Please DO NOT RESCIND #EndFGM Legislation In The Gambia – An Urgent Petition (Open For Signatories)

This photograph is of Jaha Dukureh, who with other FGM survivors in 2015 so bravely persuaded legislators in The Gambia, her native country, to outlaw female genital mutilation (FGM).  Now however there is the prospect of that legislation being repealed, so that FGM can once again be practised legally.
The petition below explains why we as global citizens stand with Jaha and many others in that country and elsewhere, imploring the Gambian parliamentarians not to endorse this reversion to permit FGM.

We will send this document, supported by many more signatories – hopefully including you? – to the President and legislators of the Gambian parliament in time for it to be considered before a final decision on this desperately retrograde proposal is made in May / June 2024.

If you would like to include your name (and, if you wish, organisation and / or country) in this petition, please sign in the Comments box below this petition text; continue by clicking ‘Read on’ if you see that message, or just scroll on right down.  We will then add your details (but not your email address) along with the names of others of us who have already signed.  Thank you.

Please DO NOT RESCIND #EndFGM Legislation In The Gambia

To: The President and Legislators of The Gambia

We the undersigned are writing to you in support of the millions of women who have undergone FGM and the millions who have suffered in silence as they live with its highly destructive and well documented lasting effects. We urge you, immediately, not to advance a bill repealing the 2015 ban. We join the urgent appeals sent to you from legal and human rights groups, who are, like us, deeply concerned about the current practice. Overturning the ban would undo decades of work to end FGM. If it passes the final round of voting, The Gambia will become the first nation to roll back protections against the practice.

As human beings, gender advocates, NGOs, lawyers, human rights experts and as often invited speakers on gender-based violence, we were heartbroken and appalled at the all-male decision on reinstalling FGM.  We are strongly committed to promote equality in the law, dignity and respect.  Can you possibly conceive the setback your careless and callous words have caused to millions of vulnerable women and babies around the world by removing legal protections for them? Our basic plea is to end this inhuman and degrading tradition that carries on breaching human rights law.

Almameh Gibba, the lawmaker who introduced the bill, asserted that this push to repeal the FGM ban is to “uphold religious loyalty and safeguard cultural norms and values.” We beg to differ. FGM can no longer remain immune to scrutiny merely because of the label ‘culture’. The mere happenstance that it is called culture does not automatically render it absolute and untouchable. Couched in the name of culture FGM continues to thwart the evolutionary progress of the status of women and ignores the developing human rights standards. It is patriarchy incarnate:  power, repression, and sexual control under the name of culture. FGM is an extreme example of the catastrophic abuse of women and as a matter of urgency must be discarded.

Those of us who are fighting for the eradication of FGM are unequivocal in our collective stance that FGM is unacceptable and against bodily integrity. Our goal, along with the rising global condemnation of this horrific custom, is to enforce the idea that FGM is a senseless and horrifying procedure needlessly inflicted on females for no other reason than they are females. WOMEN HAVE A RIGHT TO BE WHOLE. INTACT. And this includes their genitalia.

By advocating this unbelievable position, you are advocating that women must undergo this in order to adhere to traditional religious and customary demands. You have sent out a message that essentially states in order to be a woman you must be mutilated.  This obscures and trivializes the underlying degradation mutilation imposes on women and the senseless attack on women’s genitals simply because they are female. By advocating this position, you have informed women this is what we think of you and what you must do in order to be accepted in their society.

We are shocked and dismayed that The Gambia assembly even thought this is acceptable. Like many others, the UK Royal College of Midwives strenuously opposes this backward-looking proposal.  FGM’s documented horrific physical and psychological cost to females, some left sterile, some left with a lifetime of chronic infections, and some left with vaginal obstruction, alone should give pause to this discussion that never should have even taken place. Beyond excruciating pain and severe bleeding, long-term physical and psychological damage can result from the procedure, including infection, infertility and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as childbearing complications, including postpartum haemorrhaging, stillbirth, infant mortality, and mortality (Female Genital Mutilation: A Global Concern 2024 update). The price females must pay is at a significant cost of psychological trauma and physical suffering for this human rights abuse.

WOMEN HAVE A RIGHT TO BE WHOLE. INTACT. And this includes their genitalia. This baseless trampling on the human rights and dignity of women and the right to be physically whole is undermined by this all-male vote. Only five of Gambia’s 58 lawmakers are women, meaning men are leading a discussion on a practice that is forced on females.

