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DESPITE FEMALE GENITAL mutilation (FGM) being outlawed in Ireland in 2012 and almost 4,000 girls having become victims of it, there have been no convictions under the legislation, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has told TheJournal.ie
The Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Act 2012 makes it a criminal offence for someone resident in Ireland to perform FGM. The maximum penalty under all sections of this new law is a fine or imprisonment for up to 14 years or both.
It is also a criminal offence for someone resident in Ireland to take a girl to another country to undergo FGM.
4,000 women and children
Nearly 4,000 females in Ireland are estimated to have undergone FGM, a painful procedure which involves cutting, removing or damaging healthy female genital tissue from young girls.
It is a tradition practised widely in many African and Muslim countries and often justified as a means of suppressing a woman’s sexual desire.
Short-term consequences include haemorrhage, infection such as tetanus and HIV, urine retention, injury to adjacent tissue, fracture and dislocation of limbs.
Long-term consequences include painful sex, recurrent urinary tract infections, painful periods, potential trauma during childbirth, dysmenorrhoea, infertility, chronic pelvic inflammatory disease, sexual dysfunction and psychological trauma.
There have been a number of tragic cases highlighted in the media in recent years where young girls have died following having the procedure.
Last year, an Egyptian appeals court convicted a doctor of manslaughter and performing female genital mutilation that led to the death of 13-year-old Sohair el-Batea in 2013, the New York Post reported.
He was sentenced to two years and three months in prison in the country’s first criminal case involving FGM.
Outlawed in Ireland
When the law was being debated in the Dáil in 2011, TDs vocalised how it should not just be a ‘law-on-paper’, stating that the “legislative change should be accompanied by prevention, education and awareness-raising measures among communities where female genital mutilation is likely to be practised and among relevant service providers, such as medical personnel, gardaí, social workers and teachers”.
Earlier this year, two Irish charities were awarded €163,000 to provide girls and women affected or vulnerable to FGM with information on protecting themselves.
International anti-poverty charity ActionAid and Irish NGO AkiDwA received the funds from the European Union.
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If the Palestinians want solutions to their problems they need to start at home. They have no leadership worth discussing. No point in having an independant state if you cant run it. While Israel is a large part of their problems they themselves inspire little confidence in peaceful co existance.
Meanwhile life goes on as normal
“In June, the Islamic Jihad held the “Generation of Faith” summer camp in Rafah for boys aged 6-16. The camp activities included various military exercises, such as “kidnapping soldiers,” firing guns using live ammunition, and crossing obstacle courses. The campers also heard lectures on religion, and were trained in various other fields, such as first aid, scouting, civil defense, martial arts, and behavior during emergencies”
Lovely. Mort’s post speaks volumes about the “downtrodden” Palestinians.
Much like the Israeli practice of military service then ?
If you were under military occasion for forty six years , military training might seem like a good idea too ?
6 year old boys being trained to kill, so sad.
The IDF have no problem shooting six year olds, even sadder.
What are you talking about Gavan? The IDF do not target children. Hamas on the other hand like to push their own children directly into harms way. Hamas also like to use imagery taken in other conflicts and claim it as something happening in either Gaza or in the West Bank. You’ve probably never been to either Palestine or Israel and just like spouting nonsense on a topic that you are completely clueless about.
Cowards hiding behind women and children. No backbone.
Yeah the Palestinians played up on that Muhammad al-Durrah “shooting” for years but the French Supreme court and a new review of France 2′s unedited footage have killed that lie. If, and it’s a very big if, he was shot the shots came from Palestinians. Then there are the numerous cases of them using pictures of dead and injured children from Syria and claiming them as Palestinians. Or the propaganda from Egyptian PM Kandil with the body of four year old Mahmoud Sadallah who they claimed was killed by the IAF, but the UN report found was hit by a Hamas rocket.
It’s you who seems to be both clueless and brainless Brian. The IDF have been murdering children for years , hundreds of them in both Palestine and surrounding countries, read the UN and other reports of the assault on Gaza if its not too much for you
And when Hamas fire rockets indiscriminately into Israel, what do you call that?
It is murder, the same as sending an F 16 or apache helicopter to bomb a civilian area
And when the rockets are fired from civilian areas, where should the response be directed?
That’s the standard excuse the IDF use,unfortunately it does not hold up, like when they attacked the UN base in Lebanon killing hundreds of people and the video evidence proved there had been no rocket fire from the base.
The UN and HRW are both on record accusing Hamas of firing indiscriminately into civilian areas, from civilian areas in the west bank, including a UN funded school. Using civilians as both targets and human shields are both considered war crimes.
The IDF use civilians as human shields, it is called the neighbour policy, and have committed more than their share of war crimes , including using white phosphorus depleted uranium munitions and the whole collective punishment of the Palestinian people, all considered war crimes under the Geneva convention.
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