Bar Human Rights Committee report to the Parliamentary Inquiry into FGM

Here is the Executive Summary of the report I chaired and co-authored for the Bar Human Rights Committee to the UK’s Parliamentary Inquiry into FGM. Our proposals to create a set of civil powers to help the courts intervene to protect young women and girls from genital mutilation are as I write going through Parliament. However, still more work to do …

Dexter Dias QC

November 2014

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Report of the Bar Human Rights Committee

of England and Wales

To the Parliamentary Inquiry

into Female Genital Mutilation

February 2014

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Preface

To:

The Home Affairs Committee

House of Commons

Westminster

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) welcomes the Parliamentary Inquiry into Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as the UK has an obvious and urgent need to protect young women and girls far more effectively from the risk of genital mutilation. The BHRC has grave concerns about the efficacy of the UK’s response to FGM, and has concluded that the UK has been in breach of its international law obligations to protect young women and girls from mutilation. During the period of the UK’s breach, thousands of British girls and young women have been unnecessarily exposed to the risk of mutilation and have suffered irreparable physical and emotional damage. Many could – and should – have been saved. This constitutes a serious breach of the state’s duty of care. Immediate remedial action must be taken. To this end, the BHRC makes 12 recommendations for urgent implementation.

Kirsty Brimelow QC

Chair

Bar Human Rights Committee

Dexter Dias QC

Chair

BHRC Working Group on FGM

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Executive Summary

3 Key Conclusions

The BHRC has reached three key conclusions in respect of the UK’s response to FGM (1) that the UK has been in breach of its international law obligations to protect women and children from genital mutilation; (2) that the UK will continue to be in breach until an anti-mutilation mechanism that is comprehensive and cohesive is securely in place; (3) that during the period the UK has been in breach, thousands [1] of British national girls have been mutilated since FGM was criminalised in 1985; some of them could – and should – have been saved and their mutilation evidences a serious breach of the state’s duty of care.

Further, the lack of FGM prosecutions – a crucial impetus to the Parliamentary Inquiry – is just one instance of a pattern of systemic failure to protect young women and girls that is detailed in this report. Taken together, these failures have unnecessarily exposed females in the UK to the risk of genital mutilation. This situation cannot continue. Action must be taken immediately. We make 12 recommendations that should be implemented without delay.

12 Recommendations

Introduce ‘FGM Protection Orders’ (FGMPOs) [2] modelled on Forced Marriage Protection Orders and Sexual Offences Prevention Orders. FGMPOs would prohibit respondents from carrying out FGM, prevent children at risk of FGM from being removed from the jurisdiction, and ensure the repatriation of survivors from abroad.
Criminalise FGM for all children taken out of UK to be mutilated, irrespective of whether ‘settled’ or not: the UK’s legal obligations extend to all children within its jurisdiction – therefore UK organisers of such mutilations should face prosecution, irrespective of the child’s status.
Establish an Anti-FGM Unit. [3] There should be a central coordinating institution for the UK’s anti-FGM response, equivalent to the Forced Marriage Unit in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Pass a legal requirement for mandatory training and reporting for frontline professionals in regulated services (health, social care, education).
Increase resources for combating FGM in accordance with the UN resolution [4] that state responses to the elimination of FGM should be properly resourced.
Provide medical and emotional support for survivors. The UK’s international obligations require that effective remedial support for survivors is available, such as reconstructive (reversal) surgery [5] and emotional/psychological support.
Challenge cultural justifications for FGM wherever they arise; be clear that this (i) accords with international consensus; (ii) is the stance of the United Nations; and (iii) forms part of the UK’s international obligation to modify cultural or traditional practices that are harmful to women and girls.
Launch national awareness-raising campaign which must emphasise that FGM is (i) a gross human rights violation; (ii) a crime and child abuse; (iii) a problem in and for British society, which we have a moral and legal duty to combat.
Introduce FGM into the National Curriculum. Education about FGM is required for boys and girls to foster empowerment and personal autonomy among girls and respect for women’s rights and bodies among boys.
Create community engagement programmes. Develop a programme of sensitive, properly resourced community engagement projects to change attitudes about FGM. Community members should be encouraged to help run such initiatives.
Deprecate the marginalisation of migrant communities. Racially demeaning depictions, whether in press, public or political debate, or through governmental action, further isolate migrant communities and act to perpetuate FGM as a form of social solidarity and identity.
Monitor FGM and collect data to fill the knowledge gap about the incidence and distribution of FGM and monitor the effectiveness of the UK’s interventions.