Worse still, your position suggests uncomfortable parallels about acceptable parameters of gender-based violence.  Your position has made a mockery of all the women who have died from undergoing FGM. Your position has made a mockery of those women who have died in childbirth as their vagina was obstructed with hardened scars and keloid tissue. Your position has made a mockery out of those FGM survivors who are campaigning relentlessly against this horror.  Your position has made a mockery out of the 28 African countries that have specific anti-FGM laws or legal provisions.  This reflects the growing number of world nations that stand in unity and have enacted criminal laws as one of the reform strategies for ending FGM, the first step of many steps on the long road to eradication.

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Mr Karim A.A. Khan KC, stated in January 2024 that “Sexual and gender-based crimes are among the gravest under the Rome Statute.”   Your position has made a mockery of the African women themselves who are also fighting against FGM at the grassroots level. You have made a mockery of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the recognition of the multiple forms of violence that are legitimised as custom. You have made a mockery of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.   You have made a mockery of the tireless and courageous work of Gambian campaigners such as Fatou Baldeh MBE and Alimatu Dimonekene MBE.

And you have made a mockery of the haunting words of Jaha Dukureh  “As long as I am alive, I will wake up every single day and scream to the world that FGM is wrong.” and, speaking of the threatened re-legalisation of FGM in her own country, The Gambia:  “I don’t remember going through it because I was 1 week old. But I remember, when I was about 10 years old, I had a little sister that died from bleeding when she was subjected to FGM, and she was also 1 week old.”

We remind you of the Statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez that “states that fail to criminalize or enforce laws banning ‘cultural’ practices such as honor killings or female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C), for example, are contributing to gender-based violence that may violate the Torture Convention.”

FGM also constitutes torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as affirmed by international jurisprudence, including by many of the UN treaty monitoring bodies, the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. The European Court of Human Rights UN Special Rapporteur has linked FGM to torture… FGM in its form and cruelty amounts to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment as set forth in article 1 and 16 of the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT); and to emphasise States’ obligations to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether perpetrated by the State or by private persons, and to provide redress, reparation and rehabilitation to victims of torture and ill-treatment. …the deliberate infliction of severe pain and suffering, thus meeting the threshold of the definition of torture laid down in article 1 of the CAT, namely, severe pain and suffering, intent and purpose.

The WHO / iAHO states that female genital mutilation is a human rights violation.

As the UN Commission on Human Rights 1986 Report of the Working Group on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children insists, “(W)hen normal, there is absolutely no reason medical, moral or aesthetic, to mutilate or suppress all or any part of these exterior organs.”

We deem it equally important that girls and women have a life of dignity and simple basic respect. Surely bleeding shredded genitals cannot be part of a woman’s identity and destiny. Advocating for FGM is contradictory to The Gambia’s own Constitution (Article 28 that acknowledges the best interests of the child and Article 29 that states” Women shall be accorded full and equal dignity of the person with men.”) Additionally the repeal of the FGM ban squarely negates The  UN Charter, The Universal Declaration of  Human Rights, The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, The  Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, The  Convention on the Rights of the Child and  The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

The Gambia is a signatory of all of the above.

We strongly support the view of Geeta Rao Gupta, the U.S. ambassador at large for global women’s issues. Repealing the ban will pose “serious, life-threatening consequences for the health and well-being of Gambia’s women and girls.”

As Sir Richard Branson so rightly insists, this proposed legislation lifting the FGM ban, the reversal of progress in Gambia, threatens global gender justice.  It will staunchly reverse years of progress and risk blemishing The Gambia’s human rights record.  No matter how historically entrenched this custom is, obstetrical and gynaecological pain and bleeding genitals should not be part of a woman’s destiny and identity.

We, the signatories below, implore you not to do this.

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PLEASE SUPPORT THIS PETITION:

If you would like to add your name (and, if you wish, your organisational / institutional affiliation, with or without a weblink, and your country) to this petition, please do so in the COMMENTS box which you will find, following the note on historical background below, and after the names and Comments listed here of those who have already signed.

When you have signed we will include the details you provide (but not your email address) on the list, as below, of those supporting this petition.

If you can’t access the Comments box to show your support please email your name & details, plus any supporting message, to hilary [at] hilaryburrage [dot] com.
Thank you.
Please note that this petition is urgent and will need to be sent to Gambian parliamentarians in the next few weeks of April / May 2024. Thanks again

NB  TO SIGN

you will need to scroll on down a considerable distance here, to AFTER the historical note and the names and Comments, since there are already many signatories and Comments.

