WOMEN'S UN REPORT NETWORK - WUNRN FGM - FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION United Nations Human Rights Council June 1, 2011 Genev

1. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® WOMEN'S UN REPORT NETWORK - WUNRN FGM - FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION United Nations Human Rights Council June 1, 2011 Geneva, Switzerland

3. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® SUDAN VICTIM CALLS FOR A FUTURE WITHOUT FGM By Halima Mohamed Abdel Rahman As a young girl, Sudanese Voices of Our Future correspondent Halima Mohamed Abdel Rahman was circumcised at the hands of the elder women of her community. Now an advocate for the practice's abolition, she shares her own story and calls out for reform.

4. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® UN CEDAW COMMITTEE GENERAL RECOMMENDATION NO. 14 FEMALE CIRCUMCISION - FGM - FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION UN CEDAW COMMITTEE General Recommendation No. 14 (ninth session, 1990) Female Circumcision The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concerned about the continuation of the practice of female circumcision and other traditional practices harmful to the health of women, Noting with satisfaction that Governments, where such practices exist, national women's organizations, non-governmental organizations, and bodies of the United Nations system, such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund, as well as the Commission on Human Rights and its Sub- Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, remain seized of the issue having particularly recognized that such traditional practices as female circumcision have serious health and other consequences for women and children, Taking note with interest the study of the Special Rapporteur on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children,4 and of the study of the Special Working Group on Traditional Practices, 5

5. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® FGM - UGANDA - OVER 200 GIRLS TO BE CIRCUMCISED A circumciser shows the razorblades, the instruments of the FGM ritual By Frederick Womakuyu - 11-15-2010 Elders in Bukwo and Kapchorwa districts of Uganda are preparing to circumcise over 200 girls next month despite a new law banning the practice. The Uganda law calls for life imprisonment punishment for a person who commits aggravated FGM. But elders swear that the whole tribe would rather go to prison than abolish a custom they inherited from their ancestors. 

7. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® INDONESIA - FGM A CUTTING TRADITION Photo - Stephanie Sinclair, Story - Sara Corbett Female circumcisers and their attendants waiting in an elementary-school classroom, where they do their work. When a girl is taken — usually by her mother — to a free circumcision event held each spring in Bandung, Indonesia, she is handed over to a small group of women who, swiftly and yet with apparent affection, cut off a small piece of her genitals.

8. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® European Parliament Resolution of 24 March 2009 on Combating Female Genital Mutilation in the EU (2008/2071(INI)) The European Parliament, –   having regard to Articles 2, 3, and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, –   having regard to Articles 2, 3, and 26 of the 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, –   having regard in particular to Article 5(a) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979, –   having regard to Article 2(1), Article19(1), Article 24(3), and Articles 34 and 39 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted on 20 November 1989 by the UN General Assembly, –   having regard to the 1989 UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, –   having regard to the 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, –   having regard to Article 1, Article 2(f), Article 5, Article 10(c), and Articles 12 and 16 of General Recommendation No 19 of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, adopted in 1992, –   having regard to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the June 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, –   having regard to the December 1993 UN General Assembly Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the first international human rights instrument relating solely to violence against women, –   having regard to the Declaration and the Programme of Action of the UN International Conference on Population and Development, adopted in Cairo on 13 September 1994, –   having regard to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted by the World Conference on Women on 15 September 1995,

9. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN®

10. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® FORCED FGM - GIRL IN AGONY OF PAIN - SUSTAINED SUFFERING

11. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE 8 YEARS OLD AND TOLD YOU WERE GOING TO A BIRTHDAY PARTY. BUT, WHEN YOU GET THERE, THE DOOR CLOSES, AND THERE IS NO PARTY. THE NIGHTMARE OF FGM BEGINS, SO MUCH PAIN, SO MANY TEARS.

12. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® UNFPA - REPORT ON GLOBAL CONSULTATION ON FGM This UNFPA FGM Report addresses the needs for closing gaps in law enforcement, building capacity, mobilizing resources, and building global partnerships.

13. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® TOOLS FOR FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION Typical tools for carrying out female genital mutilation Non-sterile mutilation- Not performed in a hospital - No anesthetics

14. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® EGYPT BANS FEMALE CIRCUMCISION AFTER GIRL'S FGM DEATH BBC 6/28/07 - Egypt has announced that it is imposing a complete ban on female circumcision, also known as genital mutilation. The announcement follows a public outcry after a young girl died during the operation. A ban was introduced nearly 10 years ago but the practice continued to be allowed in exceptional circumstances. A health ministry spokesman said no member of the medical profession would be allowed to perform the operation in public or private establishments.

15. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A RADIANT BRIDE? BUT, YOU WERE CIRCUMCISED AS A LITTLE GIRL.. YOU MUST BE CUT OPEN FOR THE WEDDING NIGHT. WILL THE FGM PAIN NEVER END? THE WEDDING NIGHT AND SO MANY NIGHTS AFTER, CAN BE FULL OF PAIN, EVEN CREATING INFECTIONS.

16. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® TEARS OF A 9-MONTH OLD GIRL FOLLOWING HER CIRCUMCISION IN ASIA

17. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® FEMALE CIRCUMCISION COULD CAUSE INFERTILITY - SWEDISH STUDY IN SUDAN Female circumcision, which is practiced in more than 30 countries and affects 2 million girls each year, could cause infertility. Swedish researchers, who examined nearly 300 women in Sudan where the practice is widespread, said on Friday women who had undergone circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), were five to six times more likely to be infertile. "All sorts of female circumcision, not only the severe forms, probably cause an increased risk of infertility. This is a very important argument to be used in areas where this is practiced," Dr Lars Almroth, a pediatrician and researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said in an interview. An estimated 135 million women and girls have been circumcised, according to the human rights group Amnesty International. The research, which is published in The Lancet medical journal, is the first clinical study to show it has the opposite effect. "We found that the more extensive form of genital mutilation, the higher the risk of primary infertility. The risk is very high -- 5 to 6 times higher -- than in the other group," Dr. Almroth said referring to women who had not been not circumcised. By Author - Patricia Reaney

18. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE READY TO DELIVER YOUR FIRST BABY. THE FGM HAS LEFT YOU TOO CLOSED. YOU LIVE FAR FROM A HOSPITAL. THE BABY TRIES TO COME. FINALLY, YOUR BABY GIRL DIES. YOUR INSIDES ARE TORN. YOU NOW HAVE OBSTETRIC FISTULA. YOUR HUSBAND DOESN’T WANT TO BE NEAR YOU ANY MORE. YOU MOURN FOR YOUR LOST BABY.

19. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® AFRICAN YOUNG GIRL IS HELD DOWN IN FORCED FGM Practiced in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Oman, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and other countries, FGM is carried out with knives, scissors, scalpels, pieces of glass or razor blades. There is rarely anesthesia, or instrument sterilization.

20. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® FILMS CAN SHOW THE GRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY OF THETORTURE, PAIN, AGONY OF GIRLS DURING & AFTER FGM http://irinnews.org/film/?id=4129 Razor's Edge - FGM Video

21. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® ETHIOPIA - INITIATION DANCE OF GIRLS BEFORE FGM These girls dance in the initiation ceremony that leads to their circumcision. If they refuse FGM, they will be discriminated against or ostracized from their community.Credit: IRIN

22. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation - February 6

23. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® MANY BRITISH IMMIGRANT GIRLS UNDERGO GENITAL MUTILATION ARRANGED BY FAMILIES DURING SCHOOL HOLIDAYS - DESPITE LAWS The Guardian - 25 July 2010 Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays – leaving brutal physical and emotional scars. Yet there have been no prosecutions against the practice. Some 500 to 2,000 British schoolgirls will be genitally mutilated over the summer holidays. Some will be taken abroad, others will be "cut" or circumcised and sewn closed here in the UK by women already living here or who are flown in and brought to "cutting parties" for a few girls at a time in a cost-saving exercise.

24. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® FGM PRACTITIONERS SWAY ELECTIONS IN SIERRA LEONE By Emily Bowers - WeNews correspondent Fighting female genital mutilation is hard in Sierra Leone, where about 90 percent of women have been cut. The current election season has shown off the political clout of traditional practitioners. What makes it particularly difficult to combat FGM in Sierra Leone is the political and social power of many of the women who perform it.

25. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® OPERATION GIVES FGM VICTIMS HOPE ON RECONSTRUCTION CNN - Young girls like this one in Niger are often forced into circumcision by their families. The health dangers involved in this procedure, also known as female genital mutilation (FGM), are increasingly well-known and have lead to international efforts to ban the practice. But a new treatment pioneered by a French doctor, Pierre Foldes, offers hope for victims of this practice. Dr. Foldes began working with victims of female circumcision almost 30 years ago while volunteering in Burkina Faso.

26. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION/CUTTING - DATA & TRENDS

27. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION-RITE OF TORTURE FOR GIRLS By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF - NY Times - May 11, 2011 HARGEISA, Somaliland - People usually torture those whom they fear or despise. But one of the most common forms of torture in the modern world, incomparably more widespread than waterboarding or electric shocks, is inflicted by mothers on daughters they love. It’s female genital mutilation — sometimes called female circumcision — and it is prevalent across a broad swath of Africa and chunks of Asia as well. Mothers take their daughters at about age 10 to cutters like Maryan Hirsi Ibrahim, a middle-aged Somali woman who says she wields her razor blade on up to a dozen girls a day. “This tradition is for keeping our girls chaste, for lowering the sex drive of our daughters,” Ms. Ibrahim told me. “This is our culture.” Ms. Ibrahim prefers the most extreme form of genital mutilation, called infibulation or Pharaonic circumcision. And let’s not be dainty or euphemistic. This is a grotesque human rights abuse that doesn’t get much attention because it involves private parts and is awkward to talk about. So pardon the bluntness about what infibulation entails. The girls’ genitals are carved out, including the clitoris and labia, often with no anesthetic. What’s left of the flesh is sewn together with three to six stitches — wild thorns in rural areas, or needle and thread in the cities. The cutter leaves a tiny opening to permit urination and menstruation. Then the girls’ legs are tied together, and she is kept immobile for 10 days until the flesh fuses together.

28. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® A GIRL CRIES IN TERROR AS SHE IS CIRCUMCISED IN SOUTH ASIA

29. Women’s UN Report Network WUNRN® FGM POEM FROM SOMALIA By Abdi-Noor H. Mohamed Birth of a baby must be a blessing event But mine was nothing short of a curseDaddy's face didn't shine. Drums didn't make noise No shots were fired. No ceremony was held The new born was me. I am a girl In my culture, gender counts most. A girl is not as welcome as a baby boy Raising camel in the rangeland is family's highest priority They believe a girl has no hands for that Harsh combat against the enemiesis family's highest priority They believe a girl has no heart for thatReconciliation in the aftermath of a clash is family's highest priority They believe a girl has no head for that At five I had to face the worst A knife cut across my genitals A midwife circumcised me Stitched me. Infibulated me Where I used to have a clit I have a black scar now Why inflict me with this pain? This real Pain of primitive culturesIn tears I am, at every stage of my life Mom and Dad, I'm I not a daughter? Dear Brother, I'm I not a sister? Dear mankind, wherever you are I'm I not a human being? Tears, Tears, Tears