Female Circumcision: violation of Human Rights in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

Abstract

The paper argues that female circumcision (FC), often referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM) or female genital cutting (FGC) is a crime under International law. The papers primary focus would be on Benin and Esan ethnic communities of Edo State, which is a part of the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. That the myth is a violation of the fundamental human rights of these women, whether, in her infancy, childhood, adolescence or as a young adult. That the historic assertion which claimed cutting off the female genital help curbs promiscuity and promote female faithfulness to their husbands is a ridiculous, repugnant and repulsive line of thoughts. Thus, every right minded thinking person, group or government, should actively promote awareness of the consequences and harmful effect of female genital mutilation, must see to the abolishment of the act.

Introduction

Edo State, like other States in Nigeria is predominantly male dominated. The desire for continuation of female circumcision under the disguise of cultural and ethnic belief remains widespread, even though the State passed a law against it in 1999 and there is absolutely no legal, moral, cultural and ethnical justification for its continuation. Female circumcision, if you like female genital mutilation is a crime which causes suffering and psychological problems for the victim.
The partial or total cutting away of the external female genitalia has been practiced for centuries in Edo and Esan communities and indeed, in most part of Africa and eventually, due to immigration in Europe, Asia, Scandinavia and America. It is estimated that over a 100 million women worldwide[1] are subjected to the barbaric act of female circumcision in clear violation of the victims’ human rights.
Nigeria became a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, in 1960 upon gaining her independence and also a signatory to the African Charters of Human Rights 1961 and 1970. Modern human rights, born in the aftermath of the Second World War and crystallized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, reflect a broader, societal, approach to the complex problem of well-being. Human rights are about the societal preconditions for physical, mental and social well-being.

The end of the Second World War brought about unprecedented changes in global system such includes internationalization of political ideologies such as right and freedom of citizens. All these while, human rights were not seen as health issue, conscious efforts was only made in 1995 at the National Council of International Health (NCIH) conference where professional in health, law and social science met at Columbia University, the land mark of this historical event was the recognition of fundamental human rights as health issue. We can look at it from economic angle and from health issue. The core right is the right to life which has to do with survival. Since health has to do with harmony between mind and body to ward off death, then the extension of right to life as a health issue becomes imperative.[2]

Key document that have sprung up at international convention on civil and political rights, the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights, the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. The covenant on the rights of the children, and lastly the covenant dealing with slavery in all these, there are provision particularly touching on human health which female circumcision borders on. The right to health as articulation in these instruments has since become norms of civilized states. Upon careful examination of Nigeria constitutions of 1979, 1985, 1989, 1995, and 1999, health rights feature prominently. Thus, the constitution is the most important for providing protection for women. Although the applicable provisions are indirect, for example there are provision in chapter II on the equality of the sexes and the prohibition of discrimination in all forms.

It is clear that the Nigerian State, enshrined in its Constitution of 1999 in chapter 4, the protection of fundamental Human Rights in all it facet. Thus the rights of children and women are protected. Unfortunately, the provisions that directly address the rights of female born into these primitive beliefs that compelled them against their will to be violently violated by cutting off their sexual organs, whether on cultural or ethnical ground, are not adequately protected by law. In that, one of the rights that are denied to the Nigerian woman is the right to health, through female circumcision because section (6) of the Constitution prevent the courts from looking into whether or not the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy have been implemented if states: " The judicial powers rested in accordance with the fore going provision of this section . . . shall not, except as otherwise provided by this constitution, extend to any issue or question as to whether any law or any judicial decision is in conformity with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive principles of state policy set out in Chapter II of this constitution."

Female circumcision has been condemned as cruel, discriminatory and degrading by a long series of international instruments, declarations, resolutions, pronouncements and recommendations. Nothing turns on the detail of these. Their tenor may be illustrated by a recent report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective E/CN.4/2002/83, 31 January 2002, introduction, para 6: 'Nevertheless, many of the practices enumerated in the next section are unconscionable and challenge the very concept of universal human rights. Many of them involve “severe pain and suffering” and may be considered “torture like” in their manifestation. Others such as property and marital rights are inherently unequal and blatantly challenge the international imperatives towards equality. The right to be free from torture is considered by many scholars to be jus cogens, a norm of international law that cannot be derogated from by nation States. So fundamental is the right to be free from torture that, along with the right to be free from genocide, it is seen as a norm that binds all nation States, whether or not they have signed any international Convention or document. Therefore those cultural practices that involve “severe pain and suffering” for the woman or the girl child, those that do not respect the physical integrity of the female body, must receive maximum international scrutiny and agitation. It is imperative that practices such as female genital mutilation, honour killings, Sati or any other form of cultural practice that brutalizes the female body receive international attention, and international leverage should be used to ensure that these practices are curtailed and eliminated as quickly as possible.'

