A NATIONAL action plan to tackle female genital mutilation in Scotland will be launched today by the Scottish Government.
Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil will visit Glasgow Rape Crisis Centre to set out specific objectives, actions and responsibilities to tackle the problem as figures for cases involving FGM soar to record levels in Scotland.
Rape Crisis Glasgow, the Scottish Refugee Council, Women’s Support Project and other organisations such as Darf and Roshni have been involved in working with women who have suffered FGM, giving them support and raising awareness.
The groups collated in-depth research and reports on their own work with the women along with recommendations on how they felt the problem should be tackled to the Scottish Government, which will form part of the national action plan being unveiled today.
Nina Murray, women’s policy development officer at Scottish Refugee Council, said: “We welcome the launch of today’s Scottish National Action Plan on Female Genital Mutilationand the Scottish Government’s commitment to ensuring that resources are in place to end this form of violence against women and girls.
“Statutory and voluntary organisations have a critical role to play in protecting women and girls from FGM. Last year our research, which helped pave the way for this plan, highlighted that affected communities must also be supported to have a role in speaking out to end FGM.
“We are pleased to see this reflected in the plan.”
Scottish Refugee Council figures suggest there are almost 24,000 people living in Scotland who were born in one of the 29 countries identified by UNICEF as an FGM-practising nation.
They include Nigeria, Somalia, Egypt, Kenya, Sudan and Eritrea.
There are 3,000 girls in Scotland born of mothers who come from FGM-practising countries.
The World Health Organisation describes FGM as the removal or injury to female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
It states the practice “reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women”.
In Scotland, the number of FGM referrals has been on the rise since the formation of the single force, with 16 cases reported to Police Scotland between April 2013 and March 2014.
This rose to 19 the following year and the force was expecting its biggest FGM caseload last year after nine cases emerged between April and June alone.
Last week Glasgow Rape Crisis Centre launched a support group for women who have experienced FGM and there are already 10 women on it.
The centre’s manager, Isabelle Kerr, saidmany women in forced marriages who have experienced FGM were also victims of physical and sexual violence within the relationship.
She said: “There has to be a multi-agency response to FGM in Scotland.
“As voluntary organisations we have got a really unique part to play in carrying out work in communities and also direct work with survivors.
“We can do our part and the statutory organisations like the NHS, police and the justice system can do their part. It is important we have joint working.
“Even though FGM is against the law in many countries across the world, the practice is still carried out because it is entrenched culturally and, for a lot of women, when they get to marriageable age they would not be considered marriageable unless they had had the procedure carried out, so that’s why it is still going on within communities.
“The women we have worked with have many, many issues physical, emotional and psychological as a result of the procedure being carried out when they were children.”
A recent report by the Scottish Refugee Council said it hoped it would provide a framework to develop a “Scotland-specific model of intervention”.
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