News
UK Government unveils new measures to end FGM
(February 09, 2014)UK Government will make it mandatory for all NHS acute hospitals to provide information on patients who have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
This is one of the new measures the government has unveiled to combat this harmful practice in the UK and internationally.
Information on victims of FGM will be recorded centrally, helping to provide more information on the incidence and prevalence of FGM.
Following the Home Office’s successful bid for funding from the European Commission, a new £100,000 FGM Community Engagement Initiative has been launched today.
Charities can bid for up to £10,000 to carry out community engagement work aimed at raising awareness of FGM.
The government has also appointed a consortium of leading anti-FGM campaigners to deliver a global campaign to end FGM.
“There is no justification whatsoever for Female Genital Mutilation – it is child abuse and it is illegal,” Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker said. “I am determined we do all we can to bring perpetrators to justice. The law in this country applies to absolutely everyone and political or cultural sensitivities must not get in the way of preventing, uncovering and prosecuting those who instigate and carry out FGM.”
From April this year NHS hospitals will be required to record: if a patient has had FGM; if there is a family history of FGM; and if an FGM-related procedure has been carried out on a women - (deinfibulation).
By September this year, all acute hospitals must report this data centrally to the Department of Health on a monthly basis.
“Female Genital Mutilation is an abhorrent practice that has no place in this – or any other – society,” Public Health Minister Jane Ellison said. “In order to combat it and ensure we can care properly for the girls and women who have undergone mutilation we need to build a more accurate nationwide picture of the challenge. This is the first step towards doing that.”
The consortium of leading anti-FGM campaigners set up by the government will support the growing movement within Africa to end FGM.
The consortium will work across Africa to bring about a transformation in attitudes towards FGM. It will also work with diaspora communities within the UK to help them use their skills and resources to support efforts to end FGM in their countries of origin.
International Development Minister Lynne Featherstone said: “We will not see an end to FGM in the UK unless the practice is eliminated worldwide. This will take a grassroots movement across Africa that can change attitudes and help communities see FGM for what it is: child abuse.”
Ms. Featherstone added: “This campaign will unite activists across Africa with UK diaspora communities and charities, raising awareness of the pain and suffering FGM causes and showing that we can end the practice.”