The Right to Say I Don't: Forced Marriage as Persecution in the United Kingdom, Spain, and France

This article compares the ways in which forced marriage is perceived as persecution under the domestic asylum laws of in the United Kingdom, Spain, and France. The article argues that forced marriage should be uniformly recognized as persecution in asylum law, and that the lack of such systematic recognition across UK, Spain and France leads to arbitrary and inconsistent adjudication of asylum claims by forced marriage victims, despite attempts to make such laws uniform through the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The article ultimately advocates for the implementation of potential solutions to ensure victims of forced marriage are protected. These include an international convention addressing qualification for refugee status that recognizes gender based persecution and links this persecution to international human rights standards,leading to implicit acknowledgement of forced marriage as a persecutory harm; a substantive regional agreement between the UK, France, Spain and the rest of the EU member nations that addresses gender-based persecution and recognizes forced marriage as a persecutory harm; and the adoption of national gender guidelines in France and Spain that directly identify forced marriage as a persecutory harm.