There is no, and cannot be, honour or justification for abusing the human rights of others.
The Crown Prosecution Service's definition of honour based abuse is "a crime or incident which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of the family and/or community."
Honour based abuse is a crime or incident committed in order to protect or defend the honour of a family or community.
There are many perceived behaviours, attitudes or actions that are believed to constitute dishonour, including inappropriate make-up or clothing, smoking, running away from home, pregnancy outside of marriage, rejecting a forced or arranged marriage and interfaith relationships, to name a few.
Individuals, families and communities can take drastic steps to preserve or defend their honour, which can, at its worst, result in murder. Honor based abuse can affect men, women and children.
We work closely with Yorkshire based national charity Karma Nirvana ( link to Karma Nirvana) who are specialists in providing support to victims of Honor based abuse. They have delivered training to many of our officers and staff already and we have plans to have them provide more, to ensure we are continually learning and developing our response to support victims of this crime.
Visit the karma Nirvarna website.
You can report honour based abuse on the South Yorkshire Police website or by calling 101.
If you are in immediate danger, please call 999. If you can’t speak, the operator may ask you to press some buttons on your phone or cough, something that lets them know you are listening. They will then ask you to press ’55’ – this is the Silent Solution.
Other support agencies include:
- Ashiana Sheffield, 0114 255 5740 (Monday-Friday 9am-5pm), ashianasheffield.org #ashianaishereforyou
- Sheffield IDAS Domestic Abuse Helpline, 0808 808 2241, idas.org.uk for referrals, information and webchat
- National Domestic Abuse Helpline, 0808 200 0247 (24hrs)
- Women’s Aid, https://www.womensaid.org.uk/ - they have a live chat tool on their website if you want to talk to someone
- Forced Marriage Unit Helpline: 020 7008 0151