Mr Sandogo cautioned policy makers that until they involve the Police Service in the implementation of policies on FGM, the police will continue to lack the capacity to perform their duties in respect of the harmful cultural practice affecting the health and psyche of women.
Citing the Domestic Violence Act as an example, Mr Sandogo said it took the police some years to fully understand the nitty-gritty of the Act after several workshops were held by gender-oriented organisations.
He made this assertion in Accra last Monday at a press conference organised by the Ghana Association for Women's Welfare (GAWW) and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to commemorate the 9th anniversary of International Day on Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.
The theme for this year's commemoration is "From Malabo to New York: Supporting United Nations General Assembly Resolution Worldwide." The day was adopted by 49 countries, including Ghana, and declared by the United Nations as a means to focus world attention on the noxious practice.
The President of GAWW, Mrs Florence Ali, said a study has shown that women who have undergone circumcisions are significantly likely to experience difficulties during childbirth, and their babies are more likely to die as a result of the injurious practice.
Heavy Bleeding
Mrs Ali said the victims also experienced heavy bleeding after childbirth and prolonged hospitalisation following the birth. She said complications include the need to have a caesarean section, and the degree of complications increased according to the extent and severity of the FGM.
According to the report, in the case of caesarean section, women who have the most severe form of FGM would have on average 30% more C-sections compared with those who have not had any FGM. Women affected by severe FGM are 70% more likely to suffer haemorrhage after birth. "In all, the study estimated that in the African context an additional one to two babies die per 100 deliveries as a result of the practice," she said.
She noted the commemoration is important because it was instituted in 2003 by the Inter-African Committee on Harmful Traditional Organisation Practices to call for an end to FGM and to urge international organisations to take concrete measures to deal with the practice which women are subjected to in the name of tradition or culture.
It is also to call on international, regional, national and community attention on efforts needed to free women and girls from the adverse effects of FGM and to accelerate action toward its total elimination.
She said in 2010 the ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, discussed ways of eliminating FGM. The Heads of State then supported a draft resolution at the 66th ordinary session of the United Nations' (UN) General Assembly to ban FGM worldwide. "2010 was set aside to end FGM but that date was revised to 2015 in line with the Millennium Development Goals," she added.
Rights of Women
Additionally, the General Assembly recalled the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa adopted in Maputo, Mozambique, which in Article 5 requires State Parties to prohibit and condemn all forms of FGM through legislative measures enforced by sanctions.
In a statement, the Inter-African Committee on Harmful Traditional Practices against Women and Girls called on member states to provide support for efforts to adopt the draft resolution to ban FGM worldwide. The statement commended member states and the AU's initiatives to ban FGM, and the efforts being made to pursue the necessary steps for the full implementation of the Maputo protocol.
The Inter-African Committee, however, expressed great concern at the continued practice of FGM in spite of numerous campaigns over the last 30 years. The committee called on AU member states to provide support for efforts to adopt the draft resolution to ban FGM worldwide. The committee is expected to submit a draft to the General Assembly of the UN.
The statement called on the General Assembly to adopt the resolution and provide the necessary recommendations and guidelines for the development and strengthening of regional and international legal instruments and national legislations.
Negative Cultural Practices
FGM is one of the major negative cultural practices that affects the dignity and violates the fundamental human rights of women as well as afflict women with serious health hazards. Though the practice takes place in some parts of the country, the practice is common in the three regions of Northern Ghana, especially in the Upper East Region where it is performed as part of puberty rites.
Most victims of female circumcision become barren while some die as a result of intensive bleeding. On August 7, 1994, FGM was criminalised in Ghana with the enactment of Act 484 in an attempt to stop the practice but conservative people in society still see something good about it and encourage it.
Act 484 amended the Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29) to insert Section 69A which reads as follows: "(1) Whoever excises, infibulates or otherwise mutilates the whole or any part of the labia minora, labia majora and the clitoris of another person commits an offence and shall be guilty of a second degree felony and liable on conviction to imprisonment of not less than three years. (2) For the purposes of this section 'excise' means to remove the prepuce, the clitoris and all or part of the labia minora; 'infibulate' includes excision and the additional removal of the labia majora."
FGM is the collective name given to a number of cultural practices that involve the partial or total cutting of female genitals. FGM can be performed as early as infancy and as late as age thirty. The origins of FGM remain unclear.
FGM violates a number of human rights of women and girls. Since FGM involves the removal of healthy sexual organs without medical necessity and is usually performed on adolescents and girls, often with harmful physical and psychological consequences, it violates the rights to non-discrimination, health and bodily integrity.