Cross-border FGM: 'Law enforcement, collaborations key in ending the practice'

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 ENDING FGM 

Why is cross-border female genital mutilation (FGM) easy to carry out? Or is it?

A simple question, but one textured with the complexities surrounding the subject matter itself.

On the surface, crossing national borders to perform FGM — a life-threatening procedure that involves the partial or total removal of a woman's external genitalia — may seem straightforward, but a new study conducted in border communities in eastern Africa has burrowed deeper to shed more light on what is driving this trend.

And from what the authors of its report say, one of many things is clear: anti-FGM laws and penalties exist, alright, but most border community members believe they are not adequately enforced to deliver the desired sucker punch.

It is a gap often exploited to keep FGM going.

Former FGM cutter Monika Cheptilak, who stopped practising after Uganda set an anti-FGM law in 2010, shows a homemade tool from a nail used for the harmful practice

This latest study on cross-border FGM was conducted in 2020 by the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of FGM. 

The research team selected the border communities in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia as their areas of focus, and they based their findings on data gathered from 1,483 respondents and 63 focus group discussions.

Data was collected from people from at least six ethnic communities in at least two countries: the Somali, Borana (also referred to as Oromo/Oromia), Sabiny/Sabaot, Pokot, Maasai and Kuria.

Like others before it, this study points to the degree of urgency needed if FGM is to be eliminated by the targetted year of 2030.

▪️ Global quest to end FGM 'needs all hands on deck'

This abandoned cave at the Pokot tribe spiritual site near Katabok village, northeast Uganda was previously used for girls resting to heal after their circumcision, until FGM was banned in 2010

Focus group discussions underlined that appropriate enforcement of laws, rather than their enactment alone or mere declations, may be the game changer in eliminating the harmful practice.

With this in mind, one suggested way of tightening the bolts is enacting and, even more importantly, enforcing laws specific to border areas.

Another is using interventions targeting community or religious leaders and families with a history of FGM.

Collaborative efforts by governments across borders is equally important, the researchers say.

'Holistic approach'

On the ground though, it remains a precariously sensitive obstacle course to navigate.

"The one problem or challenge we have in enforcing the law against FGM is that we are almost fighting some people's culture," says Ugandan legislator Flavia Rwabuhoro Kabahenda, who chairs the committee of gender, labour and social development in Uganda's Parliament.

Under Uganda's anti-FGM law of 2010 (The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act), any culture, custom or religion shall not be used to justify the practice.

Kabahenda, the current woman representative of Kyegegwa district in Parliament, says communities practising FGM feel targetted and discriminated against.

And for starters, they want a change in the title and details of the law to include all harmful practices.

They are calling for a holistic approach towards eliminating not only FGM, but all harmful practices "because if you went to every culture, there is a bad practice there that they are not talking about".

"They think we are victimizing and not necessarily trying to save them," says MP Kabahenda.

In the segment below from my interview with the legislator, she speaks about her team's encounters with the communities still practising FGM:


That said, Kabahenda feels the law needs to be amended.

Currently, a person convicted of carrying out FGM in Uganda faces a jail term of up to 10 years while aggravated FGM carries a life in prison punishment.

The law does not spare an individual who carries out FGM on herself and neither does it a person who procures, counsels, aids, abets, induces, coerces or threatens to conduct the practice.

Participating in events leading to FGM is also an offence, punishable by up to five years in jail if one is found guilty.

Again, the laws exist, but worringly, communities continue to circumvent them and avoid prosecution by moving across national borders to perform FGM.

This Ugandan Police officer, who patrols to find illigal FGM practice, poses with a poster near Katabok village in northeast Uganda, on Jan. 30, 2018

About a quarter (48.5 million) of the 200 million women and girls globally estimated to have undergone FGM are from and live in the neighbouring East African countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Tanzania, according to a 2019 study by 28 Too Many, a charity working to end FGM.

Previous studies have found that institutional reforms such as laws banning FGM and advocacy programmes have turned out effective in reducing the practice in high-prevalence areas.

Dangerous and expensive

In focus group discussions during the latest UNFPA-UNICEF study, most of the participants — the majority of whom were female, married and between the ages of 25and 39 — agreed that new laws and policies have impacted on how and when FGM is practised. 

Even those who intended to get involved said that anti-FGM laws have made the practice not only more dangerous and difficult, but also expensive and inaccessible.

However, implementation and intervention of laws has not been uniform, which is being taken advantage of by practising communities.

