Forced marriage is a basic contravention of
children's rights as has been pointed out.
Children can't consent to being married.

We have laws in this country. You have to be
over 18, unless a court has decided otherwise,
to be married.

So, regardless of the religious context, regardless
of the cultural context, there is nothing that
condones the act of forcing children into marriage.

In 2013 the federal parliament passed legislature making
the coercing of someone into marriage a serious crime,
punishable by up to seven years in prison.

The Chief Executive of the Australian Childhood Foundation
says the message needs to be communicated clearly to
the communities. Child Advocacy groups say this still
doesn't go far enough.

Child marriages are a global problem. We associate forced
marriages with countries in parts of Asia, Africa, and
Latin America. However it's also a custom practised
in some communities in Australia - as we heard last year
when it was reported in the news that an imam in NSW
married a 12 year old girl to a 26 year old man.
The girl is now in foster care and the man has been refused
bail. The imam's case will be heard in April.

However, this problem is not only one that is confined
to the Muslim community. It exists among the Greek, Indian,
and the Middle Eastern communities.

Hopefully with education young girls will come to realise
the freedoms that they are entitled to - living in a country
like Australia. In the meantime, all we can do is remain
vigilant - and report anything that we think is a bit suss
to the proper authorities. The message has to get through
that forced marriages are not acceptable in this country.

Yuyutsu is kind of an eccentric anarchist (going by previous posts) and he lacks the common sense to know when it's time to keep his views to himself.

In this instance he has revealed the flaw in his anti-establishment philosophy and then dug an even deeper hole for himself when he tried to defend it. Some might simply consider this the behaviour of an idiot.

Hi Foxy,

Spot on ! All Australians should, and do actually, come under one set of laws, which recognise:

a) the rights of children,

b) the equality of all men and women before the law, and

c) the rights to freedom of expression, including the freedom to believe as one wishes (but not necessarily to act on those beliefs, and certainly not to impose those beliefs on others - see (a) and (b) ).

Long may that continue.

Deep affection,

Joe

Dear Kirby,

There is no reason why one "deserves" to be in Australia more than another - if I do not deserve, then so do you.

That a particular group of people of a particular culture lays exclusive claims over this whole continent and forbids all others to live here unless they comply with their idea of law, is a scandalous atrocity with no moral basis, founded on brute force alone.

If someone (or some group) makes it unsafe for you to walk down the street or threatens the ability of your children to play and have a good education or your ability to have clean water to drink and healthy food, then you have every right to kick them out and/or shoot them down - that is legitimate self-defence, but whatever such group does among themselves is none of your business so long as it doesn't directly affect you or your own children.

I appreciate the "please": you have every right to ask me politely to leave this country - then I may or may not oblige. By-the-way, I also have a similar right to ask you politely to leave, though I choose not to.

---

Dear 579,

I appreciate that assimilation may be one of your personal goals, but that doesn't mean that you have a right to enforce it on others. Perhaps you could learn from Kirby and ask newcomers to "please assimilate", perhaps explaining to them the advantages in doing so, then they should make their own mind whether or not (and to what extent) to assimilate, then you should respect their choice.

I accept your considering me unwelcome - you are definitely under no obligation to welcome me.

Dear Foyle,

<<One proper role for the government of any democracy is to look after the interests of those who are incapable of doing so themselves.>>

Government and democracy are constitutional terms pertaining to a given society: a society may agree on any constitution they choose, which could possibly include such roles as you mentioned - however, such roles are internal and may not be enforced on people who do not willingly belong to that particular society.

For example, if you really meant it that "Every child is entitled to be safe and to be educated to the extent limits of their abilities", then why apply this principle only to Australian children? Why not to every child across this galaxy? Would you indeed be willing to triple your tax and become impoverished yourself so that all children in the world have it? You should realise that the idea of such entitlement, though not inherently wrong, is relative within the limits of your particular society.

The scholastic idea of a "social contract" is false: no such large-scale contract was ever signed. You are of course welcome to make such contract(s) with any group(s) of like-minded people, if they agree.

The problem is when you attempt to enforce your society's internal agreements over others outside, who never consented to belong. The other problem is that you wrongly assert that everyone living on this continent must implicitly wish to belong to your society. At least with Muslims this seems not to be the case.

Foxy and Joe,
You are correct in what you say, except that education does not go far enough. These parents are informed of our laws before they come here and are informed by others here what they can get away with, or hide. Tough enforcement of the laws is necessary to back up the education. 60 underage marriages in one corner of Sydney in 3 years indicate that the law is being flaunted. Like FGM, 1100 girls at risk per year and no prosecutions means the system is not working.

If we are not prepared to enforce the laws then we have to stop entry of those persons that persist in the alien practices. Each new arrival refreshes the alien practices. Cultural practice is hard to alter and if people think they can hide it or get away with it they will continue to do so.