Italy Leading the Fight, At the UN, Against Female Genital Mutilation

Yes, Italy, not Britain, where FGM is a huge problem (74,000 young girls are thought to have had the "operation"),


not America, 


but Italy.


Italians understand the simple truth that hacking off clits is a bad idea, and ought to be criminalized the world over.

From Ansa Med:

ROME - The recent news of the death of an Egyptian girl from a genital mutilating operation can only further strengthen the Italian government's policy of gathering consensus from as many states as possible over the coming months for a resolution at the General Assembly of the United Nations against this barbarous practice. This was stated by Italian Foreign minister Franco Frattini.

For this reason the Italian Foreign Ministry, along with a coalition of states, is working intensly to broaden consensus for a resolution as widely as possible. "To this end," Frattini concluded, "I am confident that there is a strong willingness at an international level to put an end to this practice that still today affects 140 million women around the world".

Vice President of the Italian Senate Emma Bonino said: "For over 10 years we have been conducting a campaign to make the UN General Assembly approve a resolution against female genital mutilations. I think that right now we are on the home stretch, and we are also counting on the support of the Italian government,". The campaign has been promoted by the association "There is no peace without justice" together with the Inter-African Committee, explained the Italian Radical Party representative.

Emma Bonino was among the promoters of the Cairo Declaration of 2003 against the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which was followed by a relaunching of the campaign in 2008 from the Egyptian capital again. On the front lines in the campaign is Minister of Family Mouchira Khattab, who promoted childhood law number 126 of 2008, which for the first time banned female genital mutilation, making it a crime.

With Egypt, 19 countries out of the 28 involved passed a law against FGM. Among those that did not pass the law are Liberia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Mali and Mauritania. (ANSAmed).