Global Pulse Blog

The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies female genital mutilation (FGM) into four types, ranging from partial to total removal of the external female genitalia. The first type is known as clitoridectomy and involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris. The second type is referred to as excision and involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris, labia minora, with or without the excision of the labia majora. The third type is called infibulation, requiring the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal by cutting and repositioning the inner or outer labia with or without removal of the clitoris.  The fourth type has no official designation and involves all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes such as pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area.

It is estimated that about 140 million women worldwide have been subjected to FGM and a further two million are at risk every year. FGM takes place in about 40 countries (28 of them in Africa) such as Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Kurdistan, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada.

The procedure is not limited to a single religion and is heavily influenced by the desire to conform to tradition.    Many girls are compliant with the procedure because they believe they will be outcasts if they are not circumcised.   In Sudan for example, it is prevalent in Muslim communities while in Kenya, it is common among Christians. Neither the Qu’ran nor the Bible endorse the practice.  FGM predates both the Qu’ran and the Bible and possibly Judaism, appearing in the 2^nd century BC.

Typically, it is the parents of girls aged 5-14 who initiate the FGM process because they believe that it will preserve virginity, communicate status, and even protect them from rape. Despite the medical implications involved, many mothers believe that they are doing the best for their daughters.  It is also believed that FGM will decrease sexual desire in women, increase male pleasure during intercourse and maintain fidelity within a marriage.

The procedure is often done on the pretense that the child will be receiving a special gift, going on a vacation or will be “becoming a woman”.  A young girl would visit a trusted older female relative who lacks medical training in a different town or distant village. One day during that visit, she would be taken to a location where she would be restrained by adults who would hold her down to the ground as she endures the extremely painful procedure that is carried out using a knife or some other cutting tool. In some cases, instruments such as tin can lids are used to cut and thorns are used to stitch the victims up.  Only in rare cases is this carried out with anesthetic or in a clinical environment.

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As a participant in the May 18th medical student day of action with the New York Coalition Against Torture, I would like to thank our readers for their support — whether in coming to Albany, contacting their NY state representatives, or signing the PHR petition. The event was very successful and inspiring, and  we have received a lot of positive feedback. I look forward to updating the GPJ community on the effort’s progress. In the meantime, I have a more detailed review of the event at the ACLU’s blog:

During the white-coat advocacy day on Tuesday, the medical student group conducted over 25 meetings with lawmakers and staff, met with the bill’s sponsors, and hand-delivered copies of the petition signed by hundreds of their peers and fellow New York State residents. They also conveyed the support of state and national professional organizations for this landmark legislation…(more)

The medical student action event was also mentioned on the Huffington Post and on PHR’s Health Rights Advocate blog. Since then, NYCAT has also released a letter of support for the Gottfried-Duane Bill signed by prominent leaders of medicine in New York state, including medical school deans, hospital CEOs, and Nobel Prize laureates.

Medical students and NYCAT members with Assemblyman Gottfried in Albany

Related reading:

• ACLU’s resources on torture
• The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT)
• NRCAT, ACLU, and PHR: Working together against inhumane detention conditions at home?

UPDATE [06-08-2010]: PHR’s newest report, Experiments In Torture, raises concerns that the actions of CIA doctors who participated in waterboarding and other methods amounted to illegal human experimentation. Read coverage of the report in The New York Times and commentary at The Washington Post and The Atlantic.

Looking for ways to get involved closer to home? NRCAT has a list of events across the country for the month of June.

Related: China bans the use of torture in extracting confessions.

This event is organized by the New York Medical Student Coalition Against Torture (NYMSCAT@gmail.com). Email to learn more, request materials, and get involved!

As I have written previously, medical professionals, students, and human rights groups in New York State are teaming up for action to pass the nation’s first law holding medical professionals accountable for assisting torture and abuse of prisoners.  AMSA is proud to join the list of organizations putting their support behind the proposed legislation:

• National Physicians Alliance
• Committee for Interns and Residents
• American College of Physicians-NY
• NY State Nurses Association
• NY Civil Liberties Union
• Center for Constitutional Rights
• Human Rights Watch
• Amnesty International
• Physicians for Human Rights
• I Have A Dream Foundation
• Metro NY Religious Campaign Against Torture
• (full list and statements at whenhealersharm.org/)

ANTI-TORTURE LOBBY DAY in Albany: Join AMSA and PHR with medical students from across the state in our first Anti-Torture Lobby Day in Albany on May 18th!  This is our chance to meet with our local lawmakers and tell them that ending torture is important to us as ethical medical professionals and Americans.  We will meet at 9AM for a white-coat press conference and advocacy training with experts from the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, and follow up with advocacy meetings.  If you are a NY State resident and a medical or pre-medical student, don’t miss this chance for real-time local action for human rights!

Don’t forget to sign the petition: Stop Torture NY.org

Read AMSA’s statement of support after the cut:

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Evidence about the role of American physicians, clinical psychologists, and other health professionals in abuse and coercive interrogation at military detention sites has been accumulating slowly but incontrovertibly in the wake of the War on Terror.  In August 2009, Physicians for Human Rights released its most recent report describing in detail how the CIA relied on medical expertise to rationalize, plan, and carry out unlawful interrogations at detention sites.  Licensed health professionals observed physically abusive interrogation sessions and advised on how to increase the prisoner’s suffering.  They kept records of waterboarding, and consulted medical literature on hypothermia to determine “precise gradations” of the procedure.  When not aiding “coercive interrogations” directly, health professionals were still involved in facilitating and monitoring them, and also observed clear medical evidence of abuse without intervening — practices that subverted and violated well-established medical ethical obligations, to say nothing of the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. Constitution, and U.S. military law (JAMA).

To date, the U.S. has barely begun to address the gravity of what has taken place.  In the absence of a meaningful national response, medical professional organizations and the legislatures of individual states are stepping up to the challenge.  With the introduction of the Gottfried-Duane Bill in the State Assembly and State Senate, New York is posed to become the first state  in the country to explicitly prohibit health professionals licensed in the state from assisting in torture, interrogations, and prisoner abuse, while providing them with strong legal protection to resist any future coercion to participate in such acts.

The bill is meant to stop physician-assisted torture ever becoming a reality again, as well as to help health professionals address abuse and medical neglect of prisoners in domestic jails and detention centers.  Co-sponsored by 30 members of the State Assembly from both parties, the bill was favorably reported by Assembly committees last year, and is currently being revised in preparation for the floor vote.  It is supported by the NY state chapter of the American College of Physicians; by nursing, psychology, and social work associations;  and by civil liberties and human rights advocacy groups.

More on the Gottfried-Duane Bill, and why you should care, after the jump.

Click here to sign PHR’s petition in support of the Gottffried-Duane bill.

(There is a link for out-of-staters to show solidarity, too.)

StopTortureNY.org

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The new issue of GP is up and running just in time for World AIDS Day!

New in this issue: