06 Dec 2016 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights

Articles

East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania Police Team Up Against Female Genital Mutilation
by AllAfrica, 04 Dec 2016

Tanzanian police in the Tarime/Rorya Special Zone and their Kenyan counterparts have agreed to cooperate in the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM). Joint operations will be conducted in Tarime District, Mara Region, and five districts of Nyanza Province in Kenya. Tarime/Rorya Special Police Zone commander Andrew Satta said yesterday they had decided to work together with their colleagues in the neighbouring country after realising that some Kenyans were crossing the boarder to undertake FGM in Tanzania and some Tanzanians were crossing to Kenya to undergo the same ritual. He said they realised that they won't succeed in the fight against FGM on one side, while it was a cross-border issue that needed joint efforts from both sides to stop it. Mr Satta said elders from 13 clans of Kurya Tribe in Tarime District assured the police that this year no girl would undergo FGM. Instead, they agreed to adopt an alternative ritual of applying flour on their foreheads to signify the ritual of passage to another age group. Police will not ban ceremonies, but keep a close eye to ensure there was no way to revert to FGM. "We are going to take stern legal measures against people, who go against what the elders promised us," he said.

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'We got this': Africans call on western donors to trust them on FGM
by The Guardian, 03 Dec 2016

A Kenyan expert pleaded with delegates at a US summit on female genital mutilation (FGM) on Friday not to waste any more time sending white men and consultants to Africa “to tell us how to stop this”. “I am a village girl but I have a university education, I know my people, and how to reach them – we got this,” Domtila Chesang from West Pokot, told the high-level event in Washington DC, hosted by senate minority leader Harry Reid. Speaking to the Guardian, Reid said his one regret in 34 years in Congress was that the most powerful country in the world “didn’t do more to tackle FGM”.The Democrat senator said he was deeply disappointed in the progress that had been made. “Imagine living in a world where 200 million men had one of their testicles cut off – and were then stitched up and told to get on with their lives. Would we allow that to go on?” Attending the event alongside more than 200 donors, policy makers and activists was outgoing US ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues Cathy Russell. It is still not clear what President-elect Trump’s view will be on carrying on the Obama legacy of having a special roving ambassador post aimed at supporting the most vulnerable women around the world. Friday’s event, the first ever FGM summit in the US, was funded by two small charitable foundations – the Wallace Fund and the Human Dignity Foundation, and hosted by Safe Hands for Girls and Equality Now.

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Britain vows to play its part to end female genital mutilation 'in a generation'
by Reuters, 01 Dec 2016

Female genital mutilation can be "wiped out in a generation" across the globe, Britain's interior minister Amber Rudd said on Thursday, as she called for everyone to pull together to tackle this "horrendous crime". Rudd, who took office four months ago, said she was determined to see Britain's first successful prosecution for FGM that was made illegal in 1985. Britain, which has placed itself at the center of the global debate to end FGM, has recently strengthened its law to stop the practice and introduced a new offense of failing to protect a girl from being cut. It is also working with grassroots organizations in Britain to change attitudes within communities and investing in programs in Africa aimed at tackling FGM in some of the countries where it is most prevalent. "FGM is a devastating act of violence that no woman or girl should ever have to suffer," Rudd told a conference bringing together survivors, ministers, health workers, police and charities. A 2014 study estimated that almost 200,000 women and girls in England and Wales had undergone FGM or were at risk of being cut in a ritual that involves the partial or total removal of external genitalia. In its most extreme form the vaginal opening is also sewn up. Communities affected by FGM in Britain include Somalis, Sierra Leoneans, Eritreans, Sudanese and Egyptians.

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FGM is now considered child abuse, but where is the funding?
by The Guardian, 30 Nov 2016

With over 200 million women and girls affected around the world, ending female genital mutilation (FGM) takes enormous dedication, perseverance – and funding. In 2013, the UK Department for International Development’s pledge of £35m on the African continent was the largest amount to date by any individual donor to end FGM. However, it is unclear how much of this is reaching those activists who are leading social change efforts on the frontline. UK government's pledge of £35m to end FGM is dwarfed by $34bn from the US to tackle Aids I started campaigning on the issue in the early 1990s, along with a brilliant founder of the movement to end FGM, the late Efua Dorkenoo OBE and since then, although funding has increased for international management and evaluation, it has barely increased for those groups who are successfully ending the practice in their localities. I met Efua first in London in a small office in Covent Garden at a time when she was starting to have success in changing the perception of cutting as a human rights violation. At her recommendation we set up an anti-FGM fund for African organisations, which helped support their efforts for over a decade – a concept which I built on when setting up the Efua Dorkenoo Fund at Donor Direct Action.

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