In some countries, including the United Kingdom, effect is given to this international consensus by the prohibition of female circumcision on pain of severe criminal sanctions.[3]

What is Female Circumcision?

Female circumcision is a process where, base on traditional or cultural beliefs, the female clitoris, which is a very sensitive organ and part or the entire part of the external genitalia are cut off in other to reduce the woman’s supposedly sexual overdrive. The barbaric act, according to some observers are often performed without anaesthetic under poor conditions by untrained practitioners, native herbalist or older women with little or no knowledge of human anatomy or medicine, using unsterilized knives, razor blades or even broken bottles. It is claimed that, the mutilation or cutting off of these external genitals guarantees the woman’s faithfulness to her husband and promote chastity in women. The age at which the clitoris and other part of her external genitalia are totally cut off varies in various communities. In the Esan and Benin ethnic communities, where female circumcision does take place, expect opinions is that it predominantly performed during infancy.

In some very traditional communities, if a deceased woman is discovered to have never had the procedure; it may be performed on her before burial. In some communities it is performed on pregnant women during the birthing process and accounts for much of the high morbidity and mortality rates. It varies among ethnic groups. Highly respected women in the community, including traditional birth attendants (TBAs), local barbers and medical doctors and health workers usually perform the procedure. Unless performed in medical facilities, it is generally performed without the use of anaesthesia.[4] The harmful health effect, present and aftermath of female circumcision cannot be over emphasised, yet the practitioners are less concern of the grave risk their actions possess to their female victims because of a false, ancestral or traditional belief.

Generations of supporters of the barbaric act have advanced wide range of arguments as to why female circumcision constitutes an important part of their cultural and ethnical way of life. For the tortured infants, toddlers, adolescents, young adult or matured woman, the instruction and mutilation of their body is an unwelcome rite of passage to womanhood and clear violation their fundamental human rights.

According to World Health Organisation these include severe pain, shock, haemorrhage, urine retention, ulceration of the genital region and injury to adjacent tissue. Haemorrhage and infection can cause death. More recently, concern has arisen about possible transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) due to the use of one instrument in multiple operations, but this has not been the subject of detailed research.[5] Long-term consequences include cysts and abscesses, keloid scar formation, damage to the urethra resulting in urinary incontinence, dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse) and sexual dysfunction and difficulties with childbirth.[6] Psychosexual and psychological health: Genital mutilation may leave a lasting mark on the life and mind of the woman who has undergone it. In the longer term, women may suffer feelings of incompleteness, anxiety and depression.[7] In these Esan and Edo communities, the practitioners are oblivious to the immediate and long term health consequences of their actions. Majority of these practitioners are lay persons who use a variety of harsh methods to violate the rights of these females by invading and mutilating their clitoris and other external organs, with razor blades, knives (most cases unsterilized).

The origin of Female Circumcision

The origin of female circumcision remains highly speculative. According to some experts it is an ageless act which is claimed to have originated from Africa. That it might have been practice as far back as ancient Egypt as a sign of distinction, while others hypothesize origins in ancient Greece, Rome, pre-Islamic Arabia and Tsarist Russia. Up until the mid-20th century, some physicians in the United States wrongly performed clitoridectomies for a variety of clinically unsound reasons.[8] An alternative supposition on the question of its origin identifies Islam as the primary source. Female circumcision is frequently described as an "age-old Muslim ritual," when in fact it predates Islam and is even believed to be pre-Judaic. There is no mention of it in the Koran, and only a brief mention in the authentic hadiths, which states: "A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet said to her: 'do not cut severely, as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.’ Because of this still debated hadz'th, some scholars of the Shari school of Islam, found mostly in East Africa, consider female circumcision obligatory. 'The Hanafi and most other schools maintain it is merely recommended, not essential.[9] However, some expert opinion suggests that the act of female circumcision is not pertinent to Islam alone. Thus, the custom cuts across religions whether Christian, Islam, Jews and any other religion. Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, defined it as, dating back to antiquity, that its origins are obscured, ‘excision practices can be assumed to date back thousands of years, conceivably to the early beginning of mankind.’

