27 June 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's right

Articles

Abortion rights for Northern Irish women in UK 'must be addressed'
By The Guardian, 26 Jun 2017

MPs have warned that abortion rights for Northern Irish women travelling to the UK for a termination must be addressed despite the Conservative deal with the DUP, repeatedly raising their concerns during a heated debate in the Commons. Labour MP Stella Creasy and Conservative MP Anna Soubry were among those who called on the government to permit Northern Irish women terminations in England without charge. Women’s rights campaigners have expressed concerns about the implications of the DUP deal for any prospect of the government extending the right to an NHS termination to Northern Irish women travelling to England. This month the supreme court narrowly ruled that women from Northern Ireland were not entitled to free abortions on the NHS in England, a judgment that coincided with talks beginning on a confidence and supply agreement between the Conservatives and the DUP. Northern Ireland has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe.

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Govt Warns NGOs Against Supporting Teen Mothers to Go Back to School
By All Africa , 25 Jun 2017

The Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Mwigulu Nchemba, has warned Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) against campaigning for the rights of children that any student, who is made pregnant should return to school. The minister has wanted such NGOs to immediately stop that campaign, threatening to deregister them if they continued with the campaign. The Cabinet minister has made the statement today when representing the Prime Minister, Kassim Majaliwa, in a fund-raising drive for the Kisasa Parish in Dodoma Region.

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Group calls for laws in Nigeria against female genital mutilation
By Premium Times , 23 Jun 2017

Preston Development Foundation, a non-governmental organisation in Nigeria, on Thursday organised a program in Abuja to campaign against female genital mutilation. The World Health Organization said Nigeria has the highest prevalence rate of FGM in the world, with about 40 million women said to have undergone the practice in the country, thus indicating about 41 per cent prevalence. The awareness stunt, held at the Federal Ministry of Health car park at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, required the campaigners to lie on the ground as a sign of advocating against the practice, and to symbolise the harm it does to women, especially during child birth.

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Genital mutilation scandal widens to include mothers
By The Detroit News, 21 Jun 2017

Two mothers were indicted Wednesday and accused of participating in a widening conspiracy that ended with their daughters’ genitalia allegedly mutilated by a doctor. The indictment expanded the nation’s first female genital mutilation case by alleging six minor girls – including four from Michigan – underwent a medical procedure practiced by members of a small Muslim sect, the Dawoodi Bohra. The alleged victims include two previously disclosed 7-year-old girls from Minnesota and four girls from Michigan ages 8-12. Prosecutors have said the conspiracy could involve as many as 100 victims.

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