Amnesty demands genital mutilation action

Ireland has not done enough to tackle violence against women or female genital mutilation across the EU, according to Amnesty International.

Amnesty has urged the Government, as part of its EU presidency, to progress measures that ensure female equality is recognised in practice across the EU.

As a first step, Amnesty urges Ireland to sign the Council of Europe’s convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. However, at EU level it says it is deeply disappointed that the Irish presidency has failed to engage with and show any support for bloc-wide action to end female genital mutilation (FGM).

“The EU promised a strategy on violence against women, including FMG, three years ago but there has been very little progress. It is critical to the EU’s credibility that its support for women’s rights internationally is matched by serious efforts to combat violence against women in its own member states,” said Colm O’Gorman, head of Amnesty in Ireland.

An Irish presidency spokesperson said both the EU and Ireland are supportive of initiatives to combat FGM and violence against women. “For example, Ireland was to the forefront in the negotiations at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in March, which resulted in agreement of a resolution on violence against women, and participated in the Side Event on Women’s Human Rights Defenders.

“At national level, Ireland has recently enacted the Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Act 2012”.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore is to give his appraisal of the presidency’s mid-term achievements at a meeting in Brussels today organised by the CEPS thinktank.