EMMA BONINO is Italy’s New Foreign Minister!

http://ecfr.eu/blog/entry/emma_bonino_is_italys_new_foreign_minister

Congratulations, Emma! And of course this is wonderful news not only for the struggle to end FGM but also for UnCUT/VOICES Press. Why? Because Khady works closely with Emma and, together, under No Peace Without Justice, Emma, Khady, Alvilda Jablonko and allies, especially the Inter-African Committee, accompanied the Ban FGM Worldwide resolution through the U.N. General Assembly to successful passage in December  2012. To this end, Emma Bonino distributed 65 copies of Khady’s memoir to key members of the UN General Assembly.

To learn about Khady’s engagement at the U.N., see the opening and closing chapters of _Blood Stains. A Child of Africa Reclaims Her Human Rights_.

In the logo below, Emma is third from the left; Khady beneath.

Also from the BBC World Europe Report on the new Italian government: “Among the other key appointments proposed, Bank of Italy director general Fabrizio Saccomanni will head the powerful economy ministry and former European Commissioner Emma Bonino will become foreign minister.”  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22323850

Tobe Levin presents UnCUT/VOICES Press at Harvard GSE “Social Justice Workshops”

Tomorrow, 27 April 2013, at 10 a.m. I’ll be presenting UnCUT/VOICES Press at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education “Social Justice” Workshop. Venue: Gutman G05, Gutman Conference Center, located on the ground floor of the Monroe C. Gutman Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Education at the corner of Appian Way and Brattle Street.

FGM Survivors’ Memoirs: Call for Manuscripts

“They helped me to my feet, because from hip to toes there was nothing there. A void. I couldn’t stand. … I felt like my frame had been hacked in two.” These are Khady’s word in _Blood Stains. A Child of Africa Reclaims her Human Rights_, a memoir to support the eloquent words of Nimco Ali in her UK Department of International Development guest blog, “BBC’s ‘Casualty’ shows FGM for what it is — violence against girls and women.” See

http://blogs.dfid.gov.uk/2013/04/bbcs-casualty-shows-female-genital-mutilation-for-what-it-is-violence-against-girls-and-women/

Ali, like so many FGM survivors, emerges from silence to insist on girls’ right to protection. The more survivors speak out, the better.

If as a survivor of the cut, you have a story to tell, UnCUT/VOICES welcomes your manuscript. Contact the editor Dr. Tobe Levin
tobe.levin@uncutvoices.com
or Rebecca Sue Levin
rebecca.levin@uncutvoices.com

Khady prominent at the High Level Panel on FGM in Brussels

Proud of our author Khady’s contribution, I offer the following press release from the European Commission issued on March 6, 2013. 

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-189_en.htm

International Women’s Day: Zero tolerance for female genital mutilation

Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding and Commissioner Cecilia Malmström have today joined human rights campaigners to call for zero tolerance for female genital mutilation (FGM). The Commission organised a high-level roundtable event to discuss how the European Union can help Member States to eradicate the practice – thought to have affected several hundred thousand women in the EU. The Commissioners were joined by Members of the European Parliament and the world’s leading anti-FGM campaigners, including ‘desert flower’ Waris Dirie, Khady Koita and Chantal Compaoré – First Lady of Burkina Faso.

In parallel, today the Commission launched a public consultation calling for views on how best to develop measures at EU level to fight female genital mutilation. The consultation will run until 30 May 2013. The Commission has also announced EUR 3.7 million in funding to support Member States’ activities to raise awareness of violence against women and a further EUR 11.4 million for NGOs and others working with victims.

“Today the European Commission is joining forces with some very inspiring women to call for zero tolerance for female genital mutilation. This is an extremely harmful practice which violates the human rights of women and girls. The EU will fight to end female genital mutilation – not only on International Women’s Day, but on all 365 days of the year,” said Vice-President Reding, the EU’s Justice Commissioner. “I call on everyone with an insight in this area to share their views on how to best tackle female genital mutilation.”

“Female genital mutilation is a severe violation of human rights. The risk of being subjected to this practice should constitute a valid reason for granting asylum or humanitarian protection. In our asylum legislation, we are paying particular attention to women and girls who are seeking asylum due to the threat of physical mutilation. Women and girls who are at risk of female genital mutilation, or parents who fear persecution because they refuse to have their child undergo this practice should be given suitable protection in Europe,” said Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs.

New report on FGM

Today’s high-level roundtable discussion on FGM comes as the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) releases a new report on female genital mutilation in the EU, following a request by Vice-President Reding. The report concludes that FGM is by nature a global, transnational phenomenon. While there is no hard evidence of FGM being practised in the EU, thousands of women and girls living in the EU have been subjected to the practice either before moving to the EU or while travelling outside the EU.