Why practice Female Circumcision?

It is believed, from time immemorial, in certain cultures that it facilitates a rightful passage to womanhood, essentially a good credential for marriage; thus, bring honour to her family and community. A conformity to the norms of tradition, the historic assertion that circumcising the female help curbs promiscuity, promote female faithfulness to their husbands and affords her recognition and economic security through marriage and childbearing and also, that the cutting off of the clitoris and external genitals has hygienic benefits.
Conference on women in 1995 in the sub-commission on the presentation of discrimination and protection of minorities adopted in which it appealed to all states "to achieve the total elimination of female genital mutilation.

Types of Female Circumcision

There are different types of female circumcision; type 1, is the clitoridectomy, part or the entire clitoris is removed, while in type 2 (often referred to as excision), both the clitoris and the labia minora are removed. Type 3 (Infibulation) is the most severe: After excision of the clitoris and the labia minora, the labia majora are cut or scraped away to create raw surfaces, which are held in contact until they heal, either by stitching the edges of the wound or by tying the legs together. As the wounds heal, scar tissue joins the labia and covers the urethra and most of the vaginal orifice, leaving an opening that may be as small as a matchstick for the passage of urine and menstrual blood.[10] Infibulation are the most practiced in Nigeria. Type IV is practiced to a much lesser extent. The form practiced varies by ethnic group and geographical location. It crosses the numerous population groups and is a part of the many cultures, traditions and customs that exist in Nigeria. It crosses the lines of various religious groups. It is found among Christians, Muslims and Animists alike.[11]

There is no accurate figure as to the number of female in Benin and Esan communities, or in the world at large who have undergone each type of circumcision. However, World Health Organization study reported that an estimated 30.6million women and girls, or about 60 percent of the total population of Nigeria, have undergone genital mutilation. A 1996 United Nations Development Programme study put the figure at 32.7 million[12] and estimate it to be between 100 and 140 million female worldwide.[13]

At its thirteenth session in 1976, the Committee on the rights of child expressed its concern at the continuation of the practice of female genital mutilation, and the insufficient measure being taken by the government to address the practice, although clitoridectomy appears to be by far the most common procedure. It is estimated that about 15% of all circumcised women have been infibulated, although an estimated 80-90% of all circumcisions in Djibouti, Somalia and the Sudan are of this type.[14]

Incidence: With over 250 ethnic groups and an estimated population of 120 million, a national estimate of this practice is very difficult. The most recent survey is a 1999 Demographic and Health Survey of 8,205 women nationally. This survey estimates that 25.1 percent of the women of Nigeria have undergone one of these procedures. According to a 1997 World Health Organization (WHO) study, an estimated 30,625 million women and girls, or about 60 percent of the nation's total female population, have undergone one of these forms. A 1996 United Nations Development Systems study reported a similar number of 32.7 million Nigerian women affected. According to a Nigerian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Coalition study, 33 percent of all households practice one of these forms. However, according to some Nigerian experts in the field, the actual incidence may be much higher than these figures. Leaders of the Nigerian National Committee (also the Inter-African Committee of Nigeria on Harmful Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children [IAC]) have been conducting a state by state study of the practice. This 1997 study by the Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife was contracted in 1996 by a number of organizations including WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Nigerian Federal Health Ministry. The study covered 148,000 women and girls from 31 community samples nationwide. The results from fragmented data, according to IAC Nigeria, show the following prevalence and type in the following states in Nigeria, Abia (no study); Adamawa (60-70 percent, Type IV); Akwa Ibom (65-75 percent, Type II); Anambra (40-60 percent, Type II); Bauchi (50-60 percent, Type IV); Benue (90-100 percent, Type II); Borno (10-90 percent, Types I, III and IV); Cross River (no study); Delta (80-90 percent, Type II); Edo (30-40 percent, Type II); Enugu (no study); Imo (40-50 percent, Type II); Jigawa (60-70 percent, Type IV); Kaduna (50-70 percent, Type IV); Katsina (no study); Kano (no study); Kebbi (90-100 percent, Type IV); Kogi (one percent, Type IV); Kwara (60-70 percent, Types I and II); Lagos (20-30 percent, Type I); Niger (no study); Ogun (35-45 percent, Types I and II); Ondo (90-98 percent, Type II); Osun (80-90 percent, Type I); Oyo (60-70 percent, Type I); Plateau (30-90 percent, Types I and IV); Rivers (60-70 percent, Types I and II); Sokoto (no study); Taraba (no study); Yobe (0-1 percent, Type IV); Fct Abuja (no study). While all three forms occur throughout the country, Type III, the most severe form, has a higher incidence in the northern states. Type II and Type I are more predominant in the south. Of the six largest ethnic groups, the Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, Ibo, Ijaw and Kanuri, only the Fulani do not practice any form. The Yoruba practice mainly Type II and Type I. The Hausa and Kanuri practice Type III. The Ibo and Ijaw, depending upon the local community, practice any one of the three forms.[15]

