ASSOCIATION FOR WORLD EDUCATION
Joint statement with International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), and
World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ)

UN Human Rights Council –10th session (2-26 March 2009)
By representative David G. Littman, read by Roy W Brown, Monday 16 March 2009

Item 3: Promotion and protection of all human rights: Rights of the child

Thank you, Mr. President.

On 6 October, a Geneva International Convention was held on the theme: “Political will at the centre of achieving Zero Tolerance to FGM”, and we wish to warmly congratulate here our veteran NGO colleague, Mrs. Behane Ras-Work, Executive Director of the Inter-African Committee, for her tireless efforts to speak out since the 1980s on what is still considered by many a taboo subject.

The 18 page report of the IAC is factual and well-worth reading, containing as it does a wealth of detail. In Guinea, for example, clitoridectomy is the most commonly practised form of FGM, affecting 96% of Muslim girls, 86% of Christians and 99% of animists.

At the Convention an Egyptian councillor provided examples of successful actions undertaken against FGM, mentioning the December 2008 follow-up meeting under the auspices of H.E. Suzanne Mubarak. It was good to learn of “the National Campaign to eradicate FGM, to draw attention to the practice, also by including religious leaders” – and by obtaining “public statements of religious leaders of different groups”. However, he made no mention of the tragic fact that the annual UNICEF figures for FGM in Egypt, despite the ban and the campaign, still stand at around 96%.

Mr President, the shameful practice of female genital mutilation is now spreading from Africa and the Middle East to Europe via immigrant populations – with an estimated 7,000 child victims in Switzerland – 1,200 in Geneva alone, and with similar numbers in Norway, Italy, and elsewhere.

“Traditional or customary practices” is an unworthy euphemism for this crime against girls. FGM has no religious, hygienic or medical justification, yet more than 3 million girls in more than 32 countries are still being mutilated each year.

We are again making available our written statement, [E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/NGO/27] “Background on ‘Traditional or Customary Practices’ / Female Genital Mutilation”, which explains in detail some of the reasons for the continuing prevalence of this practice in Egypt, in Northern Sudan (where the figure stands at 97%), and elsewhere. We include as an appendix an excerpt from an authoritative text on [Sunni] religious law which describes excision of the clitoris as obligatory. We suggest therefore that a clear statement from the highest religious authorities [in Sunni Islam, such as Al-Azhar's Grand Sheikh Sayyad Tantawi,] condemning FGM may well be necessary in order to bring religious and national laws into harmony, leading to the final elimination of this practice in Egypt, the Sudan and many other countries.

We appeal to all governments where FGM continues, to enlist the support of educators, and religious and community leaders, in unequivocally condemning female genital mutilation.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Note: the words in square brackets […] were not pronounced