Campaign and Policy Updates25th November 2025
Yesterday, Karma Nirvana, together with partners from across the VAWG sector, attended a House of Lords peer drop-in event hosted by Baroness Liz Sugg. The session brought peers together to discuss the Honour Based Abuse (HBA) amendments tabled to the Crime and Policing Bill ahead of the Committee Stage.
Sector-Backed Amendments
Amendments 353, 354 and 355 are fully supported by survivors and endorsed by over 60 VAWG organisations. Together, they seek to:
- Introduce a statutory definition of Honour Based Abuse (Amendment 353)
- Recognise “honour” as an aggravating factor in criminal sentencing (Amendment 354)
- Require statutory multi-agency guidance to identify and respond to HBA (Amendment 355)
These amendments reflect:
- Clear and longstanding evidence of systemic failures to identify and respond to HBA
- Direct calls from survivors and bereaved families, including the Push4Change and Somaiya’s Law campaigns
- A growing cross-sector consensus among more than 60 specialist VAWG organisations
- The Government’s own commitment, announced on 26 August 2025, to legislate in this area at the earliest opportunity
Why This Matters
HBA remains one of the least prosecuted forms of Violence Against Women and Girls. In 2024/25, only 95 cases were prosecuted, and just 46 resulted in convictions. Victims routinely face multiple perpetrators, often including extended family members—yet current systems rarely account for this reality.
Supporting these amendments will:
- Strengthen early identification by ensuring HBA is properly recognised, recorded, and prosecuted
- Build survivor trust by ensuring the law reflects the harm they have endured
- Improve early intervention and safeguarding through consistent multi-agency pathways
- Create clarity, consistency, and accountability for frontline professionals
Together, these changes would mark a transformative step in how Honour Based Abuse is understood and addressed across England and Wales.
A Collective Call for Change
Karma Nirvana, alongside more than 60 organisations committed to ending VAWG, urges Parliamentarians to support these amendments and help create a safer, more responsive system for victims and survivors.
We were grateful to attend the peer drop-in and share our expertise. Above all, we remain committed to honouring the memories of Fawziyah Javed and Somaiya Begum, whose lives should never have been lost. Everything we do, we do alongside families, survivors, and the sector to ensure no more lives are taken in the name of “honour.”
With Thanks
Our sincere thanks to Yasmin Javed, mother of Fawziyah Javed, for her continued dedication to this cause, and to Baroness Liz Sugg for her steadfast commitment to ending violence against women and girls.