KAMPALA, 30
April 2007 (IRIN) - Women’s rights activists in Uganda have petitioned the
Constitutional Court demanding that female genital mutilation (FGM), practised
by several communities in the east of the country, be declared illegal.
Photo:
Valerie Julliand
Many girls in Uganda are
subjected to female genital mutilation. A group of rights activitists is
calling for the practice to be made illegal
"We are seeking a court declaration that the practice is
unconstitutional; it is cruel, inhuman and degrading," said Dora Byamukama, a
member of the East Africa Legislative Assembly and one of the campaigners
against FGM in Uganda.
The activists, who have formed a group known as
Law and Advocacy for Women in Uganda, earlier in April succeeded in having the
Constitutional Court abrogate the country's law on adultery on the grounds that
it made marital infidelity an offence only when committed by women while
seemingly condoning it when men were involved.
Gertrude Kulany, a former
member of parliament, said FGM was practised in Kapchorwa, Bukwo, Bugiri,
Nakapiripirit and Moroto districts.
"I am one of the few who were lucky
and escaped the practice, but most of my contemporaries went through it because
whichever girl in the village attains puberty is initiated into womanhood
through circumcision," said Kulany. "Those who refuse are tormented as their
in-laws despise them because they are not circumcised."
A lawyer for the
women, Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, said FGM denied its victims human dignity, which is
guaranteed under the country's constitution.
Beatrice Chelengat,
programme manager of an FGM awareness campaign sponsored by the United Nations
Population Fund in the eastern Kapchorwa district, said 647 women aged between
11 and 31 were subjected to FGM in 2002 out of an estimated 13,000 females in
that age group. The figures for 2004 and 2006 were 595 and 426 respectively, she
said, adding that anti-FGM campaigns in the area were bearing fruit.
FGM
involves the cutting and/or removal of the clitoris and other vaginal tissue,
often under unsanitary conditions. It is practised in at least 28 countries
globally. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that up to 140 million girls
and women around the world have undergone some form of FGM.
It is
practised extensively in Africa, and also in parts of the Middle East and among
immigrant communities around the world. According to medical experts, it causes
physical and psychological complications, as well as heightening the risk of
HIV/AIDS when unsterilised instruments are used.
At least 16 African
countries have banned the practice, and the Maputo Protocol, an African regional
document that prohibits and condemns FGM, came into force in November 2005.