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ADVISORY
Contact: Lakshmi Anantnarayan
Nairobi phone: +254-20-2719832 or 2719913
New York phone: +1-212-586-0906
lanant@equalitynow.org
Equality
Now Convenes National Meeting of Tanzanian Anti-Female Genital Mutilation
(FGM) Activists
NGO Leaders to Meet With Tanzanian Government Officials, Calling for Enforcement of Law Against FGM
What: Equality Now will be joined by leading Tanzanian anti-FGM activists at a press conference to conclude a national-level meeting in the country aimed at strengthening strategies to end FGM in Tanzania, as well as meetings with various government officials to discuss the need for more effective enforcement of the law against FGM.
When: 11 am on Monday, May 31, 2004
Where: Tanzania Information Services, P.O. Box 9142, Dar es Salaam, Ph: +255-22-2122771/3
Who: Faiza Mohamed, Africa Regional Director and Jessica Neuwirth, President of Equality Now and Representatives of NGOs in the Tanzanian anti-FGM movement.
In conjunction with the Anti Female Genital Mutilation Network (AFNET), Dodoma Inter African Committee (DIAC), Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), Network Against Female Genital Mutilation (NAFGEM), Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA), The Tanzania Media Women's Association (TAMWA), and Women Wake Up (WOWAP), Equality Now is convening a national level consultation meeting with NGOs working in the Tanzanian movement against FGM. The meeting will take place in Dar es Salaam from May 29-31, 2004, giving activists an opportunity to exchange views and ideas on how to make the anti-FGM campaign in Tanzania more effective. To encourage the government to take on a more pro-active role to end FGM, leaders will also meet with the Minister for Gender and the Chief General Inspector of Police, as well as a representative from the Ministry of Justice.
In 1998 the Tanzanian government passed a law that criminalized FGM, stating that the practice constitutes cruelty to girls under the age of 18. The penalty for this offence is a term of imprisonment from five to fifteen years, a fine of up to 300,000 shillings, or both. In reality the law is not effectively enforced and the practice continues openly. In some parts of Tanzania mass circumcisions are still carried out in which hundreds of girls are genitally cut, usually in December every year.
In 2001 Equality Now, in collaboration with LHRC, launched a Women's Action Campaign highlighting a case in which three sisters were forcibly subjected to FGM by their father, despite desperate efforts to escape and seek help from the police, who returned the girls to their father. Equality Now's campaign continues to urge Tanzanian authorities to ensure the law against FGM is properly enforced and calls specifically for the issuing of guidelines to inform police of the law against FGM and their obligation to enforce it.
Equality Now is an international human rights organization that works to protect and promote the civil, political, economic and social rights of girls and women. Equality Now's membership network is comprised of more than 25,000 individuals and organizations in 160 countries. Issues of concern to Equality Now include rape, domestic violence, reproductive rights, trafficking of women, female genital mutilation, denial of equal access to economic opportunity and political participation, and all other forms of violence and discrimination against women. For more information please visit www.equalitynow.org.
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