Tougher penalties for genital mutilation

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tougher penalties for genital mutilation
3
Wed, 03-03-2004 - 1:55pm

Good!


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1161082,00.html


Parents who take their daughters abroad to undergo female circumcision will face up to 14 years in jail under measures which come into force today.


As the new legislation was launched, home secretary David Blunkett met victims of female circumcision at a support centre in north-west London and described the practice as unjustifiable and "very harmful".

The operation involves the surgical removal of the clitoris, and sometimes parts of the labia, reducing the ability to feel sexual pleasure. Although it is illegal in Britain, some ethnic minority communities have evaded the law by arranging for girls to have the operation during a "holiday" abroad.

Mr Blunkett said: "Female genital mutilation is a very harmful practice that is already rightly illegal in this country. No cultural, medical or other reason can ever justify a practice that causes so much pain and suffering.

"Regardless of cultural background, it is completely unacceptable and should be illegal wherever it takes place. The legislation which comes into force today will close a loophole in the previous law by preventing people taking young girls abroad to carry out female genital mutilation and bring us closer to eradicating this practice entirely."

The government moved to amend the existing 1985 law on female circumcision after a private member's bill was introduced by Ann Clwyd MP. The new legislation also increases the maximum penalty from five to 14 years in jail.

The Home Office said state funding of £30,000 was being provided to help pay for leaflets, seminars and workshops aimed at practising communities.

Ms Clwyd said victims often suffered "enormous physical and psychological harm" that lasted for years: "We cannot condone this. Female genital mutilation is harmful and it violates the most basic human rights."

Female genital mutilation is common among Somali, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Yemeni, Malaysian and Indonesian communities. It is more common among Muslims, but is not exclusively linked with Islam.

Experts believe there are 74,000 first generation African immigrant women in the UK who have undergone female circumcision.

There are also up to 7,000 girls under 16 within these communities who are at risk from the procedure. It is usually performed on girls between the ages of four and 13, but can sometimes be inflicted on new-born babies or on young women before marriage or pregnancy.

Numerous reasons given for the practice include custom and tradition, religious demand, family honour, hygiene and prevention of promiscuity.

Female genital mutilation is a criminal offence in the UK under the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985.

The Female Genital Mutilation Act re-enacts provisions of the 1985 Act and gives them power outside UK borders.

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-06-2003
Thu, 03-04-2004 - 12:11pm
We're starting to see a lot of immigrants to the US who have undergone this procedure (some of whom say they will send their daughters back for it).
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Thu, 03-04-2004 - 12:23pm

Here in the US..........


Two in U.S. Accused of Genital Mutilation.


As the U.S. government prepares to prosecute its first case under a federal law prohibiting FGM, activists are pushing for better legal protection of girls who can face the disfiguring practice when they go to any of 28 African countries.


Earlier this week, a Southern California couple was arraigned in a Los Angeles federal court on charges of conspiring to circumcise two female minors. Now, the United States Attorney's Office is preparing to prosecute its first case under the Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act of 1995.


Todd Cameron Bertrang, 41, and Robyn Faulkinbury, 24, were arrested in December after agreeing to cut the genitals of two fictitious girls. Undercover FBI agents posing as the girls' parents offered the couple $8,000 to perform the procedure.


This case is the latest development in the U.S. government's efforts to grapple with female genital mutilation in the U.S. and among U.S. residents with ties to Africa.


Passed in 1996, the Federal Female Genital Mutilation Act was designed to protect girls in immigrant communities that support the practice. The law prohibits genital cutting on girls under the age of 18 unless it is medically necessary and then only if performed by a licensed professional. Neither Bertrang nor Faulkinbury is licensed to practice medicine, according to the indictment.


Although heartened by the government's enforcement of the law, FGM activists say the alleged crime is not a typical case of genital mutilation. There were no actual victims, and there is no proof that Bertrang or Faulkinbury has circumcised any underage females. According to his Web site, Bertrang enjoys the psychosexual aspect of piercing and body modification.


The case against Bertrang "doesn't really fit the reason why the FGM law came into being," said Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of the human rights organization Equality Now, based in New York.


Based on census data and FGM rates for African countries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1997 estimated that nearly 170,000 girls and women in the United States had been or were at risk of being circumcised.


In Africa, female genital mutilation is an excruciating procedure commonly performed without anesthesia in unhygienic conditions. Death and infections are common. The most extreme form involves cutting off the entire clitoris and labia and sewing up the skin so that only a small hole the size of a few matchsticks remains. Girls who survive circumcision often suffer from psychological trauma and experience lifelong pain during menstruation, urination, sexual intercourse and childbirth.


Although FGM is still occasionally performed in the U.S., activists say their legal strategy has moved to the young female immigrants who are the ones most at risk: When they return on family visits to one of the 28 African countries where genital cutting is routinely practiced, they can be forcibly subjected to FGM.


More.................


http://www.womensenews.com/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1718/context/archive

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Thu, 03-04-2004 - 2:52pm

I don't even know how to begin to approach this.