By Momodou Jarju
Anti-FGM campaigners are continuing the advocacy to stay the criminalisation of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia amid a looming vote by lawmakers aimed at decriminalising the 2015 Act which did the opposite.
They said passing the pro-FGM bill will roll back existing protections against the practice which will signify a regression in the protections for women and girls in the country.
They disclosed these remarks at a roundtable discussion jointly organised by the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (I H R D A), the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Held Thursday at a local hotel in Bakau, the event aimed to equip participants with adequate information to amplify their voices against the repealing of the anti-FGM law. The participants included journalists and officials from the afore-mentioned institutions.
The acting executive director of the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (I H R D A) Julia Harrington said people ordinarily think that the role of the press is to give information about things that are happening. But the press, she said, does more than giving information.
“Consciously or unconsciously, the press is giving people the materials with which to form arguments and opinions. So a piece of information is never completely neutral. People are using that information for something,” she said while delivering the opening remarks.
The co-founder of IHRDA said journalists are actually stirring a big pot of private and public opinion.
“So this workshop is designed to give you in the press some information that you can use in your reporting,” she added.
UNICEF representative at the event Mr. Daniel Okello said the event gave the journalists the opportunity to have the right information that can help them inform the public as well as influence the discourse that is currently taking place in the country. He is referring to FGM.
“We are looking forward to the opportunity that the Gambia society will be able to appreciate the discourse around this particular practice and be able to, as a society, as individuals, as a society, and as a country, take all the necessary actions to be able to transform this practice,” he said.
An official from IHRDA Abdulmalick Bello, who presented on the violations occasioned by FGM on human rights and Gambia’s obligations under national, regional and international human rights law, said lifting the ban on FGM will amount to a serious derogation of The Gambia from the aforesaid obligations.
“The missing block in the foundation of the 2015 law can be better built and fixed through embarking on an all-out consultation with especially religious and traditional rulers, education and sensitization of the public, using a multidisciplinary approach, as to the irreversible harms and the dire consequences of FGM to the health and wellbeing of girls, women and the society at large (both in the short and long run),” he said.
Mr. Basiru Bah, a senior legal officer from the NHRC gave an overview of FGM in The Gambia and its impact on women and girls via a power point presentation, while Ms Halimatou Jallow, senior nurse midwife and an official from National Aids Secretariat (NAS), provided a medical perspective on the health consequences of FGM in The Gambia in a power point presentation.
