AkiDwA has been championing work against female genital mutilation (FGM) since 2001, through raising awareness, promoting migrant women’s health and campaigning for legislation to prohibit the practice.
AkiDwA has been championing work against female genital mutilation (FGM) since 2001, through raising awareness, promoting migrant women’s health and campaigning for legislation to prohibit the practice.
In 2005, consultations with women from communities where FGM is being practiced led to a partnership with the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA). Both Organisations agreed to develop a National Plan of Action to address FGM in Ireland in 2008. This was supported by a steering committee of diverse stakeholders including children’s advocacy groups, women and human rights organisations.
For more than 10 years AkiDwA had been campaigning tirelessly for a law to be put into place in Ireland that bans the practice of FGM. In 2009, AkiDwA and the IFPA made representations to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children on the need for legislation to prohibit FGM and for the promotion of health services related to FGM.
This resulted in the signing into law last year of the Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Act 2012. The act also creates an innovative offence of removal from the State of a girl for the purpose of FGM.
The legislation takes a human rights perspective and stipulates that the right to practice one’s cultural traditions and beliefs cannot be used to justify FGM, which has been internationally recognised as a form of gender-based violence. Punishment is up to 14 years imprisonment and/or a fine; for a summary conviction, the penalty is a fine of up to €5,000 and/or imprisonment for up to 12 months or both.
Previously, AkiDwA and the Royal College of Surgeons teamed up to publish an information handbook – Female Genital Mutilation: Information for Healthcare Professionals Working in Ireland – to raise awareness among healthcare professionals. A second edition of this publication will be published shortly. In addition, An Bord Altranais/the Irish Nursing Board’s Practice Standards for Midwives, which is sent to all registered midwives in Ireland, came into force in July 2010 and now includes a section on FGM, with a reference to the AkiDwA website for further information.
AkiDwA has lobbied to have FGM included in the new Irish national standardised maternity hospital chart under ‘risk factors’. FGM is now listed in the National Maternity Healthcare Records form used for all women booking for maternity care, and which includes FGM as a risk factor for obstetric care for the first time at a national level.
In 2008, AkiDwA produced the first initial statistics of the prevalence of FGM in Ireland. This was done by using data from Census 2006 and combining it with global FGM prevalence data. From this we derived a figure of 2,585 women living in Ireland who have undergone FGM. This figure was updated in 2010 and in 2013 after the 2011 census, so we can estimate there are currently 3,780 women in Ireland who have suffered FGM. The current data shows that despite a decline in inward migration to Ireland, the prevalence of FGM in Ireland has continued to increase.
To date, AkiDwA has delivered awareness raising and training to over 3,000 healthcare professionals, including medical students, and the network has raised and continues to raise awareness on FGM at local, regional and national levels through media, seminars, workshops, conferences and publications
Since 2009, AkiDwA has been the Irish partner in the European End FGM Campaign led by Amnesty International. The following year, AkiDwA established two community forums for dialogue on FGM in Cork and Galway, and in February 2013 the organisation established the Community Health Ambassadors, dedicated volunteers who are raising awareness on health related issues that pertain to migrant women.
AkiDwA had offered training to six women from migrant communities who are currently doing outreach work mainly raising awareness on FGM around the country. In 2012 the organisation published an information leaflet for the public, Female genital mutilation and the law in Ireland.
More recently, an advisory group has been set up by the HSE Social Inclusion Unit to monitor and advise work on FGM. The current challenge on FGM work is a lack of referral paths or a one-stop clinic for women who have undergone FGM. AkiDwA and the advisory group are currently exploring the possibility of such a referral path or one-stop clinic.
Salome Mbugua is CEO of Irish migrant women’s network AkiDwA.