Justification

The Women's Centre for Peace and Development (WOPED) has concluded that Nigerians, Benin and Esan communities alike, continue this practice out of adherence to a cultural dictate that uncircumcised women are promiscuous, unclean, unmarriageable, physically undesirable and/or potential health risks to themselves and their children, especially during childbirth. One traditional belief is that if a male child's head touches the clitoris during childbirth, the child will die.

Outreach

The campaign against Female circumcision has long been waged, for the most part, by international, national and non-governmental organizations. In 1950s and 1960s, African activists and medical practitioners brought the health consequences of female circumcision to the attention of international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO). However, it was not until 1979 that any formal policy statement was made: A seminar organized by WHO in Khartoum to address traditional practices affecting the health of women and children issued recommendations that governments work to eliminate the practice.
During the following decade, the widespread silence surrounding female circumcision was broken. After African women's organizations met in Dakar, Senegal, in 1984 to discuss female circumcision and other detrimental cultural practices, the Inter African Committee against Harmful Traditional Practices (IAC) was formed. With national committees in more than 20 countries, the IAC has been important in bringing the harmful effects of female circumcision to the attention of African governments. In addition, other African women's networks and organizations that had focused primarily on such issues as reproductive health, women's rights and legal justice became involved in working against the practice. Such groups as Mandalaeo Ya Wanawake in Kenya, NOW in Nigeria and New Woman in Egypt now include the elimination of female circumcision among their goals. In the Platform of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, female genital mutilation was cited as both a threat to women's reproductive health and a violation of their human rights. In addition to making general recommendations, the Platform specifically called on governments to "enact and enforce legislation against the perpetrators of practices and acts of violence against women, such as female genital mutilation...." Notably, the drive to include language specifically condemning female genital mutilation in the Platform was led by Africans.[16]

Inter African Committee in Nigeria holds meetings and programs in both urban and rural communities throughout the country to inform the public about this subject. It uses videos, booklets and the mass media to reach school age children. In 1997, outreach programs on the dangers of this practice were intensified. In the states of Osun and Bayelsa, nurses and midwives were trained about the harmful health effects and how to select, train and supervise TBAs. There was extensive community outreach to men, women, school children and health workers. Anatomical models, films and posters were used. Posters were distributed in villages. Also actively campaigning against this practice are the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, the Nigerian Medical Women's Association and the Nigerian Medical Association. These three groups in particular are against the legitimization of this practice as a medical necessity for females and are working to inform all Nigerian health practitioners about the harmful effects of the practice. The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives created a national information package about the harmful effects of the various procedures. WHO, UNDP, DFID of Great Britain and Daneco of Sweden are actively funding Nigerian NGOs in addressing this practice. International organizations have adopted plans of action to eradicate these practices in Nigeria.

