How Can We Let This Happen.

[chrisgel]

In a modern Western democracy just how are these things allowed to happen and what more can we do to prevent it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23001119

The legislation to criminalise this has been in place for 27 years and there have only been 3 prosecutions in all that time. All of these prosecutions failed.

With an estimated 24,000 girls below the age of 15 considered to be at risk, isn't it about time we found a way to tackle this problem?

[chrisgel]

AOG - Agreed, but I was looking for suggestions to help prevent. The circumstances you describe mean that it would already be too late for some mite who would have suffered agony and possible health effects for the rest of her life.
I must confess I haven't got an answer myself, but I feel that it shouldn't be beyond the wit of better minds than mine to come up with a way of monitoring these "at risk" children.

[emmie]

as i said in earlier posts, notices in any language where the parents come from, you can generally identify the countries that do this.

[LazyGun]

It is a horrible, senseless practice. The answer has to be education and support for those girls facing such a procedure.Greater penalties for those practicing it over here ( although I do not know what the penalty is right now).

I appreciate that the police and prosecution services have a problem following up on these cases though- families, culture, the nature of the procedure itself means there is little clues for the authorities to act upon.

I would be more interested in knowing if girls are coming forward, but that there cases are just not being processed by the CPS....

[emmie]

LG, it should tell you in the link i provided.

[emmie]

from the government link
The maximum sentence for carrying out FGM or helping it to take place is 14 years in prison.

[LazyGun]

@ Em thanks - missed that info on my initial browse of the link. Certainly should be a sentence that would act as an effective deterrant, one would have thought...

[emmie]

you have to catch the people responsible first, that is the big problem. It's not like you would have this as a mainstream procedure.

[chrisgel]

Em - Yes, if the child isn't taken abroad for the procedure then my understanding is that it's performed in a similar way to backstreet abortions used to be. i.e. there are people (usually women) within the community who perform the procedure in the home of the victim.
I can't remember the details but someone last year was arrested for such a procedure where the child had bled to death. I'll see if I can find it.

[emmie]

takes some reading and very disturbing

http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/key-issues/fgm

[chrisgel]

Sorry I was mistaken. The case I was thinking about concerned a home circumcision on a little boy who bled to death. The operation was carried out by a registered nurse who charged the parents £100 while conveniently forgetting to tell them they could have the procedure done free on the NHS. She was found guiltyof manslaughter and given a 21 month sentence. What a depressing country we live in.
http://freethinker.co.uk/2013/02/09/botched-circumcision-infants-killer-escapes-a-jail-sentence/

[emmie]

i suspect that there are cases where girls have been severely harmed with this procedure, proving it will be a difficult thing, if they end up in hospital in UK, then i would have thought the authorities would become involved.

[LazyGun]

@Chris That does make for depressing reading, but I tend to blame the people who carry out such acts, rather than the country.....

[emmie]

i blame the culture and the people who do this, it's barbaric.

[chrisgel]

LG - Understood and of course it is the people who are at fault. What depresses me is that social services are frequently in the news for removing children from parents at the drop of a hat, but in these sort of cases they seem to be too wary of upsetting "cultural" feelings.
Personally I'm beginning to think that all female children of an ethnic origin where these practises are routinely performed should be placed on the at risk register and stuff cultural feelings. The safety of the child is paramount.

[anotheoldgit]

em10

/// but you have to be sure of your case, you can't just barge in and take the child without evidence of wrong doing. ///

Obviously so, but surely one could tell if a child had been mutilated enough to need the services of the NHS?

[emmie]

thing is how would you know its going to happen, or has happened, or the family are taking the child out the country, other than for a holiday?

[emmie]

AOG, of course, but the only way they come to light is if the child has been severely harmed and has to go to hospital. The child could suffer with the procedure but recover sufficiently in time to not need hospital treatment, or that no one knows it had been done. There is no simple answer to this, other than though compulsive education, in schools, colleges, university
doctors and hospitals, posters with the facts on it, in the respective languages can help.

[atalanta]

In Sweden the airports all have Matrons who are authorised by law to inspect girls who are being brought back into the country from "holidays" in Africa. They can inspect any girl they want, and must report to the authorities any evidence of mutilation. This is publicised widely, so parents know that if they bring a freshly-mutilated girl back into the country they will be discovered and they will face jail
But in this country the authorities are too namby-pamby about "culture" to do anything as robust as actually checking girls.

[emmie]

its a good idea, but i really can't see them doing it here, wouldn't the human rights brigade be up in arms over this.....

[chrisgel]

Atlanta - That sounds like a very sensible solution to this problem. Now all we have to do is find some sensible politicians,