by Melina Dunham, Advocacy Intern
October 11 marks the 6th annual International Day of the Girl. Today’s celebration aims to address both the challenges girls face and to promote their empowerment and uphold their human rights.
In this spirit, it is important to address the issues of women’s reproductive health and sexual violence which remain critical factors of gender inequality, particularly for the vulnerable populations SolidarityNow seeks to defend and support. One manifestation of profound discrimination, which is overlooked and stigmatized, is female genital mutilation (FGM). The World Health Organization defines FGM as “all procedures involving the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. Founded upon sociocultural and religious justifications, this practice has severe and traumatizing effects on the health, well-being, and safety of women in the short, medium, and long term”.
This summer, the European Institute for Gender Equality published a study on the risk of FGM in six Member States: Belgium, Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus, and Malta. The findings revealed that in Greece, an estimated 25% to 42% of migrant girls originating from FGM-practicing countries remain vulnerable to this horrific form of gender-based violence. Despite being condemned and criminalized at both the European and national levels, cases of FGM persist in Greece, partially due to a common practice where girls are temporarily returned to their home country to have the procedures performed.
Raising awareness for this practice is urgent because not only does it impact the health and safety of young girls, but also has profound lifelong repercussions on the survivors’ future agency and empowerment, across all aspects of their lives.
To put an end to this dangerous and dehumanizing practice, actions must be taken at the behavioral, community, and policy levels. The Istanbul Convention – which, among others, criminalizes FGM as a form of gender-based violence and establishes the obligation to recognize it as a form of persecution justifying the right to asylum – needs to be unanimously ratified and implemented by all Council of Europe Member States and the European Union itself. In June 2018, Greece became the 32nd State to ratify the Istanbul Convention – which has been already reflected in Greek criminal laws and entered into force on October 1, 2018. Beyond adopting a gender-sensitive asylum system that can protect the rights of women migrants and asylum-seekers facing FGM, irrespective of where the offense is committed, Greece can adopt prevention strategies and systems for better legal and health support. This should easily build off the “National Action Plan for Reproductive and Sexual Health”, developed in 2008 which has since expired.
At its core, FGM is a criminalized cultural practice that has serious physical and psychological consequences. For this reason, tackling behavioral changes and cultural norms is a critical first step. Examples of this include training staff working across all relevant sectors (education, health, asylum, social services) in gender-sensitive manners, and engaging men and religious community leaders to both effectively challenge misbeliefs and raise awareness on the psychosomatic consequences and stigmatization caused by FGM. To do so, however, the biggest barrier in Greece is related to data collection and availability; gathering the relevant statistics on the female migrant population and asylum applicants and all those originating from FGM-practicing countries will provide the quantitative foundation and information needed to both fill the gaps and push for policy change. Finally, a strong national Integration Action Plan, which SolidarityNow continues to demand, would tackle the underlying factors of FGM across all levels and eventually dissuade the continuing of the practice.