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_МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ НАУЧНЫЙ ЖУРНАЛ «СИМВОЛ НАУКИ» №9/2015 ISSN 2410-700Х_
ЮРИДИЧЕСКИЕ НАУКИ
УДК 341
Волкова Анастасия Ивановна
магистрант НИУ ВШЭ г. Москва, РФ e-mail: volkovaanastasiia@mail. ru
WOMAN'S RIGHTS IN CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
Аннотация
Female genital mutilation/cutting becomes a specific area of gender studies in the framework of the protection of human rights of girls and women. The article investigates the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting, which is a violation of human rights of girls and women, because it represents an extreme form of discrimination against women and inequality between the sexes. The article points to need for legal regulation of medical professionals, as well as bringing to justice those who commit such operations.
Keywords
harmful traditional practices, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), violation of the rights of girls and
women, global strategy, discrimination.
Culture can influence people's lives, because it forms human behaviour, and also mode of thinking. Common to every culture norms, customs, behaviour patterns and views are very various, that is why it is dangerous to estimate one culture on the basis of values of another. Unfortunately, almost in every culture exist customs and traditions, which violate human rights. Any violation of women's and girls' rights on the basis of religion, culture and superstition can be called harmful traditional practices. It is a result of gender inequality, discriminative social and religious norms as well as traditions, which regulates women's freedom.
Harmful traditional practices are: Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), acid violence, breast flattering, "honour" crimes, rape and corrective rape, female infanticide, dowry and bride price, marriage by rape and abduction, ritual sexual slavery, widowhood rituals and other.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as 'female genital cutting' or 'female circumcision', refers to "all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female exter nal genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons" [1]. FGM was adopted by the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children in 1990. Later in this year the World Health Organization recommended that the United Nations adopt it as well.
FGM/C has been practiced in some form or other for several thousand years. First procedures were carried out in Egypt and it is still exists. The practice of FGM/C is not prescribed by Islam, nor in the Bible. FGM/C is seen as girl's initiation into womanhood, but has no health benefits. This procedure is very traumatic and painful and has very serious consequences. It is risk for reproductive, psychological and sexual women's health. Cruel operat ions can cause severe pain, shock, bleeding, catalepsy, sepsis, retention and ulceration. It is threat to childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths. What is more, FGM/C can increase susceptibility to HIV/AIDS.
Cruel operations of genital cutting exist in 29 countries. Women and girls suffer from it in Somalia - 98 per cent, Guinea - 96 per cent, Djibouti - 93 per cent, Egypt - 91 per cent, Eritrea and Mali - 89 per cent, Sudan and Sierra Leone - 88 per cent [2]. Statistic shows that FGM/C is carried out on girls aged 0 to 5. It is general in Mauritania, Nigeria and Mali. From ages 5 to 9 years it is carried out in Somalia, Togo and Chad and in Egypt - from 10 to 14 years. Also, most mothers reported that their daughters were cut at home (Yemen - 97 per cent, Egypt - 65 per, Kenya - 46 per cent of the total number). Blades, razors, scalpels, scissors and knives are used for cutting girls and women. In Egypt blades, razors and scalpels are used in 80 per cent of FGM/C.
_МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ НАУЧНЫЙ ЖУРНАЛ «СИМВОЛ НАУКИ» №9/2015 ISSN 2410-700Х_
There are factors influences FGM/C: education, place of residence, religion, ethnicity and household wealth [3]. Woman with high education will not allow cutting her daughter, but woman with no education will allow performing FGM. In effect, it is difficult to find connection between education and woman status, because FGM is performed on baby girls less than 5 year old.
Society blame such operations, they realized that it is possible to give up FGM/C. First actions to stop the procedure were taken in 1958, when ECOSOS offered WHO to undertake a study of FGM/C. In 1979 the UN General Assembly adopts the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which explicitly recognizes that practices harmful to women, such as FGM/C, are violations of human rights. In 1990 CEDAW General Recommendation No. 14 elaborates on specific provisions regarding FGM/C. Great step was also in 1993, when FGM was recognized as a human rights violation at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. In 1997 WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA issued a joint statement against FGM. In 2002 the UN General Assembly, in its resolution on Traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls, calls upon all States to adopt national measures to prohibit practices such as FGM/C. In 2003 the first International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation is commemorated on 6 February. The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women adopts resolutions on ending FGM/C in 2007, 2008 and 2010. In 2008 «Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation: An interagency statement» was signed by 10 United Nations agencies. In 2012 the United Nations General Assembly passes the first resolution calling on States to intensify efforts to eliminate FGM/C [4].
In these 29 countries FGM is forbidden. There are laws and amendments to Criminal Codes. FGM is forbidden in Burkina Faso in 1996, Senegal - 1999, Yemen - 2001, Benin - 2003, Ethiopia - 2004, Mauritania - 2005, Eritrea - 2007, Egypt - 2008, Iraq and Guinea-Bissau - 2011. FGM is also forbidden in Djibouti. The amendment in 2009 of Article 333 of the Criminal Code (criminalizing female genital mutilation) to define and criminalize failure to report FGM/C and of Article 7 of the Criminal Procedure Code to relax the conditions to be met by women's right s organizations for bringing FGM/C cases to court [5].
In Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the United Kingdom, Sweden FGM is also forbidden by law. Almost in every country in the world exist laws which forbid such practice. The first Western country that banned FGM was Sweden. It was in 1982. United Kingdom banned it in 1985 and USA in 1997.
If we want to stop FGM/C, also boys and men should understand that it is harmful, cruel and dangerous. In Mauritania, Mali, Egypt and Guinea boys and men want to continue FGM/C. In Guinea, Sierra Leone and Chad more men than women want FGM/C to end. Opposite situation is in Egypt. Here more women that men would like to stop such procedures.
Doctors, teachers, police and also citizens must report about FGM in confidence. They must report in government. Type of FGM should not influence classification of crimes. Any type of FGM must be serious crime.
Statistic shows that from 100 to 140 million girls and women have undergone FGM/C. If nowadays tendency survives, in 2030 year 86 million girls will be cut. It means that number of FGM is reducing.
Список использованной литературы:
1. Female genital mutilation. Fact sheet N°241. Updated February 2014 [Электронный ресурс] - URL: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/ (Дата обращения - 29.08.2015).
2. Отдел новостей и СМИ. Радио ООН. ЮНИСЕФ увидел проблески надежды в борьбе с женским обрезанием [Электронный ресурс] - URL: http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/russian/archives/143556/ (Дата обращения -02.09.2015).
3. ДЭСВ ООН. Женщины мира в 2010 году. ST/ESA /STAT/SER. K/19.
4. United Nations Children's Fund, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A statistical overview and exploration of th e dynamics of change, UNICEF, New York, 2013.
5. CEDAW/C/DJI/CO/1-3, para. 6 [Электронный ресурс] - URL: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-DJI-CO-1-3.pdf
© А.И. Волкова, 2015
