BANJUL: The Gambia’s parliament on Monday started inspecting a extremely controversial invoice on lifting a ban on feminine genital mutilation (FGM) in drive since 2015.
The problem has divided Gambians for months, and some dozen demonstrators gathered inside and outside the parliament in search of the lifting of the ban.
The invoice says “feminine circumcision” is a deep rooted cultural and spiritual observe and that the ban infringes the precise to observe traditions.
However quite a lot of civil society teams are urging the federal government to face agency.
The UN childrens’ company UNICEF stated in a 2021 report that 76 % of Gambian girls aged between 15 and 49 had undergone genital mutilation.
The observe can result in severe well being issues, together with infections, bleeding, infertility and problems in childbirth, and impairs sexual pleasure.
Lawmaker Almameh Gibba launched the invoice. The second studying was postponed to March 18.
It’s unclear whether or not the invoice might be adopted or how it could be enacted.
Former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, now in exile, banned FGM in 2015, branding it outdated and never a requirement of Islam.
The overwhelming majority of the tiny West African nation is Muslim.
Parliament later that 12 months adopted the primary legislation particularly banning FGM, which is now punishable by as much as three years in jail.
Between 2018 and 2021, just one case of genital mutilation was introduced earlier than a courtroom and no convictions or sanctions had been handed down, UNICEF stated.
– ‘One among Islam’s virtues’ –
The problem flared up in mid 2023, when three girls acquired fines or jail sentences for performing FGM.
An Islamic cleric paid the fines and The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council issued a fatwa upholding the legality of “feminine circumcision”.
The Islamic Council, the nation’s predominant Muslim organisation, stated the observe was “not only a merely inherited customized” however “one of many virtues of Islam”.
It known as on the federal government to rethink the ban.
UNICEF defines FGM as “the partial or whole elimination of the feminine exterior genitalia or different damage to the feminine genital organs for non-medical causes”.
The organisation estimates 200 million women and girls worldwide have undergone some type of the observe, which it recognises as a human rights violation.
“As accountable folks and contemplating duty in society, we’ll be certain that this proposed modification is not going to see the sunshine,” stated deputy parliament speaker Seedy Njie, in keeping with The Customary newspaper.
However he advised that prosecutions of FGM perpetrators be suspended whereas efficient awareness-raising campaigns had been carried out.
The chief of the parliamentary majority, Bilay Tunkara, advised The Customary that his camp would seek the advice of the invoice’s second studying earlier than adopting a place.
The Worldwide Bar Affiliation stated in January that the invoice was unlikely to return into drive because of The Gambia’s worldwide obligations.
The present legislation is predicated on the African Union’s Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Girls, which The Gambia has ratified.
The problem has divided Gambians for months, and some dozen demonstrators gathered inside and outside the parliament in search of the lifting of the ban.
The invoice says “feminine circumcision” is a deep rooted cultural and spiritual observe and that the ban infringes the precise to observe traditions.
However quite a lot of civil society teams are urging the federal government to face agency.
The UN childrens’ company UNICEF stated in a 2021 report that 76 % of Gambian girls aged between 15 and 49 had undergone genital mutilation.
The observe can result in severe well being issues, together with infections, bleeding, infertility and problems in childbirth, and impairs sexual pleasure.
Lawmaker Almameh Gibba launched the invoice. The second studying was postponed to March 18.
It’s unclear whether or not the invoice might be adopted or how it could be enacted.
Former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, now in exile, banned FGM in 2015, branding it outdated and never a requirement of Islam.
The overwhelming majority of the tiny West African nation is Muslim.
Parliament later that 12 months adopted the primary legislation particularly banning FGM, which is now punishable by as much as three years in jail.
Between 2018 and 2021, just one case of genital mutilation was introduced earlier than a courtroom and no convictions or sanctions had been handed down, UNICEF stated.
– ‘One among Islam’s virtues’ –
The problem flared up in mid 2023, when three girls acquired fines or jail sentences for performing FGM.
An Islamic cleric paid the fines and The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council issued a fatwa upholding the legality of “feminine circumcision”.
The Islamic Council, the nation’s predominant Muslim organisation, stated the observe was “not only a merely inherited customized” however “one of many virtues of Islam”.
It known as on the federal government to rethink the ban.
UNICEF defines FGM as “the partial or whole elimination of the feminine exterior genitalia or different damage to the feminine genital organs for non-medical causes”.
The organisation estimates 200 million women and girls worldwide have undergone some type of the observe, which it recognises as a human rights violation.
“As accountable folks and contemplating duty in society, we’ll be certain that this proposed modification is not going to see the sunshine,” stated deputy parliament speaker Seedy Njie, in keeping with The Customary newspaper.
However he advised that prosecutions of FGM perpetrators be suspended whereas efficient awareness-raising campaigns had been carried out.
The chief of the parliamentary majority, Bilay Tunkara, advised The Customary that his camp would seek the advice of the invoice’s second studying earlier than adopting a place.
The Worldwide Bar Affiliation stated in January that the invoice was unlikely to return into drive because of The Gambia’s worldwide obligations.
The present legislation is predicated on the African Union’s Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Girls, which The Gambia has ratified.
