egypt in 2009 during a scheduled visit.  El Nady used falsified passports to remove the children from the U.S. after a family court awarded custody to the boys’ father.  El Nady is still wanted by the FBI on a Massachusetts state criminal warrant for two charges of kidnapping of a minor, and a federal arrest warrant for international parental kidnapping.  Although Bower was permitted to spend 90 minutes with his sons, Egyptian authorities have not restored the boys to the care of their lawful custodial parent.  Egypt has not ratified the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, and does not extradite its nationals on parental kidnapping charges.  Bower sued EgyptAir for failing to detect El Nady and her sons’ false identification documents and prevent the abduction.

READ MORE: US father visits kidnapped sons in Egypt, bikya masr (January 17, 2012).

Through the eyes of a child bride

A survivor of forced child marriage in a rural Apostolic sect shares her horrifying experience with the Manica Post, illustrating some of the devastating consequences that flow from the harmful cultural practices of forced and early marriage:

I was 14 years when my father married me off to Mashamba, a churchman… That man is old enough to be my father, but he was determined to have a minor like me for a wife. I could not stomach being forced into a romantic relationship with such a man who has lost all his teeth due to old age… Mashamba ordered me to go into the bedroom and sleep with him. Being a child who knew nothing about men, Mashamba undressed me and pushed me on the bed…and eventually got on top of me to force penetration. Being scared, I screamed and he released his grip. He was infuriated by my actions and he started beating…me. I was injured on the back. He wanted to force himself on me, but I resisted. I pushed open the door and got out of the house naked. This happened every night for the two months that I was under his custody. He would end up beating me, forcing me to flee from the house… I resorted to taking refuge in a nearby forest… He reported the incident to my father and I was thoroughly beaten. The next day I was given the same room to sleep with him, I resisted his sexual advances and woke up early and ran away from our home. My grandmother gave me $5 for bus fare to Mutare, where [Mr. Chidowe] helped me by reporting the case to the police. They took care of me and sent me back to school. I am an isolated case because I had the rare guts to fight the injustice, and was lucky to escape…the rapist. Many unfortunate girls are dying in silence and someone must come to their rescue.

According to Manica Post, police have launched an investigation into the matter – Mashamba faces charges of sexual abuse and the girl’s father faces physical abuse charges. 

READ MORE: GIRL MARRIED OFF AT 14: Her father was paid $70 as lobola, Manica Post (January 10, 2012).

Jeffs bans sex, voids marriages, claims his prison walls will crumble

The Daily Mail reports that authorities are investigating allegations that followers of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed ‘prophet’ of a breakaway Mormon sect, are still secretly holding underage girls  for sexual purposes.  Jeffs is presently serving a life-plus-twenty sentence in a Texas prison for raping his own child wives, ages 12 and 15.  Earlier this week Jeffs reportedly banned all members of his 10,000-member congregation from having sex and declared all marriages void until he can return and ‘seal’ them.  Notwithstanding his life sentence, Jeffs reportedly expects to return to lead his flock.  Joni Holm, who has many relatives in the polygamous sect, told the Desert News that “[Jeffs] has predicted that the walls in the prison where he’s at will fall and crumble.”

Pro bono lawyers fight forced marriage

GJI tips its hat to the dedicated legal professionals working pro bono to eliminate forced and early marriage in the United States!  Tahirih Justice Center‘s Director of Public Policy, Jeanne Smoot, told the Pro Bono Institute’s PBEye that pro bono will play a pivotal role in developing a U.S. national response to forced marriage:

The United States lags more than a decade behind the United Kingdom and a number of other countries in dealing with forced marriage.  Because the U.S. movement to address the problem is being led by nongovernmental agencies with limited resources, our pro bono partners are absolutely critical to amplifying our capacity and enabling us to make rapid progress… The pro bono work they’re doing on forced marriage is especially rewarding because this is uncharted terrain in the United States and we face incredibly complex legal and policy challenges to addressing the problem.  We have a tremendous amount of work ahead, and we have to work quickly because the lives of thousands of young women facing forced marriages hang in the balance.

Pro bono attorney Ella Shenhav added, “It’s very satisfying to be working towards something that can actually change people’s lives.  [This project] will affect thousands of people . . . and give a voice to women and girls who haven’t had a voice.” 

Kudos to Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C.; Jones Day; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Hunton & Williams LLP; K&L Gates LLP; Latham & Watkins LLP; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP; and Kirkland & Ellis LLP!  And, special thanks from GJI to the attorneys of Kilpatrick Townsend, whose invaluable pro bono legal support empowers us and advances our mission.

READ MORE: Forced Marriage in the U.S., The PBEye, Pro Bono Institute (January 3, 2012).

Child bride tortured by husband and in-laws

Seven months ago, 14-year-old Sahar Gul was given in marriage to a 30-year-old man.  After not being able to see their daughter for several months, Sahar’s parents contacted local police.  Last month, police rescued the teenager, badly beaten and starving, from a dark, windowless basement room in her in-laws’ home after neighbors reported hearing the girl crying and moaning in pain.

According to reports from multiple Afghan authorities, Sahar’s in-laws had locked her in a toilet after she resisted their efforts to force her into prostitution to earn money for them.  Director of the Women’s Affairs Department in Baghlan, Rahima Zarifi, told MSNBC World News that Sahar had been severely tortured, physically and mentally.  Police told the BBC that Sahar’s nails and clumps of her hair had been pulled out, and chunks of her flesh were cut out with pliers.  Officials in Baghlan province told MSNBC that Sahar’s in-laws kept her in a basement for six months, tortured her with hot irons and broke her fingers.  A week after her rescue, Sahar was reportedly still covered in scars and bruises, with one eye still swollen shut.  Sahar is receiving medical care and treatment in a Kabul hospital.

A special 10-man police unit has been set up to hunt for Sahar’s husband and others behind her torture, Afghan officials told the BBC.  Although Sahar’s mother-in-law, sister-in-law and father-in-law have been arrested, her husband, Ghulam Sakhi, has managed to elude authorities.  An interior ministry spokesman told BBC News, “This is incredibly serious and not acceptable and all those responsible will be brought in to make an example to others.”  Baghlan governor, Munshi Abdul Majid, told The New York Times, “This is an un-Islamic and inhuman act.”

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission registered 1,026 cases of violence against women and girls in the second quarter of 2011, alone.  According to MSNBC World News, many women and girls are afraid to flee because, in Afghanistan, running away from an abusive husband is considered a moral crime, grounds for imprisonment.

Text me if you’re in danger of child marriage

In a remarkable sign of the times, a female official in India’s Dharmapuri district is using modern technology to fight underage marriage.  In a letter directly addressing all schoolchildren in her district, R. Lilly wrote: “Dear sister, SMS me when you are forced into child marriage.”  She goes on to explain the harmful effects of child marriage and asks kids to alert her immediately if they become aware of plans to force a child into marriage.  Lilly told the Deccan Chronicle:

We are exhausted. We informed parents about problems arising out of child marriage and in many cases, we stop such marriages. But we couldn’t bring down the number of child marriages here. So we have chosen to target children directly.

Lilly’s letter provides kids with a mobile phone number and promises to protect the sender’s identity.  READ MORE: Letter to students to check child marriage, Deccan Chronicle (December 31, 2011).

How far should airlines go to prevent parental kidnapping?

A left-behind father is suing EgyptAir alleging the airline failed to prevent his children’s international parental kidnapping, and positing that airlines should institutionalize safeguards against child abduction.  Once a child boards a plane to a country that is not party to – or is non-compliant with – the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention and does not extradite parental kidnappers, it can be virtually impossible to recover and restore the child to his or her lawful custodial parent’s care.  The father’s attorney told ABC News, “Airlines have every right to require the parents to show dual parental consent forms to prove that the adult has the right to take that child overseas.”  EgyptAir’s motion to dismiss the case argues that airlines are only required to review passports, and that “airlines simply do not have the manpower required to track down and contact non-traveling parents to discuss their children’s travel.”

READ MORE: American Father Fights to Bring Children Home From Egypt, ABC News (January 3, 2012).

What do you think?  With international parental kidnapping on the rise, how far should airlines be required to go to prevent child abduction?

Child marriage dynamics from DC to Kabul

16 years old is the minimum legal age for a girl to marry in Afghanistan.  Yet, Yasmin was only 8 years old when her family gave her in marriage to a 60-year-old man.  When Yasmin eventually fled, she was arrested.  Pregnant at the time, Yasmin was forced to give birth in prison.

16 is also the minimum legal age for a girl to marry in Washington, DC (with parental consent), and the District is one of a handful of U.S. jurisdictions where forced marriage is a crime.  Yet, we recently brought you the story of a thirteen-year-old girl who arrived in the U.S. only to be forced into a marriage with a much older man.  Her new husband enrolled her in a Washington D.C. area school by saying he was her father, only to rape her every night when she came home.  

From a child bride’s perspective, the legal validity of her marriage may be of little consequence if her husband, parents and in-laws endorse the validity of the union.  Her tender years will not protect her from their expectations and demands that she consummate the marriage, bear children, and perform all of the duties of an adult wife and mother.  The power dynamics characteristic of early marriages where the husband is significantly older leave many child brides without the sway to negotiate for abstinence, safe sex or control over their reproductive activities.  Geography, likewise, has little bearing on the suffering of a child bride trapped in a forced marriage to a much older man.  Notwithstanding the relative availability of protective laws and resources from one place to the next, the harmful consequences that befall a child bride before help arrives vary little whether she resides in the U.S. capital or Afghanistan’s.  Advocates and policymakers leading both countries’ nascent efforts to eliminate harmful marriage practices must place heavy emphasis on early detection and prevention.

READ MORE: Husband, 60, Wife, 8, By Rebecca Murray, IPS (December 29, 2011).

Happy New Year from all of us at GJI!

Voting Rights Act guarantees LEP voters language assistance

Language barriers impede more than twenty-five million limited- and non-English proficient (LEP/NEP) persons residing in the United States from accessing critical resources and services – such as election polls, hospital emergency rooms, police, firefighters, and public schools - that are necessary for their safety and wellbeing, and for the safety and wellbeing of their English-speaking children and other dependents.  According to Asian American Justice Center Director of Census and Voting Programs, Terry M. Ao:

[For Asian Americans], one of the largest hurdles that voters face is the language barrier.  Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act requires language assistance for voters, for the covered languages in covered jurisdictions, but that really means that the assistance has to occur throughout the voting process; so that’s both pre-Election Day as well as on Election Day.  It includes things like written materials — translated written materials as well as oral assistance at the polls — and publicity of the availability of language assistance to the covered language groups.

Section 203 extends protections to members of language minority communities in jurisdictions with significant language minority populations.  Going by the most recent (2010) Census Bureau data, Section 203 covers 43 Asian American populations in eight language groups across 11 states.  By balancing the cost and feasibility of language assistance against civil and human rights, most U.S. language-access laws fail to protect minority language groups whose numbers fall below a minimum threshold in any given service area. 

In her article, Language Access is an Empowerment Right: Deprivation of Plenary Language Access Engenders an Array of Grave Rights Violations, GJI Director Julia Alanen outlines some of the major obstacles that impede linguistic integration and sets forth a few notable underlying reasons why so many people living in the United States are limited- or non-English proficient :

[T]here are countless valid reasons why many [U.S.] inhabitants have not yet achieved English proficiency. Some limited- and non-English speakers are recently-arrived refugees and asylees. Others are forcibly isolated human-trafficking victims and battered immigrant partners of U.S. Citizens or Legal Permanent Residents. It is not uncommon for immigrants, many of whom are paid significantly less than the minimum wage, to work two or three jobs in order to support their families, leaving little or no time for language studies. Immigrants often cannot access or afford the collateral costs of attending English as a Second Language (“ESL”) classes, such as transportation or childcare, and pricey tuition and lengthy ESL wait-lists present additional obstacles.  Wait-times for professionally instructed English classes are running as long as two years.  Learning a foreign language can prove a daunting task — it takes approximately two to three years to master a foreign language at a conversational level and seven years to achieve proficiency at a scholastic level.  The task is exponentially more daunting for immigrants who are pre-literate in their own native languages due to lack of access to education in their countries of origin. For most immigrants, learning English is only one component of the epic struggle to integrate into mainstream society, feed and shelter their families, and cope with the trauma, loss and severed ties that characterize their migration to the United States.

Although English instruction for speakers of other languages (ESOL) is the fastest growing area of adult education in the United States, according to the Asian American Justice Center, funding to support adult ESL instruction is severely limited nationwide and demand for ESL far exceeds supply.  A national study on linguistic integration conducted by the Migration Policy Institute concluded that “ensuring that immigrants have the opportunity to acquire strong English language and literacy skills is among the most neglected domestic policy issues in our nation today.”  Access to English language instruction and language access services are equally vital, complementary tools for promoting meaningful immigrant integration in the United States.  According to Alanen:

Language access is an empowerment right.  It is so essential to achieving any meaningful exercise of a bundle of inalienable civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that it engenders a corresponding right to a qualified interpreter in certain venues and circumstances… Deprivation of language access undermines human dignity, exacerbates immigrants’ innate vulnerabilities, and harms society at large… Simultaneously advancing plenary language access and linguistic integration promotes tolerance for diversity, reduces crime and victimization, protects and empowers society’s most vulnerable, marginalized populations and mitigates an array of grave rights violations.

Watch Ao’s video interview here: Asian American Communities Have Rights under Voting Rights Act, Says Ao, ACS Blog (December 28, 2011). 

Japan’s treaty plans are cold comfort for left-behind parents

Last May Japan succumbed to intense diplomatic pressures from numerous countries and announced its intent to ratify the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.  Preparations are underway, and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda aims to submit implementing legislation to the Diet in early 2012.  But, mixed public opinion and resistance among members of Japan’s leading party threaten to impede or substantially delay treaty ratification.  Meanwhile, Japan’s plans to ratify the Hague treaty are cold comfort to several hundred parents whose parentally kidnapped children are already in Japan; they won’t find relief because the treaty doesn’t apply retroactively.  Left-behind father Paul Toland has seen his daughter only three times since her mother took their 9-month-old baby to Japan in 2003; the girl is now 9 years old.  Four years after she abducted their daughter, Toland’s wife committed suicide.  Instead of granting Toland custody, Japan awarded custody to the maternal grandmother.  Toland told the Japan Times:

Hundreds of children have been abducted and none have ever been returned (from Japan).  It’s frustrating — you know that you are in a losing battle.  Signing the Hague is just a very small step — there is so much else that needs to be done.  The true test will be how many children do they actually return and how well will they work with us fathers in the existing cases.  If you have your own child stripped away from you, your human rights are violated.  It’s not a personal issue to us, it’s a human rights issue. Every parent has the right to their child and every child has the right to know and love both parents.

Despite pressure from President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Noda has reportedly been evasive about returning already-abducted kids to their lawful custodial parents around the world.  U.S. Rep. Chris Smith has proposed that Japan and the U.S. sign a memorandum of understanding addressing outstanding cases not subject to the Hague treaty. 

READ MORE: Few options for left-behind parents even if Hague OK’d, Japan Times (December 29, 2011).

Interpreter pilot program promotes equal access to housing

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has launched an interpreter pilot program covering 175 languages to promote equal access to housing for limited- and non-English proficient (LEP/NEP) persons.  According to MortgageOrb, HUD’s assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity, John Trasvina, says:

Access to government should not be determined by how well a person speaks English.  The HUD Language Line is another example of HUD’s efforts to ensure that persons with limited English proficiency have equal access to HUD programs and services.

In addition to the new language line, HUD has revamped its website to provide critical documents in 18 different languages for the benefit of LEP/NEP persons and their dependants.  Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Executive Order 13166 guarantee limited- and non-English speakers access to federally-funded services at the same level as English speakers.

READ MORE: HUD Launches Telephone Service Pilot Covering 175 Languages, MortgageOrb (December 27, 2011).

Two years after reunion, Goldmans are a ‘normal’ family

Natalie Morales interviews David and Sean Goldman: Two years after reunion, Goldmans are a ‘normal’ family – TODAY SHOW, December 26, 2011.

Home for the Holidays

Just in time for Christmas, a Wisconsin girl has been reunited with her father, ending a four-year-long international parental kidnapping ordeal.  The young girl traveled with her grandmother from Japan to O’Hare airport, where she was met by her father, his lawyer, law enforcement officials, staff of the Japanese Consulate in Chicago, a psychologist, representatives of the U.S. State Department and advocates for other American left-behind parents whose children remain in Japan. 

The girl’s mother, who fled with her to Japan in 2008 shortly after her husband filed for divorce, had been in a Milwaukee jail since April on contempt and custodial interference charges.  She was released after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor and returning the girl to her lawful custodial parent.  The child’s mother will have the opportunity to seek visitation or a modification of custody through the family court, though it may be some time before she is permitted unsupervised visits with her daughter.  The girl’s father has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in his efforts to bring his daughter home. 

According to the Sentinel, ”[this] is believed to be the first time one of more than 300 children kidnapped to Japan has been returned to the U.S. via legal intervention.”  Japan appears to be moving toward ratifying the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, but the treaty would not apply retroactively to kids abducted prior to its entry into force. 

READ MORE: Fox Point man reunited with abducted daughter, Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel – JSOnline (December 23, 2011).

Happy Holidays from all of us at GJI!