MPs vote to kill the Girls’s (Modification) Invoice 2024, which had sought to decriminalise the apply of feminine circumcision.
Gambian lawmakers have voted to uphold a 2015 ban on feminine genital mutilation (FGM), rejecting a controversial invoice in search of to overturn the legislation, after months of heated debate and worldwide strain.
The Girls’s (Modification) Invoice 2024, which had sought to decriminalise the apply of feminine circumcision, had handed a second studying in March with solely 5 out of 53 lawmakers voting in opposition to it, elevating considerations amongst rights teams that The Gambia would turn into the primary nation to reverse a ban on the apply.
The invoice has deeply dividing public opinion within the Muslim-majority West African nation.
The textual content of the invoice, launched by MP Almameh Gibba, declared that “feminine circumcision” is a deep-rooted cultural and spiritual apply, however anti-FGM campaigners and worldwide rights teams mentioned it’s a harmful violation in opposition to girls and women.
The landmark 2015 ban on FGM made the apply punishable by as much as three years in jail.
Lawmakers on Monday voted once more on every of the invoice’s clauses earlier than a 3rd and remaining studying scheduled for July 24, with a majority voting in opposition to every clause.
That prompted Nationwide Meeting Speaker Fabakary Tombong Jatta to cease the invoice transferring ahead to the ultimate studying.
“The [National] Meeting can’t be engaged in such a futile train as to permit the invoice to proceed to a 3rd studying,” Jatta mentioned after the votes.
“The invoice is rejected and the legislative course of exhausted.”
Desk banging may very well be heard within the packed parliamentary chamber as MPs rejected every of the 4 clauses.
The World Well being Group says FGM has no well being advantages and may result in extreme bleeding, shock, psychological issues and even loss of life.
FGM includes the partial or complete removing of the feminine exterior genitalia or different damage to the feminine genital organs, and may result in severe well being issues together with infections, bleeding, infertility and problems in childbirth.
The Gambia is among the many 10 international locations with the very best charges of FGM, with 73 p.c of ladies and women aged 15 to 49 having undergone the process, in accordance with 2024 figures from UNICEF.
A UN report from March mentioned that greater than 230 million women and girls worldwide are survivors of the apply.