The report finds that there are victims, or potential victims, in at least 13 EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the UK. However, it also highlights the need for rigorous data as a basis for tackling the problem.

Eradicating FGM will require a range of actions focusing on data collection, prevention, protection of girls at risk, prosecution of perpetrators and provision of services for victims, says the report. Victims of FGM can rely on protection under the EU’s Victims Rights Directive, adopted on 4 October 2012, which explicitly refers to FGM as a form of gender-based violence (IP/12/1066).

But while all EU Member States and Croatia have legal provisions in place to prosecute the perpetrators of FGM, either under general or specific criminal laws, prosecutions are very rare. This is due to diffculties detecting cases, gathering sufficient evidence, a reluctance to report a crime and, above all, a lack of knowledge about female genital mutilation.

EIGE has therefore also published a report identifying a series of good practices from nine Member States in combating FGM. The report gives examples of successful policies and projects, including:

• A Dutch project to prevent FGM by bringing together healthcare professionals, police, schools, child protection services and migrant organisations;

• A French organisation which focuses on bringing prosecutions in cases of FGM by acting as a ‘civil party’ in trials;

• A specialised health service in the UK with 15 clinics that cater to the specific needs of women affected by FGM.

JOIN US! March 6th at the UN. A Panel on FGM.

UnCUT/VOICES Press is proud of our author Khady who co-founded the European Nework against FGM. The EuroNet-FGM will in turn be represented among NGOs orchestrating side events during this year’s Commission on the Status of Women meetings. JOIN US at 8:30 a.m. on MARCH 6th in the Y-Room, Armenian Convention Center, 630 2nd Avenue, NYC, NY 10016.

CSW FGM panel AD-1 pdf

180,000 immigrant girls and women risk undergoing FGM in Europe (European Parliament estimates). In the USA, the number exceeds 250,000. Among many ways of examining the topic, this panel will compare trans-Atlantic approaches to prevention and victim care. For instance, European DAPHNE grants for FGM projects 2001 – 2014 have orchestrated National Action Plans in fifteen nations (2006-2008), while the latest DAPHNE (2012-2014) is enabling influential individuals in practicing immigrant groups to effectively oppose this harmful traditional practice.  What can be learned from this initiative? Managed by the Euronet-FGM, the Federation of Somali Associations in the Netherlands (FSAN), FORWARD – UK, Riksföreningen Stoppa Kvinnlig Könsstympning (RISK) in Sweden, Plan International Deutschland (Plan) and TERRE DES FEMMES (TDF) in Germany, — with several represented on our panel–, the project comprises a broad partnership whose pilot program targets Eritrean, Ethiopian, Guinean, Somali, Sudanese and Togolese communities in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK simultaneously.  Doctors, social workers and teachers will intensify the behavior change process, captured in a training manual for key professionals, member states, NGOs and wider stakeholders. Moreover, in Europe, care for the excised takes many forms, from the pioneering of Well Woman Clinics and reversal operations in the UK in the 1990s to Pierre Foldes’ clitoral restorations today.  Youth, too, are expressing their views; memoirs in German and French by Somali girls tell an excruciating story to a broad public. These advances notwithstanding, difficulties in confronting FGM remain. With the key exception of France, and despite passage of explicit legislation against FGM in Europe and the USA, few prosecutions have taken place. Panelists from the UK, France and Belgium, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the USA will look at this and other issues, confront challenges and deliberate over three decades of effort to end this egregious human rights abuse and widespread form of violence against women.

Tobe and Khady present at the UN CSW 2012

International “Zero Tolerance” to FGM Day, Tenth Anniversary, at Harvard

Waging Empathy

In 2003, the birthday of the Inter-African Committee, February 6th, was declared International “Zero Tolerance” to FGM Day with two explicit aims. First, to bring the abuse to a more rapid end by, second,  ensuring that the world sees the amputation of girls’ genitals as mutilation. The term mutilation – not a euphemism but a medically correct designation — was to be anchored in the official title of the event.

As we approach February 6th, there is a great deal to celebrate. First, Egypt’s Constitutional Court refused yesterday to hear a petition to scrap the law prohibiting FGM which, though hardly enforced, is welcome on the books. Second, the Italian Parliament is celebrating – February 3-5, the UN General Assembly’s condemnation of FGM, the culmination of the years’ long campaign in which Khady, with Emma Bonino and Alvila Jablonko, had been actively involved. And finally, Harvard will be hosting UnCUT/VOICES’ contribution to Zero Tolerance to FGM Day with Tobe Levin presenting her new edited book, Waging Empathy. Alice Walker, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and the Global Movement to Ban FGM. All are welcome to join us at NOON, February 7th, 2013, in the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, 104 Mount Auburn St. 3 R. in Cambridge, MA.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,800 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 8 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.