Female Genital Mutilation – Campaign Against – Political Dimensions

BRUSSELS, Belgium (WOMENSENEWS)–Activists against female genital
mutilation are already working in high gear this year as the issue reaches
a breaking point in many countries.

On Feb. 6, UNICEF kicked off the fourth annual International Day of
Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation with rallies throughout many
of the countries where the practice is widespread including Senegal, Egypt
and Sudan. The U.N. children’s agency operates anti-mutilation programs in
18 of the 28 countries where the traditional practice exists.

“We know what has to be done to abandon this harmful practice,” UNICEF
executive director Ann Veneman said in a statement. “Strong support from
governments encouraging communities and individuals to make the healthiest
choices possible for girls will save lives and greatly benefit families
and communities.”

Mali ratified last year the African Union’s Maputo Protocol that calls
for the elimination of genital mutilation. This week the western African
nation will be hosting a sub-regional meeting for leaders of
French-speaking countries in Africa and activists in the capital city of
Bamako to consider the protocol’s legislative implementation.

In Senegal, local human rights organization Tostan has encouraged tens
of thousands of people to declare their abandonment of female genital
mutilation, referred to as FGM.

In Egypt, the FGM-Free Village Model project brings together government
and U.N. partners to encourage villages in the southern region to make
public declarations against genital mutilation.

In Sudan, some religious leaders are using their authority to affirm
that FGM is wrong and against the Quran.

The events follow two reports launched by the U.N. children’s agency
last December on the harmful effects of genital mutilation. In October the
U.N. secretary-general is expected to issue a major report on violence
against children that strongly criticizes genital mutilation.

A Critical Juncture

Amid the surge in activities and reports, campaigners against the
practice find themselves at a critical juncture.

For nearly three years, they have been focused on persuading African
Union leaders to ratify the Maputo Protocol. But now that is done,
application of the anti-FGM provision at the national and local levels
becomes the gritty political challenge.

Of the 28 countries where genital mutilation is practiced, 14 countries
have passed anti-FGM laws. But only Burkina Faso, Ghana and Kenya actively
uphold those laws, according to the London-based Foundation for Women’s
Health, Research and Development.

Countries faced international pressure to ratify the Maputo Protocol,
but within their own societies they face the opposition of many
traditional ruling classes to cultural change.

In 1997, Mali established a 10-year plan for eradicating the practice.
The first step in the plan was to increase public awareness of genital
mutilation as a health risk and human rights issue while the second half
of the plan was to pave the way for a law against female genital
mutilation.

“(This conference) is the result of long negotiations with the
government as well as with the donors, as the issue of having a law
against FGM is seen as very sensitive by the government of Mali,” said
Martin Schulthes, who is helping to plan the meeting on behalf of the
Rome-based human rights group No Peace Without Justice. He estimates that
more than 90 percent of Mali’s female population has undergone genital
mutilation.

FGM sometimes entails the removal of the clitoris on girls between
infancy and 14 years of age. It can also entail cutting the outer labia
and sewing together the remaining skin so that only urine and menstrual
fluid can escape.

Conference Springs from European Source

The conference will be the fourth since 2003 held in conjunction with
No Peace Without Justice, which is supported by Italian member of the
European Parliament Emma Bonino who for more than 20 years has been
fighting against female genital mutilation.

Supporters hope the conference will not only help to propose model
language for an anti-FGM law for Mali but also to gather enough political
will in neighboring countries to do the same.

That approach brings together local activist groups with their
government representatives. Bonino provides the political and financial
support network of various European institutions, such as the European
Commission and the European Parliament. Bonino is currently working to
secure European Parliament funding and support for anti-FGM lobbying
during 2006.

“I can provide financial support and advocacy with the European Union,
but I’m not the one who can go into the village,” she told Women’s eNews.
“It’s their fight, not mine, so since 2000 I have been working with a
complementary approach.”

Bonino says the real problem in combating female genital mutilation is
finding a way to break the silence surrounding the practice.

“In some countries, leading and courageous women managed to do it, and
managed also to gather public support from local leadership. If this
happens, then things go very quickly, but there are countries in the
Muslim world where silence is still the rule,” said Bonino.

Calls for Monitoring

The African Union needs to set up a monitoring mechanism similar to
that of the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women, said Efua Dorkenoo, founder of Forward, a
London-based organization working on African women’s health issues.
Countries that have signed the anti-discrimination convention must submit
periodic reports to the United Nations on their implementation efforts and
those reports are heard along with “shadow reports” from local advocacy
organizations.

African countries, she said, have a poor reputation for monitoring the
U.N. convention’s provisions.

“You need to look at why those countries aren’t reporting,” said
Dorkenoo. In Africa, she said, women’s issues are often intensely
controversial and that can constrain local activist groups from taking
their governments to task. She said strong local monitoring of the U.N.
convention is also hampered by a lack of funds, which is why international
rights groups are needed to run the fieldwork for shadow reporting.

Signed in 2003 by 37 of the African Union’s 53 heads of state, the
Maputo Protocol calls on all member countries to implement a list of human
rights guarantees for women and send the protocol to their legislatures
for ratification. Article 5 requires that all forms of female genital
mutilation be condemned and prohibited. Other articles call for the
elimination of discrimination against women, the right to dignity, the
right to life, the integrity and security of the person, the protection of
women in armed conflicts, the right to education and training, economic
and social welfare rights, and health and reproductive rights.

Last year Togo became the 15th and final country needed to submit its
ratification of the protocol on strengthening women’s rights to bring the
document into force. It became law Nov. 26 in all 37 signatory states.

Meghan Sapp is a European correspondent for Women’s eNews. She is a
freelance journalist based in Brussels, Belgium, and writes primarily on
trade, development and agriculture
issues.