Generally, weak implementation of laws and low levels of education consistently fuel FGM, including in cross-border practice.

'Translate the law'

FGM prevalence has been reported to be very high in Somalia and Kenya.

Comparatively, Uganda has the lowest national prevalence rate in the Eastern Africa region, at 0.3 per cent, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics report of 2018. But rates in some districts in the Sebei and Karamoja regions remain at over 50 per cent.

Sebei is where anti-FGM activist Gloria Chelangat, 27, hails from.

Kapchorwa district-born Chelangat was fortunate to escape the dreaded blade, thanks to being sent off to school in neighbouring Kween district.

Her time in secondary school inspired in her courage to speak out boldly against FGM through music, dance and drama, which placed her on the trajectory of future activism against the practice.

Today, Chelangat says amid the efforts by various stakeholders, sensitization on especially the anti-FGM law is inadequate.

"Yes, the people within the communities may be aware that a law exists, but do they know the details? The law needs to be unpacked for them."

She suggests that the anti-FGM law should be translated into the local languages of the communities still practising FGM so that people can understand and appreciate its contents better.

Chelangat is a member of the Global Youth Consortium, which was established in 2021 during a UNFPA-hosted youth roundtable on FGM in Senegal. It is aimed at placing the youth at the forefront of the elimination of FGM.

According to the youthful activist, young people can work together across the countries to help end FGM. 

"For now, what we are doing is working directly with youth-led organizations based in communities, girl agencies, women organizations as well as male involvement and partnering with other organizations such as ActionAid and cultural and religious leaders," she says.

"We hold intergenerational community dialogues with key stakeholders to bring them on board. By doing so, we believe we are all able to speak one language and run together."

Chelangat says such platforms provide an opportunity for the elders to "hear us and know the effects of such harmful practices to especially girls".

"At the end of the day, if they buy into what we are doing, then we can work together with them. Most importantly, we want them to spearhead these dialogues so that it nurtures a sense of belonging within them."

People attend a community meeting to discuss FGM in a village on the outskirts of Hargeysa in Somalia on Feb. 19, 2014

'Change in a generation'

According to Chelangat, young people are being targetted to be the voices of change within their communities.

And speaking of voices of change, in the second week of this October, delegates from around Africa and beyond will gather in Tanzania for the second edition of the International Conference on Female Genital Mutilation.

During the three-day meeting that will get under way in the port city of Dar es Salaam on October 9, voices will be calling for a 'change in a generation', which is the theme for the conference, and rightly so.

The gathering will not have come at a better time.

The findings from the UNFPA-UNICEF research on cross-border FGM should give attending delegates plenty to think — and talk — about.

Proponents feel FGM and other harmful practices such as child marriage remains an urgent priority. Yet, going by current projections, Africa and the wider global community are falling behind on this promise.

Authors of the latest study on FGM say it is "an increasingly problematic phenomenon that needs to be immediately curtailed".

'Collaborations and synergies'

Recently, there has been recognition that to sustain gains in eliminating FGM, policies must be consistent across borders, communities and countries. 

In 2019, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Somalia signed an interministerial declaration to end FGM in the region. This declaration was to ensure continued engagement and collaboration among countries as well as the generation of evidence on cross-border FGM.

But is the much-needed political will felt?

In January 2017, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) enacted the EAC Prohibition of FGM Bill, 2016, a piece of legislation moved by Ugandan representative Dora Byamukama and seen as critical in outlawing the entrenched cultural practice.

"[But] up to this day, no head of state has assented," says Kyegegwa Woman MP Kabahenda.

"None of their attorney generals has sent any complaint about the law for the last seven years. So for us, we take it like they have just refused to assent and that speaks a lot to the regional effort."

Students of Kalas Girl's Primary School who escaped from FGM or child marriage walk to the church, next to the school, in the northeast Ugandan town of Amudat on Jan. 31, 2018

Relatedly, the Ugandan legislator points out the lack of synergy on the collaboration front. 

"Every actor is working on their own and the messaging has started being different. If we have to do some work, we need collaborations and synergies with every actor. Let us do the same thing and do it together so that we come to our milestone."

Asked about that milestone, that is the 2030 target of ending FGM, Kabahenda strikes a cautiously realistic tone.

"Of course we shall not have 100% achievement, but we can start now to work on the challenges and even if we got to 30% or 40%, we shall have done a great job."

An ex-FGM cutter of the Pokot tribe Chepureto Lobul dances during a meeting with journalists in Katabok village, northeast Uganda, on January 30, 2018