International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

Last Updated on Tuesday, 05 February 2013 10:05 Written by Administrator Monday, 06 February 2012 14:08

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Stepping-up parliamentary action to abandon this practice

slide216 February 2012 - Today between 100 and 140 million women worldwide are suffering the consequences of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). In Africa only, it is estimated that more than 90 million girls from 10 years of age and above have undergone FGM and in some countries over 95 per cent of women have been subject to some form of genital mutilation or cutting. Every year, millions of women and girls are at risk of genital mutilation, including within migrant communities in Europe.[1] The European Parliament estimates that today 500 thousand girls and women living in Europe are suffering the lifelong consequences of FGM/C.[2]

Internationally, the practice is considered a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination and violence against women and girls. The Maputo Protocol’s article 5 on the “Elimination of Harmful Practices” calls for all parties to prohibit all forms of FGM/C.[3] As of today legislation prohibiting FGM/C has been adopted in some 19 African and 11 European countries. However, experience is showing that in order to successfully abandon what is an entrenched and widespread practice in many communities, legislation and repression must be accompanied by sensitisation and support to bring real change. Awareness-raising must take place at all levels, from traditional chiefs to religious leaders, to women and youth organisations, elected officials and the government.

Violence against women, including FGM/C, is a breach of the core values and mission of AWEPA. In 2009, AWEPA decided, together with its European members and African partners, to focus on ending the practice. Parliamentarians, as custodians of democracy and human rights and as representatives of the voice of the people, including the girl child, have a central responsibility to enact legislation, pass budgets and hold their government to account, as well as to raise awareness on this delicate topic. Political will and commitment to support the elimination of violence against women in general and specifically in the area of FGM/C in Africa is needed, in the interest of the whole society.

Female genital mutilation/cutting could be ended within one generation, perhaps even sooner if appropriate actions are taken. It is our experience that Parliaments, both in Africa and in Europe, are lacking specific knowledge on FGM/C in their own countries. They also experience a shortage of adequate resources for inter-parliamentary dialogue to exchange experiences on best practices regarding FGM/C. Thus AWEPA is cooperating with UNICEF and UNFPA in their joint programme titled “Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Accelerating Change”, which aims at promoting societal change in favour of human rights and scaling up the abandonment of FGM/C in the 17 African countries.[4]

Specifically, AWEPA’s FGM/C programme aims at enhancing the capacity of selected African parliaments with regards to FGM/C legislation and its enactment as well as sensitisation and the need for a community-based approach. The programme, which is supported by Luxembourg, concentrates initially on the three West African countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal and will entail the organisation of national capacity-building parliamentary workshops and sensitisation activities at the community level. AWEPA is also cooperating in its FGM/C programme with the Pan-African Parliament and, in particular, with its women’s caucus, with which it has produced Guidelines for Parliamentarians on the abandonment of FGM/C.

For more information on AWEPA’s FGM/C programme, click here.

Related Links

 

[1] For more information see UNFPA’s FAQ on FGM/C, available at http://www.unfpa.org/gender/practices2.htm#13
[3] Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, available at:
[4] Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Eritrea, Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Mali and Mauritania.
 
 
 
 

 

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