Some 17 African states have banned FGM/C, among them Burkina Faso, Togo, Senegal and Uganda.
Members of parliament (MPs) from African nations met in Dakar 3-4 May to exchange lessons learned and actions to take to achieve the ban and resolution. While national human rights laws, and regional treaties such as the 2003 Africa Union Maputo Declaration refer directly or indirectly to FGM/C, separate laws must be passed to address it head-on, said delegates.
Morissanda Kouyaté, representative of the NGO Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices, told delegates: "There is a lot of disparity here. Some countries have passed laws, others have none; and some have laws that are not applied."
Some governments are fully engaged and ready for change, but others, like Sierra Leone, which has high prevalence rates, will take years to shift, said Chris Baryomunsi, an MP from Kanungu in western Uganda.
Decades, not years
Ugandan MP Baryomunsi told IRIN governments should not under-estimate how long it takes to change people’s minds on FGM/C: in Uganda it took two decades to get communities on board, he said.
"People have to want the law, otherwise you can’t enforce it," he told IRIN. Uganda passed a law banning FGM/C on 17
March 2010. Baryomunsi has been advocating change since 1990, in what was then a tough climate with several local authorities trying to pass laws to make FGM/C mandatory.
Over many years their views shifted and several of them switched sides to become strong advocates for a nationwide ban, he said. "Then MPs who wanted to ban FGM/C were voted out of parliament, but now it’s the reverse."
Source: Africa World News
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