The CHRAJ has limited powers

Under the guise of taking her to her grandfather’s funeral, a father lured his daughter from Accra to some part of the Brong Ahafo Region where her clitoris was cut off! The girl found herself in the midst of 10 other girls and it was then that she was told what was in store for her.

She tried to run away because she knew the practice was harmful and not in her interest but she could not succeed because she did not know the area. Her screams for help did not help; she was overpowered.

When her father brought her back, she reported her ordeal to one of her teachers who also reported it to the Ghanaian Association for Women’s Welfare, which has Mrs Florence Ali as Executive Secretary.

According to Mrs Ali, she reported the incident to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Police Service and wrote to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). Her two reports have not yielded any results to date, even though the laws of Ghana make female genital mutilation (FGM) a crime.

Specifically, the Criminal Code (amendment) Act, 2007 (Act 741) makes comprehensive provisions to deal with FGM with an enhanced penalty to deal with perpetrators of the practice.

The CHRAJ has limited powers and could not do anything to bring the girl’s father to justice; with the police, after a series of “go and come,” nothing happened.

FGM is a term given to a practice which involves the removal or cutting off of the genital organ of a female.

Prevalence rate up

At a workshop organised in Accra recently by GAWW, Mrs Ali was worried that the prevalence rate of FGM was going up. From a rate of 87 per cent in the 1980s, GAWW’s advocacy and education campaign, in addition to other efforts brought the rate down to three per cent. Sadly, the rate has been rising; it is currently four per cent, according to a UNICEF survey.

Mrs Ali attributed the retrogression to lack of funding and resources to continue the monitoring and education for re-enforcement.

The workshop was, therefore, to develop a national plan of action and strategies for the dissemination and implementation of the UN resolution 67/146 on FGM which aims at ensuring that the practice is totally eliminated.

Opening the workshop, Mrs Benita Okity-Duah, deputy minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, noted that there were numerous challenges that continued to undermine the country’s effort to eliminate FGM and other harmful socio-cultural practices.

Among these, she said, were the weak enforcement of existing laws and low level of women’s participation in governance and public decision-making positions in Ghana.

She called for the intensification of sensitisation programmes to increase public awareness of the effects of the practice and asked that reports of FGM be included in the monthly reports from clinics to the hospitals for monitoring purposes.  In addition, she advocated more education through primary health care programmes and the use of community health nurses in door-to-door campaigns.

Alternative initiation

For her, alternative initiation ceremonies should be introduced to replace FGM which is a very harmful practice.

Speaking as a victim of FGM,Madam Sulemana Alijata Gbentie, and Member for Parliament (MP) for Sissala East Constituency, said she had no idea when FGM was performed on her but the effects had been grievous.

She said she had a lot of problems during childbirth and does not feel for sex because it was her sensitive part, her womanhood, that had been taken away; a situation that was seriously affecting her marriage.  Madam Gbentie called for the enforcement of the law against FGM to prevent suffering by more females and added that there was nothing benefical in the practice.

“I am just walking, feeling nothing because of this,” she said.

On enforcement, DSP Bawa Sadongo of the Social Services Department of the Police Hospital said the attitude of the police towards the crime of FGM and domestic violence was casual because of the apathetic way the subject is handled at the Police Training College.

He said discussion of the subject rather becomes funny with all sorts of nicknames and jargons ascribed, making it lack the serious attention it deserves.

DSP Sadongo also said domestic violence issues were worrisome and asked for a reversal of the current trend in police training institutions to ensure enforcement of the law.

Protection of victims

DSP Haleema Afra Boakye, a gender and child protection specialist and a cognitive /behavioural therapist  who was also at the workshop, said that apart from reporting to the police, action could be taken in court against perpetrators if a report was made to a magistrate and that it was not only the police who could send criminal cases to court.

She said enforcing the laws on domestic violence and FGM presented some challenges which needed to be looked at. For instance, she said, if perpetrators were arrested and jailed by the court, there should be a strong social protection system that would provide for the upkeep of the victim.

She also said there had been instances where police personnel had had to feed victims from their own pockets; a situation which was not the best.

“Which policeman will like to follow through with a case like this and have such problem on his hands?” she asked.

What came out clearly after various presentations at the workshop was that contrary to erroneous perceptions that Islam required FGM, there is nowhere in the Quran that such a practice is required. Also, the practice ends up maiming females for life, has serious health consequences and sometimes results in death.

The dangers of FGM include severe bleeding and generalised blood poisoning, difficult labour, difficulty in passing urine, feeling of depression, loss of self-esteem and the forming of tough scar tissues. Pelvic inflammatory disease, leading to infertility is also one of the health consequences.

Ghana has laws against FGM but enforcement remains a great challenge. In addition, there is the need for funding to enable GAWW and other NGOs to continue with education and monitoring to ensure that FGM is truly eliminated from our society. What is the forward?  FGM must be eliminated but where will help come from?

By Doreen Hammond/Daily Graphic/Ghana
Writer’s E-mail: [email protected]