Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-19-Speech-3-120"
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"en.20010919.9.3-120"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioners, 130 million women worldwide have been the victims of genital mutilation. Every year two million girls are subjected to this horrific practice. Today the European Parliament must act as a spokesperson with regard to this situation which affects millions of women.
We have tried to work on the basis of consensus with all political groups in producing this report. We have considered the opinions of experts of both sexes, the governments involved and non-governmental organisations. Our aim is no less than to convince the communities which practice female genital mutilation of the need to eradicate it.
The custom of partially or totally removing the female sexual organs has it roots in a profoundly unjust notion of the role of women in a society which views them as inferior citizens, controlled by the people who make decisions, who are, in most cases, men.
For us, the defence of these traditions has a very clear limit. The limit is the defence of human rights. It is not possible, on behalf of any tradition, to accept that women should be seriously and irreversibly mutilated for the rest of their lives. Information, education and increased awareness are, therefore, essential factors in relation to the disastrous consequences for women’s lives, even though most of them are not even aware of what these may be. The truth of the matter is that they are going to suffer an irreversible amputation, but they do not even realise the real consequences of such an act.
We have produced a report which asks the Commission, the Council and the Member States to create an integral strategy, which does not only involve penalties, but which deals with the areas affected by this issue: public health, judicial, legal, political, etc. We view female genital mutilation as a serious attack on human rights, and on the basis of this view we request something which is a logical consequence of it: that the right to asylum be granted to women who wish to flee from this situation, that we take them in so that they may escape from something which will be irreversible for the rest of their lives.
According to the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, persecution on the basis of sex must be cause for the granting of asylum rights. No other persecution on the basis of sex is clearer than this one. People can abandon their political ideas. People can abandon their religious beliefs. But it is impossible to abandon the sex you were born with. Therefore, since we are dealing with a brutal violation of fundamental rights, it is also fundamental that we offer these individuals the opportunity of refugee status. I believe that the directive currently being presented by the Commission, on the rules relating to the conditions to be fulfilled by residents of third countries requesting refugee status, moves in this direction, and it will be very important. For us, this is a question of principle and we cannot abandon this demand.
The report also calls for the promotion of external aid to those African countries which have adopted legislative and administrative measures that prohibit and penalise this practice. We also urge the European Commission to work closely with non-governmental organisations that make an enormous effort on the ground, very often with scant resources. We also ask for recourse to the human rights clause in order to make combating genital mutilation a priority action in terms of relations with third countries, in particular with the countries which have close relations with the European Union within the framework of the Cotonou agreement.
Ladies and gentlemen, many women, thousands of African women, are waiting to hear what we have to say in this regard. It is not solely a problem for African women. It is a problem for all of us, women and men, because it is a problem of fundamental human rights. These people are waiting and we must offer them an urgent response."@en1
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