Anne-Marie Hutchinson

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

QC (Hon) (1 August 1957 – 2 October 2020) was an Irish lawyer known for her work in the UK concerning children’s rights, particularly

forced marriage Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later force ...

and

international child abduction The term international child abduction is generally synonymous with international ''parental kidnapping,'' ''child snatching'', and ''child stealing.'' However, the more precise legal usage of ''international child abduction'' originates in ...

Early life and education

Hutchinson was born on 1 August 1957 in

Donegal Donegal may refer to: County Donegal, Ireland * County Donegal, a county in the Republic of Ireland, part of the province of Ulster * Donegal (town), a town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland * Donegal Bay, an inlet in the northwest of Ireland b ...

in the Republic of Ireland. Her mother was a nurse and father ran a barbers. She was the third of six children. She moved to England when she was a child after her father got a job on a US airbase near

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

. She suffered from

osteomyelitis Osteomyelitis (OM) is an infection of bone. Symptoms may include pain in a specific bone with overlying redness, fever, and weakness. The long bones of the arms and legs are most commonly involved in children e.g. the femur and humerus, while the ...

, a bone condition, which caused her to miss the last two years of

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

. She also spent a year in

Addenbrooke's Hospital Addenbrooke's Hospital is an internationally renowned large teaching hospital and research centre in Cambridge, England, with strong affiliations to the University of Cambridge. Addenbrooke's Hospital is based on the Cambridge Biomedical Camp ...

where she had to relearn how to walk. She left St Peter's School at 16 and worked as bank teller for two years. She then attended Huntingdon Technical College where she received 3

A-level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

qualifications. She graduated from the

Leeds University , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , t ...

with a degree in international history and politics and became a qualified

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

in 1985.

Career

Hutchinson joined the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...

Dawson Cornwell in 1998 and became the head of its children's department. She worked on the first English court case of

in 1999. She ensured the return of a

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism (Sikhi), a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ...

girl who had been abducted by her parents to force her into

marriage in India Weddings in India vary according to the region, the religion, the community and the personal preferences of the bride and groom. They are festive occasions in India, and in most cases celebrated with extensive decorations, colour, dresses, music, d ...

. A 2006 case in which she represented a British-born Pakistani woman set a

legal precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great value ...

when the High Court ruled forced marriages could be

annulled Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost ...

due to lack of

consent Consent occurs when one person voluntarily agrees to the proposal or desires of another. It is a term of common speech, with specific definitions as used in such fields as the law, medicine, research, and sexual relationships. Consent as und ...

. Hutchinson also worked to introduce the

Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 (c 20) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It seeks to assist victims of forced marriage, or those threatened with forced marriage, by providing civil remedies. It extends to England ...

, which made it illegal for women and girls to be taken overseas to be forced into marriage. The year after the act was brought in, she represented Humayra Abedin, a trainee GP, who had been sent to

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

and forced to marry against her will. Despite the

court order A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out of ...

not being enforceable in Bangladesh, the judge ordered that Abedin be released. She received an

in 2002 for services to international adoption and child abduction and was made an honorary QC in 2016. Hutchinson won the

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to c ...

Child Rights Lawyer Award in 1999 and the International Bar Association Outstanding International Woman Lawyer Award in 2010. In 2013, she became a

commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

on the Forced Marriage Commission. Hutchinson’s other work has concerned victims of “honour”-based violence,

female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

, abandoned spouses, and potential parents in surrogacy arrangements. She died on 2 October 2020 of cancer. She had two children, Catherine (born 1987) and Sam (born 1995).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchinson, Anne-Marie 1957 births 2020 deaths British solicitors Officers of the Order of the British Empire Honorary King's Counsel Alumni of the University of Leeds Deaths from cancer in England 21st-century King's Counsel