World Health Organisation (WHO) has a three-year short-term plan (1996-1998); an eight-year medium-term plan (1999-2006); and a nine-year long-term plan to eventually eliminate this practice from Nigeria and the rest of Africa. Nurses and paediatricians have long campaigned against this practice. They have campaigned nationwide starting with national workshops in Lagos. Trainers were trained who in turn conducted informational activities about this practice at the state and local community levels. A variety of methods were used to get the message across as to the harmful effects. These included dramas, community mobilizations, national television talk shows, radio broadcasts, articles in newspapers, etc. The once taboo subject is now discussed in the open. The government has publicly opposed this practice. Government officials have voiced their support for the campaign against female circumcision. Both the Federal Health Ministry and the Federal Ministry of Women's Affairs support the nationwide study on this issue. In conjunction with a number of House State Assembly members, medical workers, attorneys and NGO representatives, WOPED organized a national policy symposium on female circumcision in May 2000. The symposium revealed that over the past decade both government ministries and NGOs have been active and mutually collaborative in studying how to end this practice. However, little has been accomplished beyond the recommendation stage. Nigeria was one of five countries that sponsored a resolution at the forty-sixth World Health Assembly calling for eradication of harmful traditional practices, including female circumcision. [17]
Most NGOs working on this issue claim that helping traditional communities change their cultural folklore is necessary to end this practice. Proverbs, songs, theatrical and dance performances and other cultural activities have reinforced this practice for centuries. The NGOs also point out that efforts to end the practice will fail unless Nigerian men learn that uncircumcised women are marriageable, will not be promiscuous and are not poor risks as mothers. DFID of Great Britain is working with IAC/Nigeria on a pilot project with ten excisors. The excisors were educated about the criminalization of FGM/FGC in their state. DFID then purchased deep freezers and ice cream makers for each excisor to start her own business in her community. In each case, the excisor has been earning enough to replace her former practice of FGM/FGC as her source of income. When families have brought their daughters to them to be circumcised, they are refusing to refer them to others still practicing and have even threatened to bring in the authorities if the families try to pursue the operation. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is working with members of the Women's Caucus of the National Assembly in addressing women's health issues, including this problem. The Calvary Foundation based in Enugu State was awarded a grant of US$20,000 from the U.S. Embassy's Democracy and Human Rights Fund to continue its campaign to ban this practice in five south eastern states.[18]

However, where this is narrowed to Edo State in the Niger-Delta area of Nigeria, it is not surprising that there have been different play groups involved in the campaign against female circumcision. Amongst these groups oppose to female circumcision is the Provost, College of Medical Sciences, University of Benin, Prof. Friday Okonofua, who sited various ills associated with female circumcision, in a workshop held in Benin City, Edo State. The Project Coordinator of Women's Rights Watch Nigeria, Mrs Nogi Imoukhuede also drew attention to the human rights perspective ‘female circumcision, as a violation of women's rights’. Another feminine critique of the practice, the chair of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs and Youth Development, Senator Daisy Ehanire-Danjuma said research had shown that female circumcision was not a panacea for promiscuity. She emphasis the fact that the act was a cruelty by man against his fellow human-being, “Female Genital Mutilation and Violence against Women”, and that, contrary to some misguided arguments advanced by the perpetrators and supporters of the heinous, that the beliefs has nothing to do with hygiene or passage to womanhood but instead, complications could arise from the practise, which she described as injurious to the health of women. She listed such complications to include excessive bleeding, urinary problems, difficult menstruation, vaginal infections and infertility.[19] Ehanire-Danjuma added that female circumcision was a harmful practise based on misguided traditional beliefs. The Senator said that it was erroneous to believe that circumcising a lady would stop her from being promiscuous. That primitive, historic assertion has thus, according to some observer, put over 2 million lives at the risk annually. [20] That represents about 50% of Edo State communities.
There is no federal law banning female circumcision in Nigeria. Opponents of this practice rely on Section 34(1)(a) 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that states, "no person shall be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment," as the basis for banning the practice nationwide.[21] Edo State passed a law prohibiting the practise (Under section (2) Edo State Female Genital Mutilation (Prohibition) Law 1999). Section 4, lists the principal offenders; that those parents, guardian or female person who offers a child or herself and the performer of female circumcision are jointly and severally in breach of the law. It therefore follows that, consent is not a defence and a plea of cultural and ethnic values would also not form a basis for defence (s.3). Persons convicted under the law are subject to a 1000 Naira (US$10) fine and imprisonment of six months. Opponents of the practice applaud such laws however, criticized the small fine and lack of real willingness of enforcement. Female circumcision cannot be justified by arguments that suggest that it reduces sexual activity in women and prevents adverse outcomes of sexuality.
It is clear from the local, national and international level that efforts are being made to educate the performer of this barbaric act of female circumcision. But except these efforts are aggressively translated at grass root level by all educational means available, both perpetrators and those who aid, abet, counsel or procure the performance are severely punished by a combination of fine, long prison terms and public shaming, offenders may continue to violate the fundamental rights of the female who, though has a voice and choice but silenced and denied by misguided traditional rite.
It is clear from expert research that brutalising the female body in other to be the property of has husband - that is if she survives, invading her privacy and cutting off her external sexual organs, thus unlawfully reducing or denying her satisfaction, indicates that, ‘giving a choice and empower to defend that choice’[22] would rather not allow their circumcision.
Therefore those cultural practices that involve “severe pain and suffering” for the woman or the girl child, those that do not respect the physical integrity of the female body, must receive maximum international scrutiny and agitation. It is imperative that practices such as female circumcision, or any other form of cultural practice that brutalizes the female body receive international attention and condemnation, and international leverage should be used to ensure that these practices are curtailed and eliminated as quickly as possible.

