Conference event to highlight horror of female genital mutilation (FGM)
A high-profile fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference today (Mon) will call for greater urgency in tackling the horrific practice of female genital mutilation.
Julie Girling MEP has organised the meeting and will join other speakers in calling for greater emphasis on prosecuting adults who allow or carry out FGM.
The MEP for the South West, Conservative spokesman on equality, is leading a campaign promoting a three-point manifesto to end the horror of young girls having their outer sexual parts cut away – all to satisfy a misplaced sense of tradition and cultural identity.
The campaign calls for:
- A more robust approach to bringing adults behind FGM to justice.
- Better international recording and reporting of FGM to reveal the true scale of the scandal.
- International “aid conditionality” – to use development funding as a moral lever on countries where FGM is allowed or even condoned.
FGM has been a criminal offence in the UK since 1985, yet there has not yet been a single prosecution. Conservatives have been at the forefront of efforts to galvanise EU-wide action against FGM. – See more at: http://conservativeeurope.com/news/girling-fgm-more-than-just-a-big-city-problem#sthash.EhiK9M1Z.dpuf
Panellists at the Manchester fringe event will include Solicitor General Robert Buckland and survivor Alimatu Dimonekene, who will tell the heart-rending story of her own subjection to FGM and its effect on her life.
Mrs Girling said: “It was a breakthrough when FGM was criminalised in 1985, but the lack of any prosecution since then means the law has effectively been redundant. Certainly FGM has continued unchecked. If misplaced social or religious sensitivities have stood in the way of prosecutions then that must stop. This is child abuse pure and simple and must be treated as such.”
