Let’s Talk Culture- Arranged Marriages, Forced Unions, and Human Trafficking
Ishar presents Let’s Talk Culture, an enriching event designed to enhance your cultural competency practices in the mental health and well-being space. As service providers, it is crucial for us to recognise the diverse needs and experiences of the individuals we serve.
This series of seminars aims to equip you with valuable information and insights on working with one of the most vulnerable cohorts in our community: CaLD women. By deepening our understanding of their unique challenges, we can better support their mental health and overall well-being.
The first seminar of this year, "Understanding Arranged Marriages, Forced Unions, and the dynamics of Human Trafficking. ” This session is tailored to provide service providers with a deep understanding of these critical topics from various cultural, legal, and human rights viewpoints.
Highlights of the Seminar:
-Cultural Insights into Arranged Marriages: Explore in depth the historical and cultural contexts of arranged marriages across different cultures and see how these practices vary around the world.
-Understanding Forced vs. Arranged Marriages: Discover the essential differences between arranged and forced marriages, focusing on the legal issues and human rights violations associated with coercion.
-Exploring Human Trafficking: Understand what constitutes human trafficking, its causes, and factors like poverty, lack of education, and gender disparities that fuel this global problem.
-Strategies for Prevention and Intervention: Learn about effective community interventions, educational initiatives, and awareness efforts designed to combat forced marriages and human trafficking. Explore the critical support services and mental health assistance available for affected individuals.
This seminar is ideal for service providers including social workers, legal advisors, and community organisers who are keen on deepening their understanding and enhancing their intervention strategies against these complex issues.
Keynote speaker 1: Dr Carol Kaplanian
Carol has completed a PhD on ‘Honour-based Violence in Jordan’ and has a Bachelor’s Degree in social work and social policy, plus a Masters in social work. Carol was also awarded the Grace Vaughn award for human rights for her PhD work on honour killings. She specialises in clinical counselling and working with victims of torture and trauma, the latter of which involved spending an extensive amount of time working in Jordanian refugee camps offering counselling and education to refugees.
She is currently acting in the Specialist Community Child Protection advisory role for the Department of Communities in Western Australia. She consults with child protection workers on highly complex cases by reviewing the matter and advising accordingly. She was the State Coordinator for Female Genital Cutting/Mutilation program (training and education) at the Women and Newborn Health Service. She was responsible for developing training on Family and Domestic Violence (CaLD communities). Carol has also worked in clinical settings with refugee and migrant women as well as women who have experienced family violence. Carol widely consults on matters relating to forced marriage and trafficking of women and is currently a subject matter expert for the Australia Federal Police. She has also worked in perpetrator accountability program and also nationally consults on matters related to honour based violence and is highly regarded as one of the only experts in this area across Australia and internationally.
Amongst many other endeavours, Carol has also been awarded a 2020 Churchill Fellowship to investigate family and domestic violence amongst the migrant and refugee populations. This fellowship has enabled Carol to travel to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada to investigate models of care that have been developed to work with refugee and migrant women experiencing family and domestic violence. Carol has now published her report and is implementing her recommendations widely.
Keynote speaker 2: Federal Agent Kyla Guthrie - Human Exploitation Community Officer (HECO) from the Australian Federal Police (AFP)
Additionally,
Kerriann Larsen ( Acting State Manager – Migration Support Program WA Red Cross ) will present on the Support for Trafficked People Program.
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