Nigeria: Female genital mutilation; areas where it is practised; ages at which it is performed; state condemnation of the practice; segments of society among which it is practised

Please find attached an article published in WIN News  (Summer 1998) which provides general information on FGM practices in Nigeria, giving specific information on the four internationally recognized types of FGM (as well as vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF)),  the regions in which the four types are practised, by which tribes within the country, as well as the ages of the girls or women on which the practice is performed according to the tribes they belong to.

The second attached article, published in WIN NEWS  (Winter 1998) adds:  "FGM is widespread in Nigeria.  It is estimated that more than fifty percent of Nigerian girls/women have undergone the procedure while many more are still being subjected to it every year despite the efforts which are being made to discourage the practice (Winter 1998, 35).

The Amnesty International Female Genital Mutilation - A Human Rights Information Pack (1998)  reports that 50% of Nigerian women are circumcised:

"Clitoridectomy, excision and, in the northwest, some infibulation FGM is practised throughout the country and among all ethnic and religious groups.  No law specifically prohibits FGM.  The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) has been active in the fight against FGM.  Nurses and paediatricians have campaigned throughout the country, conducting educational activities at the state and community level.  In 1984, a Nigerian National Committee, the National Chapter of the IAC, was set up.  The Committee has had support from the Ministries of Health, Education and Information (1998).

Article 76. of  the UN Special Rapporteur's Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Nigeria  dated 16 February 1998, states: 

Female genital mutilation is recognized as a form of violence against women by the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (article 2 (a)), adopted without a vote by the General Assembly in 1993, and by the Beijing Platform for Action (paragraph 113 (a)), adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.  The Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities adopted a resolution 1997/8, also without a vote, in which it appealed to all States "to achieve the total elimination of female genital mutilation".  A 1997 World Health Organization study reported that an estimated 30.6 million women and girls, or about 60 per cent of the total population of Nigeria, have undergone genital mutilation.  A 1996 United Nations Development Programme study put the figure at 32.7 million.  At its thirteenth session in 1996, the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed its concern at the continuation of the practice of female genital mutilation, and the insufficient measures being taken by the Government to address the practice (see CRC/C/15/Add.61, para. 15).  Government officials have supported a campaign against the practice, and in February 1997 the Minister of Health announced the establishment of a 25-person committee to study the issue.  The Ministry also sponsors public awareness projects to educate the public about the health hazards of female genital mutilation.

During a 28 June 1999 telephone interview, an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania whose specialty is in the region of south-eastern Nigeria and the Igbo people stated the following:  FGM is no longer widely practised in urban areas but may be practised in rural areas.  Girls raised in an urban setting may be submitted to FGM either by being kidnapped or forced into circumcision by older relatives often under false pretences.  Among the Igbo, Ibibio, Ijaw or Ijo, Efik, Ogoni and Undoni people.   FGM can range from clitoral knicking to full excision of the labia which takes place at the age of puberty when a young girl enters the fattening house to be readied for marriage and child-bearing.  In the fattening houses a girl is massaged, well-fed, beautified and made "ready to have children".  Since the clitoris is erectile tissue it is associated with masculinity and is perceived as "interfering with having children." 

On the question of FGM and castes, the Associate Professor stated that the Osu or secret slaves, girls unwillingly dedicated to divinities who become their husbands and thereby made into social pariahs, are forcibly circumcised;  however, this occurs in rural areas.  The Associate Professor also added that the blacksmith caste is traditionally the caste of circumcisors, wives of blacksmiths being those called upon to exercise the procedure and that no law in Nigeria specifically forbids the practice.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Amnesty International. Female Genital Mutilation - A Human Rights Information Pack (1998).  1998.  "Female Genital Mutilation."  [Accessed:  2 July 1999]

Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  28 June 1999.  Telephone interview with Associate Professor of Anthropology.

United Nations Economic and Social Council.  Commission on Human Rights Fifty-second session Item 10 of the provisional agenda.  16 February 1998.  "Question of the Violation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in any part of the World, with Particular Reference to Colonial and other Dependent Countries and Territories -Situation of Human Rights in Nigeria.  Report Submitted by the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, pursuant to Commission resolution 1997/53."

WIN News. Lexington, Maryland.  Vol. 24,  No. 1.  Winter 1998.  "Female Genital Mutilation in Nigeria."

_____.  Lexington, Maryland.  Vol. 24,  No. 3.  Summer 1998. "Nigeria:  Harmful Traditional Practices Among Adolescents."

Attachments

WIN News. Lexington, Maryland.  Vol. 24,  No. 1.  Winter 1998.  "Female Genital Mutilation in Nigeria." Pp. 34-36.

_____.  Lexington, Maryland.  Vol. 24,  No. 3.  Summer 1998. "Nigeria:  Harmful Traditional Practices Among Adolescents." Pp. 28-29.