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A note on the historical background to #EndFGM legislation efforts in The Gambia:

1998, July 22, in Banjul, capital of The Gambia:
A Symposium for Religious Leaders and Medical Personnel on FGM as a Form of Violence was organised by the Inter-African Committee (IAC) on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women & Children of The Gambia (GAMCOTRAP).

The Banjul Declaration stated that the practice has neither Christian or Islamic origins or religious justifications and condemned its continued practice.
The campaign created a committee of religious leaders to support BAFROW (Foundation for Research on Women’s Health, Productivity & Development) and thirty-five administrative-district-level chiefs, 50 village heads, and many local government officials were subsequently invited and attended a workshop to plan the execution of the alternative method of rites. Previous circumcisers were trained as village health promoters and as designated facilitators of the new rite-of-passage with specially built sites in selected districts where the new rights of passage would be performed.
An analysis of the project’s results found a reduction in female circumcision cases: in Fulladu District, 412 girls were circumcised in initiation ceremonies in 1996 which fell to 190 girls in 1997. In Niamina District, 92 girls were cut as part of their initiation ceremonies in 1996 which fell to 12 girls in 1997. There was also a change in attitudes held about FGM. After the project 78% of women surveyed were in favour of FGM abolition, compared to between 30% to 40% in 1996.

2016, 21 October to 4 November, in Banjul, The Gambia:
Banjul Declaration of the 59th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights under the theme “Women’s Rights: Our Collective Responsibility”

Section 24: “States should work in close collaboration with indigenous communities and organizations as well as other stakeholders for the elimination of harmful traditional practices within indigenous communities.…”

2024, 22 to 24 January, in Banjul, The Gambia:
Banjul Declaration: African Women Local Leaders Unite to Combat Violence against women under the auspices of REFELA

“We, Honorable Mayors and representatives of local and regional governments:
Recognize the important role of female political leaders in the fight to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, especially female genital mutilation, forced marriages and sexual violence;
Discussed of the necessity to speed up actions at the global, continental, national as well as the local level to eradicate all forms of violence against women especially female genital mutilation, forced marriages and sexual violence….”

Other human rights and legal documents relevant to The Gambia and FGM include:

November 2010: African Conventions, Declarations and Agreements – Women’s Economic Empowerment and Gender-Based Violence

February 2024: A Statement by The United Nations in The Gambia on Protecting the Rights of Girls and Women from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

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The COMMENTS box for further signatory names and remarks is below. You will find it AFTER the listed names of current signatories, and after the many Comments which have already been posted.
Please scroll on down.

THIS PETITION IS ALREADY SIGNED BY….

