Written statement by the Transnational Radical Party, a non-governmental organization in General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN, on item n. 12. Integration of the human rights of women and the gender perspective: (a) Violence against women

The Transnational Radical Party (TRP) is of the opinion that the general situation of women vis-à-vis human rights remains of great concern in many regions of the world. As rightly pointed out in the Human Development Report issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2003, women do not enjoy the same rights as men when it comes to full participation in the social and political life of several counties. This massive absence is a root cause of the lack of development in entire regions and in particular in the Arab world.

Furthermore, in too may counties women do not enjoy the right to transmit citizenship nor have they a right to property or inheritance, despite their countries’ ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. This, the TRP believes, needs to be faced as a matter of urgency through all the possible means at disposal of the United Nations system.

The TRP wishes also to bring to the attention of the Commission a worrying practice concerning women, the one of genital mutilations, which interested hundreds of millions of women the world over.

Sometimes referred to as female circumcision or excision, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is used to describe all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs, for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons. In cultures where it is the accepted norm, FGM is performed by traditional practitioners with crude instruments, such as knives, razors, blades and broken glass, usually without anaesthetics. Among the more affluent sectors of society it may be performed in a health care facility by qualified health personnel.

The age at which FGM is performed varies from region to region: it is performed on infants a few days old, female children and adolescents, and even occasionally on mature women. In general, most girls are mutilated between the ages of 4 and 12.

The health consequences of FGM depend on the type and severity of the procedure performed, the skill of the practitioner, the cleanliness of the tools and the environment, as well as the physical condition of the girl or woman concerned.

The practice of FGM often leads to complications. Short-term complications include severe pain, shock, haemorrhage, urine retention, ulceration of the genital region and injury to adjacent tissue. Haemorrhage and infection can cause death. Long-term complications include cysts and abscesses, keloid scar formation, damage to the urethra resulting in urinary incontinence, dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse), sexual dysfunction, urinary tract infection, infertility and childbirth complications.

Few clinical studies have been conducted, it is clear that at least some forms of FGM increase the HIV transmission risk faced by women and girls, both in that non sterile instruments may be used in the cutting and because some FGM is associated with chronic genital injury and tearing, ulceration, and delayed healing of injuries, all of which may increase HIV risk.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 100 and 140 million women and girls have undergone FGM and that about 2 million more are added to that number each year. According to WHO, the practice is widespread in twenty-eight African countries, which account for the vast majority of FGM cases worldwide, with Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone among the countries in which more than 40 percent of girls are estimated to be affected.
Some 15 percent of women and girls who have undergone FGM have suffered the most severe form, infibulation, whereby the clitoris and labia are removed and the vaginal opening is stitched shut, leaving only a small space. But over 80 percent of FGM cases in Somalia, Djibouti, and Sudan involve infibulation. Although some live in Asia and the Middle East. They are also found in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA among immigrants from these countries.

FGM represents a violation of human rights according to international treaties and covenants. The elimination of this unsafe and unjustifiable traditional practice based on misconceptions and myths need to be seen as a major contribution to the promotion of human rights and gender equity in dozens of countries improving considerably the health status of millions of women and children in the developing world, particularly in African countries.

To prevent these practices, governments of the affected countries should adopt a specific legislation prohibiting the practice and appropriate laws, which should lead to the prevention and subsequent abandonment as suggested in the "Cairo Declaration" adopted at the end of the 3-day "Expert Consultation on Legal Tolls to Prevent FGM", held in Cairo from the 21 to the 23 of June 2003.

The event, organised by NGO No Peace Without Justice in the framework of the "STOP FGM!" International Campaign, saw the participation of governmental and non-governmental representatives of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo Uganda, and Yemen. All Countries affected by the practice.

In the "Cairo Declaration" participants appealed to Heads of State, governments, parliamentarians and relevant authorities in concerned countries, as well as international organisations and non-governmental organisations, to “endorse: gender equality, protection from all forms of violence against women and children, women's reproductive rights and children rights”. In particular they requested governments to “promote, protect and ensure the human rights of women and children in accordance with the obligations undertaken by them as states parties or signatories to the African charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Woman (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Cairo Programme of Action agreed to the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action agreed to at the Fourth World Conference on Women.”

A first step in the direction suggested in the “Cairo Declaration” was taken by the African Union during its July meeting in Maputo, with the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human Rights and People's Rights of Women in Africa.

The TRP believes that the time has come concretise the commitment pledged, both on international and regional level, to obtain the ratification and the subsequent implementation of the Protocol from all the States members of the African Union.

The Transnational Radical Party welcomes the entry into force on 25 January 2004, of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, and hope that it will assist African nations to address human rights violations and FGM in particular.

The TRP intends to work with other groups in the promotion of educational and information campaigns to eradicate the myths and religious unjustifying beliefs on FGM both in the concerned regions and in immigration countries. The support of the international organisations is fundamental for all the activists and organisations that are struggling to eradicate such practice both in the affected countries and at the international level.

The TRP urges the establishement of an “International Observatory on Infibulation”, which could permit a coordinated monitoring of this phenomenon as well as a reliable and veritable data gathering in the practice.