Guinean girl subjected to genital mutilation even though it was a crime

A four-year-old girl was subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) in eastern Guinea-Bissau at the behest of her parents, the president of the National Committee to Combat Harmful Practices for the Health of Women and Children said this Monday.

Marliatou Djalo Kaba noted at a joint press conference along with leaders of other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) defending human rights in the country that this incident occurred recently in the village of Galomaro, Kosse, “on a date that has not yet been determined.” ”, when the parents took the girl from Bissau, where they live, to the village.

“Upon learning of the incident, the committee called the judicial police, who, in turn, immediately arrested the victim’s mother on the same day,” said the director of the platform that coordinates the actions of NGOs defending the rights of children and women in Guinea. -Bissau.

Present at the press conference, the president of Renluv (National Network against Gender-Based Violence and Children in Guinea-Bissau), Aissatou Camara Indjai, called on the authorities to “do everything” to ensure the case is examined. the perpetrators have been convicted and are serving the punishment prescribed by law.

“Law 14/2011, which criminalizes the practice of female genital mutilation, makes it clear that whoever commits this act must serve his sentence,” the Renluv leader said.

Aissatou Camara Injai congratulated the SP for its intervention, but asked the Ministry of Justice and the courts to review the case “as quickly as possible.”

The executive secretary of the Association of Friends of Christians (AMIC) of Guinea-Bissau, Laudolino Carlos de Medina, who also attended the press conference, condemned the existence of “hundreds of cases” of FGM in Guinean communities and noted that “very few cases” are reported and prosecuted.

“Of those few cases that resulted in a conviction, there are no more than a handful [o] which ends with the serving of an effective sentence, as required by the law of Guinea-Bissau,” stressed Laudolino Medina.

The AMIC leader said almost 98% of people convicted of the crime of female genital mutilation result in a suspended sentence.

Laudolino Medina explained that since parliament approved a law criminalizing FGM in 2011, “the practice has gone underground,” with it occurring at a young age or on the day of baptism.