• Lorraine Koonce-Farahmand Esq. (petition co-author), Solicitor (UK), Lawyer (US), Gender & Human Rights Advocate
• Hilary Burrage (petition co-author), Adjunct Professor, Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics, Northwestern University, Chicago, Advisor, Global Media Campaign to End FGM, UK
• Chris Ugwu (Dr) MB BS, Executive Director, Society for the Improvement of Rural People, Nigeria
• Sayydah Garrett, Founder & President, Pastoralist Child Foundation, USA
• María Viola Sánchez, PhD, CEO & Founder, STOP THE CUT NOW! Eradicating Female Genital Mutilation, USA
• Fatou Baldeh, MBE, The Gambia
• Alimatu Dimonekene, MBE, Sierra Leone and UK
• Samuel Siriria Leadismo, Co-founder and Director, Pastoralist Child Foundation, Kenya
• Sarah Champion MP, Chair, The UK Parliamentary International Development Committee
• Valerie Lolomari, Founder/ CEO, Women of Grace UK, UK and Nigeria
• Giselle Portenier, Co-chair, EndFGM Canada Network, Canada
• Tony Mwebia, Founder and Executive Director, Men End FGM Foundation, Kenya
• Tobe Levin von Gleichen, PhD, Germany and USA
• Priya Goswami, Mumkin App LLP, Sahiyo, India
• Shahidul Alam, PhD, Bangladesh
• The AHA (Ayaan Hirsi Ali) Foundation
• Saiful Islam, MD, Majority World CIC, France
• Claire Jackson-Prior
• Kameel Ahmady, Researcher and Social Anthropologist, UK and Iran
• Jeanette Copperman, Social Work Academic and researcher
• Nancy Gorman
• Pierre Mury, Avocat à la Cour, France
• Annie Corsini, Geneva, Switzerland
• Tara Schmitt, Board Member, Pastoralist Child Foundation, USA
• Lisa Moser
• Lynne Troughton, Labour Women’s Declaration, UK
• Liz Garner
• Ann Velasquez, St.Augustine, FL USA
• Tony (M.A.) Burrage, Oxfam volunteer and classical musician, UK
• Andrea Vickers
• Larissa Thompson
• Jackline Nzioki, Staff member, Pastoralist Child Foundation, Kenya
• Liz Bailey, London, UK
• Diane Walsh, Freelance writer & researcher, Canada
• Maria Jaschok, PhD, Oxford, UK
• Maha Alsakban, Iraq
• Caroline Chappell, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Chester, UK
• Ronald Stewart, UK
• Jennifer Baumgardner, Dottir Press, NY, USA
• Rob Pennock, London, UK
• Chris Meyer, New York, NY, USA
• Barbara Clarke Ruiz, Glen Ridge, NJ, USA
• Blake Valin, USA
• Rob Esdaile, Canon (Priest), UK
• Ellen Eagle
• Nawal Nour, Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Harvard Medical School, USA
• Gillian Squires, MBE, Retired Police Detective, now Director, Honour Me Ltd. UK
• Sylvie Meyers
• Anne Bartlett, UK
• Marion Evans
• Claire Dane
• Osman Mahmoudi, Family Counselor, FGM writer & researcher, Founder & President of HECI Iran & Iraqi Kurdistan
• Juemin Xu, PhD
• Trisha Turiano
• Benjamin Yoong
• Margo Garrison
• Penny Watson, (Dr) MB ChB DRCOG, Scotland
• Jennifer Timmons, USA
• Judy Manton, USA
• Carol Kirk
• Edith Steffen, Psych.D, Senior Counselling Psychologist, UK
• Stella Eusebio, Surrey, UK
• Lucia Ndolo
• Wiem Bouaziz Zouaoui, (Dr), Dental surgeon, France
• Joanna Surma, UK
• Saarrah Ray, University of Oxford
• Alison Orr
• Kate Souper, UK
• Nicola Carr, UK
• Helena Evans
• Victoria Jones  
• Claire Rodie  
• Anna Burrage, PhD, London, UK
• Katie Walmsley
• Ruth Barnard, Cambridge, UK
• Jaye Nolan
• Joanne Finkel
• Hilary Oxley
• Claire Hough
• Cathy Knights
• Stephanie Chadwick
• Ellie Evans, UK
• Jane Page
• Nicola Jones, Wales, UK
• David Hirst
• Elisabeth Bray
• Joy Clifford
• Sarah Veale 
• Sheila King 
• Carol Beckett, BA (Hons), PGCE, MA
• Eve Beckett
• Emma Perry, UK
• Jenny Broome, UK
• Jane Ayres, Labour Party
• Louise Branch
• Louise Irvine, (Dr), General Practitioner, London, U.K
• Beth Dawid, UK
• Helen Jackson, Labour Women’s Declaration Cymru
• Sue Vincent, Cllr, London Borough of Camden
• Sally Ring
• Helen McMurray
• Gail Elsharief, UK
• Kirrily Todhunter
• Ruby Lescott
• Mark A O’Sullivan
• Lacy Schnieders 
• Una-Jane Winfield
• Dawn Banks 
• Judy Webb
• Mandarin18
• Zoe Richards, UK
• Laura Pascal, Women’s Officer, Hackney North and Stoke Newington Constituency Labour Party
• Helen Tissington, London (retired nurse/midwife/health visitor)
• Lizzie 
• Jane Leavens, UK
• Jane Osborne, UK
• Rosemary Smith  
• Alex Dunlop
• Susan D Doherty
• Phy Joyce, Scotland
• Taisha Betz
• Epona95
• Helen O’Connor UK
• Kay Lawrence (South Wales, UK.)
• Evelyn Strasburger, UK
• Val Stein
• Dorothea Annison, UK
• Laura
• Kerryann Lund
• Ariel Dodson, UK
• Alison McKeefry
• Amy Fallon
• Pauline Gibson
• Denise Hunter
• Margot Henery   
• Liz Greenan
• Sarah Barratt, UK
• Janet Devlin, Australia
• Jane Larkman
• woodend02 
• Jane Sargent, UK
• Erik Svane, published writer, Paris
• Barry Romeril, businessman, Florida
• Philippa Thorpe, UK
• Priscilla Yagu Ciesay   
• Stephanie Boumediene, DrPH, MPH