Dr Shazia Choudhry's evidence to All Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Violence quoted in report on Domestic Abuse, Child Contact and the Family Courts 2016

6 June 2016

Dr Shazia Choudhry's evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Violence was quoted in a report on Domestic Abuse, Child Contact and the Family Courts 2016. The Report from the Parliamentary Hearing held on domestic abuse, child contact and the family courts, highlighted key areas of concern relating to the experiences of survivors of domestic abuse in the family courts:

• A need to ensure safe child contact, not contact ‘at any cost’
• Access to Legal Aid and Litigants in Person.
• A lack of access to special measures in family courts.
• Implementing Practice Direction 12J – Child Arrangements and Contact Orders: Domestic Violence and Harm.
• Understanding the impact of domestic abuse on children.
• Specialist domestic violence training throughout the family court judiciary.
• The role of child contact centres in supervised and non-supervised contact.
• A presumption that the father is competent to provide safe and appropriate care and parenting despite their abusive behaviour and assessing the risk a perpetrator of domestic abuse poses to their child.

Dr Choudhry's evidence was quoted on a number of points and particularly on the negative impact these areas of concern represent in terms of the Governments obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights towards the victims of domestic violence.

Dr Shazia Choudhry is a Reader in Law at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).