Protesters in opposition to feminine genital mutilation (FGM) maintain placards in entrance of the Nationwide Meeting in Banjul on March 18, 2024, throughout the debate amongst lawmakers on a extremely controversial invoice in search of to carry the ban on FGM. | Picture credit score: AFP
Gambian lawmakers voted on July 15 to uphold a 2015 ban on feminine genital mutilation, rejecting a controversial invoice that sought to repeal the regulation after months of heated debate and worldwide stress.
Lawmakers rejected the invoice by voting in opposition to all proposed amendments to the 2015 textual content that may have decriminalized the follow.
Human rights teams and the United Nations had urged MPs to reject the invoice, saying it threatened years of progress and would have seen Gambia turn out to be the primary nation to repeal a ban on feminine genital mutilation (FGM).
Within the packed parliamentary chamber, banging on tables may very well be heard as MPs rejected every of the 4 clauses.
“The Girls’s Legislation Modification Invoice 2024, which has handed the consideration stage and has been rejected in all its clauses, is deemed rejected,” stated Fabakary Tombong Jatta, Speaker of the Nationwide Meeting. “I resolve that the invoice is rejected and the legislative course of is exhausted,” he added.
The invoice had been shifting by parliament since March, deeply dividing public opinion within the Muslim-majority West African nation.
Tradition versus rights
The textual content, tabled by MP Almameh Gibba, says “feminine circumcision” is a deeply rooted cultural and spiritual follow, however anti-FGM activists and worldwide rights teams say it’s a dangerous violation in opposition to girls and ladies.
Feminine genital mutilation includes partial or full removing of the exterior feminine genitalia or different damage to the feminine genital organs and may trigger severe well being issues, together with infections, bleeding, infertility and problems throughout childbirth.
Gambia is among the many 10 nations with the very best charges of feminine genital mutilation: 73 % of ladies and ladies aged 15 to 49 have undergone the process, in keeping with 2024 figures from UNICEF.
A UN report in March stated greater than 230 million women and girls worldwide are survivors of the follow.
