Northern Ireland Family Law Clinic

13/11/2025

Meeting with Justice Minister Naomi Long today to discuss the scourge of false allegations in family courts and looking at ways to hold those who lie for benefit or spite to face the consequences of those actions. Also discussed the links between falsecallegations made in family/criminal courts and a number of recent su***des in NI, and how manslaughter legislation could be used to hold those perpetrators to account.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1AktveudhM/

Representatives of the Mens Alliance, and our MANi - Family & Friends support group met with Justice Minister Naomi Long today at Stormont, to advocate for the 2100 men we support in NI. This was as a follow up to our letters during the summer to the Minister focusing on male su***de, false allegations and domestic abuse.

There were powerful presentations by the ladies about the experiences of men in their lives of abuse, alienation and murder, and a recording of a mother whose son took his own life because of abuse, followed by silence.... and a few tears.

The Minister obviously has an understanding of the issues we as men face, and it was good to hear that she is supportive of us, and wanting to work towards improvements in the situation for men.

We are left with no doubt Minister Long has implemented new laws and policies with an intended gender neutral position, and that failings for men are in implementation and not provision or design.

We look forward to follow up meetings again in the future to further benefit all the men in NI that find themselves facing abuse, false allegations and alienation.

A really positive outcome, thank you to everyone that came along to represent the men of MANi, and all those men we have yet to meet.

People abuse people.

07/11/2025

It’s been nearly a year since we were named the Times Higher Education University of the Year.​

Aside from our impressive research and delivering excellent teaching and student experiences, one of the reasons we won was due to our work in the local community.​

One such project is the ongoing ‘Taking Boys Seriously’ initiative which is working alongside adolescent boys and educators to help improve outcomes for young men in education. ​

Find out more about this programme and how it is making a difference in the our local communities here:

https://ow.ly/xruG50XgkPp​

07/11/2025

False allegations can amount to coercive control in Northern Ireland, depending on how they are used and the impact on the victim.

Under the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021, coercive control includes a pattern of behaviour that has a serious effect on a partner or ex-partner. This can include emotional, psychological, or financial abuse, and covers acts that make a person feel frightened, humiliated, or isolated, or that control or restrict their freedom.

If someone deliberately makes false allegations to:

👉 Damage your reputation

👉 Interfere with your contact with children

👉 Influence court proceedings

👉 Get you arrested or lose your job

👉 Intimidate or silence you

then those actions could fit within the definition of coercive and controlling behaviour, because they are part of a pattern of abuse that seeks power or control.

The PSNI and Public Prosecution Service would look at:

👉 Whether the allegations were knowingly false

👉 The intent behind them

👉 The pattern of behaviour over time

👉 The effect on your day-to-day life

In practice, though, such cases are rarely prosecuted as coercive control, even though many male victims experience this form of abuse. The law allows it, but the system has been slow to recognise it when the abuse is carried out through false reports, legal manipulation, or misuse of state systems.

We are always here for men (and their families) who have experienced domestic abuse in our MANi Support Group Network (see www.MANi.Support), because we have there too.

07/11/2025

The Danish Supreme Court has ruled that a child’s right to family life cannot be obstructed by one parent’s refusal to comply with orders.

Denmark introduces new reforms to recognise parental alienation as psychological violence, urgent visitation orders enforced within four weeks, and all cases completed within four months.

Family court staff will receive specialised training, children will have dedicated support, and parents will access free mediation and nationwide support groups.

Link: https://parentalienation.krtra.com/c/kKRzVwCF05Za/pD4p

07/11/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1FP2enNphw/

08/06/2025

08/06/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CKsBttYgX/

31/05/2025

Meanwhile European Context: A recent European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling against Poland (L.D. v. Poland, February 2025) found a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) due to the state's failure to take effective measures to enforce visitation rights and allowing parental alienation to persist. This ruling has implications for the Irish family court system, highlighting the state's "positive obligations" to protect parent-child relationships. https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/ #{%22itemid%22:[%22001-241741%22]}

The HUDOC database provides access to the case-law of the Court (Grand Chamber, Chamber and Committee judgments and decisions, communicated cases, advisory opinions and legal summaries from the Case-Law Information Note), the European Commission of Human Rights (decisions and reports) and the Commit...

16/03/2025

Unfortunately outcome for the kids involved.

10/03/2025

10/03/2025

https://my.actnowni.org/petitions/abolish-good-character-references-in-rape-trials?source=rawlink&utm_source=rawlink&share=22c37a20-dd2c-4a85-803b-48eb7ec716bb

09/03/2025