18 Aug 2014-NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights

Articles

Britain's first FGM clinic to open in London in September
By BBC, 17 Aug 2014

 Britain's first specialist clinic for child victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) is set to open in London next month. The clinic, at University College London, will provide medical and psychological treatment to girls. Doctors will also carry out examinations if the police are not sure if mutilation has occurred. FGM includes procedures that remove or injure female genital organs for non-medical reasons. Dangers include severe bleeding, problems urinating, infections, infertility, mental health problems, complications in childbirth and increased risk of death for newborns. The practice has been illegal in the UK since 1985 but the first prosecutions, which are currently ongoing, were not until this year.

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Who will condemn the sexual enslavement of Iraq’s minority women?
By The Guardian, 15 Aug 2014

 Evidence that women belonging to the Yazidi and Christian religious minorities in Iraq are being raped and sold into slavery by the Islamic State (Isis) is mounting. One of the first to speak out was Vian Dakheel, the only Yazidi female MP who addressed the Iraqi parliament last week, despite the speaker telling her to be quiet and stick to the agreed statement.“Mr Speaker, our women are being taken as slaves and being sold in the slave market,” she said.A spokesman for Iraq’s human rights ministry, Kamil Amin, confirmed that the Islamist group had captured Yazidi women under 35 years old, that it is holding them in schools and likely to use them as slaves.The news was reaffirmed by the Iraqi Red Crescent and the international press, which reported that those fleeing had received phone calls from their daughters, wives or sisters saying they were being taken as brides or warned to convert or die. 

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Almost half of Britons think prosecuting FGM cutters will protect girls, poll suggests
By Standard, 14 Aug 2014

 Nearly half of Britons believe that bringing “cutters” and other offenders to justice is the best way to reduce the number of girls in this country who are suffering female genital mutilation, a survey has revealed. The poll, carried out for the children’s charity Plan UK, found that 29 per cent of people believe that improving the help available for girls who are at risk and making it clear that the barbaric practice is wrong would be the most effective way of stopping the abuse. Another 10 per cent said that telling parents about the damage FGM can cause to girls’ health would reduce the number of victims the most. But the largest proportion — 49 per cent — said the key to tackling the problem was ensuring that those responsible were properly punished.

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Women's rights flow from 'ancient traditions', says India at UN
By The Times of India, 13 Aug 2014

 NEW DELHI: "Respect for women and their rights flow from the ancient traditions of the Indian civilization and are now enshrined into the Constitution and laws of modern India." No, this is not another pearl of wisdom from Dina Nath Batra, the controversial interpreter of ancient history. It's the position taken by India on July 2 in Geneva while presenting its periodic reports before the UN committee on elimination of discrimination against women (CEDAW). Such an attribution of statutory safeguards to India's hoary past rather than to modern notions of feminism is contained in the speech delivered by Shankar Aggarwal, secretary to the ministry of women and child development. He did so as the leader of an inter-ministerial delegation appearing before CEDAW. But, while responding to questions from CEDAW on July 2, the Indian delegation made a contradictory admission, as evident from an eight-page UN press release on the interaction.

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