Gambian lawmakers referred a invoice making an attempt to reverse the Women’s (Amendment) Act, 2015 to the nationwide committee for additional session on Monday. The Girls’s (Modification) Act, 2015 bans feminine genital mutilation (FGM). Native activists gathered exterior the Nationwide Meeting of The Gambia on Monday with protest indicators to boycott the invoice.
FGM is a apply that includes altering or injuring the feminine genitalia for non-medical causes, which the UN claims displays entrenched gender inequality in trendy societies. According to the UN Worldwide Kids’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), over 230 million ladies and ladies world wide are victims of feminine genital mutilation. As well as, 144 million victims reside in Africa. Human rights organizations, together with the UN, have urged international locations to finish FGM practices for years. The UN in Gambia additionally pointed out that FGM solely results in dangerous and traumatic penalties. FGM may additionally result in extreme bleeding, infections, problems throughout childbirth and elevated threat of new child deaths.
In accordance with UN Basic Meeting decision 73/149, feminine genital mutilation is criminalized in 26 of 29 international locations in Africa the place it’s historically practiced. UN Girls acknowledged that “[s]tates must also present systematic coaching for the police and the justice sector on laws, together with extraterritorial legal guidelines, that prohibit dangerous practices … to making sure that perpetrators are dropped at justice.”
Deputy Speaker of Nationwide Meeting of The Gambia Seedy SK Njie confirmed on Tuesday {that a} closing determination on the Girls’s (Modification) Act, 2015 will likely be made after consulting the nationwide committee. He wrote, “For us, our place is obvious: the FGM legislation is right here to remain. [We are] dedicated to maintaining Gambian ladies [and] ladies secure.” Moreover, former American politician and marketing consultant Joe Crowley wrote that though FGM continues to be unlawful in Gambia, “it’s very disappointing to see that overturning the nationwide ban is even on the desk.”
FGM was prohibited on December 31, 2015 by former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh. He additionally imposed penalties of imprisonment and fines for offenders. Nonetheless, Gambian ladies’s rights activist Jaha Dukureh expressed concern that this invoice would subsequently repeal different legal guidelines that shield ladies’s rights.
Source / Picture: jurist.org