Conclusion

Edo State government needs to start the process of revisiting this draconian act by proactively assisting the various partners to the elimination of female circumcision, to imbibe the age old law of nature that says when a custom is repugnant to Natural Justice, Equity and Good conscience, such a custom or tradition of female circumcision (FC) as in this case should be extinguished and discontinued. It is hoped that this paper will also serve as a good source of enlightenment for the victims of female circumcision and that, it would enhance their ability to appreciate what remedies they would have in the law as a fundamental Human right enshrined in the constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria. Furthermore, to serve as a beginning of the healing process psychologically, emotionally and otherwise for the victims of such acts and knowing their rights would deter other from further perpetrating this barbaric custom and tradition that should be given a decent burial.

References

Abusharaf, R.M. (2006) Female circumcision/moral and ethical aspects/Africa (University of Pennsylvania press)

Akindele, F. (1990) Dangers in Female Circumcision: Home Doctor, No. 24, (St Publishers Ltd., Lagos, Pp. 29-31).

Barendt, E. (1985) Freedom of Speech. (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Ebomoyi, E. (1987) Prevalence of female circumcision in two Nigerian communities. (Journal: Sex Roles. Springer Netherlands, Vol 17, Issue 3-4).
Evans, M and Murray, R. Ed (2001) Documents of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights: (Oxford: Hart Publishing).
Larsen, U., Okonofua, F.E., Oronsaye, F., Snow, R.C., and Slanger, T.E. (2002) The association between female genital cutting and correlates of sexual and gynaecological morbidity in Edo State, Nigeria. (BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Vol 109 Issue 10 Pp. 1089-1096).
Lightfoot-Klein, H. (1989) Prisoners of ritual: An odyssey into female genital circumcision in Africa. (Haworth press).
Mann, J. (1999) Human experimentation in medicine (London: Routledge)
O’Boyle, M. Harris, DJ and Warbrick, C. (1995) Law of the European Convention on Human Rights. (London: Butterworth).
Pietila, H and Vickers, J. (1996) Making Women Matter: The Role of the United Nations. (3rd ed. London: Zed Books Ltd).
Watson, M.A. (2005) Female circumcision from Africa to the Americas: Slavery to present. (The Social Science Journal, Vol. 42, Issue 3, Pp.421-437).
[1] BBC news edition: Female genital mutilation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/medical_notes/241221.stm visited 05/01/2008
[2] Jimoh, R. Female Genital Mutilation: Violation of Women’s Human Rights in Nigeria. Center for Global Justice – Centro Para La Justicia Global http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/papers2005/jimoh_eng.htm visited 26/12/2007
[3] See Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985.
[4] Ibid.
[5] World Health Organisation: Female Genital Mutilation.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/ visited 27/12/2007

[6] ibid
[7] ibid
[8] See the National Women’s Health Information Centre, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. www.4woman.gov/fag/fgc.htm. Visited 27/12/2007
[9] Ibid 2, para 1
[10] Althaus, F.A. Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage or Violation of Rights. (Guttmacher: International family planning perspectives. Volume 23, Number 3, September 1997). http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2313097.html
[11] Ibid. 2
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid. see note 3
[14] Ibid. 2
[15] Ibid. 2
[16] Ibid. 9
[17] Ibid.2
[18] Ibid.
[19] Imoukhuede, N. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) – A crime in Edo State. A key note during a one day workshop on FGM and Violence against women organised by the Chair, Senate Committee on women affairs and youth – 19 July, 2004, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. http://www.rufarm.kabissa.org.artcles/fgm.htm Visited 27/12/2007
[20] Okonofua, F.E., Larsen, U., Oronsaye, F., Snow, R.C., Slanger, T.E. (2002) The association between female genital cutting and correlates of sexual and gynaecological morbidity in Edo State, Nigeria. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 109 (10), 1089–1096.
[21] Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
[22] Mukoro, U. J., (2004) A survey on the Psychosexual Implications of Female Genital Mutilation on Urhobo Women of the Niger Delta Communities of Nigeria. (J. Hum. Ecol., 16(2):147-150)