Today is International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Supporters and survivors from around the world are calling for an end of this form of child abuse, once and for all.
Female Genital Mutilation - One man's battle for women's rights
FGM has been performed globally on over 200-million girls and women. It is one of the world's biggest human rights abuses and also one of the world's most ignored. Millions of girls are at risk of being cut today. Human rights lawyer Reda Eldanbouki is leading the battle against FGM in Egypt. Reda founded the Women's center for Guidance and Legal Awareness. This is the story of one man who is trying to change the world.
UK:
Landmark First Conviction for Female Genital Mutilation
Clearly there are some hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who are aware of FGM going on either in the UK or abroad on UK citizens. Mothers who take their children to have the procedure, or do it themselves, either at home or abroad. Fathers who agree. Siblings who know about it and stay quiet. And then the circle out from there. People in positions of some authority who wonder if something isn't up, but don't like to make themselves heard for reasons of their own. So yes, in the UK FGM has been against the law thirty-four years, but it has also been a custom which has to some degree, beyond the reach of the law, been accepted. Female genital mutilation is a sickening, depraved form of child abuse and we will do all we can to ensure all perpetrators are brought to justice.
Female
Circumcision Comes to America
Performed by new immigrants, veiled in deference to a cultural tradition of the developing world, female circumcision is becoming an American problem. Article from October 1995.
Canada - BILL C-27
2nd Session, 35th Parliament,
45-46 Elizabeth II, 1996-97
The House of Commons of Canada
5. Section 268 of the Act is amended by adding the following after subsection (2):
Excision
(3) For greater certainty, in this section, ``wounds'' or ``maims'' includes to excise, infibulate or mutilate, in whole or in part, the labia majora, labia minora or clitoris of a person, except where
(a) a surgical procedure is performed, by a person duly qualified by provincial law to practise medicine, for the benefit of the physical health of the person or for the purpose of that person having normal reproductive functions or normal sexual appearance or function; or
(b) the person is at least eighteen years of age and there is no resulting bodily harm.
Consent
(4) For the purposes of this section and section 265, no consent to the excision, infibulation or mutilation, in whole or in part, of the labia majora, labia minora or clitoris of a person is valid, except in the cases described in paragraphs (3)(a) and (b).
1992, c. 21, s. 9