GPs and Teachers 'Have Duty to Report Forced Marriages'
-Under New Rules Which Could See Parents Prosecuted if Daughters are Subjected to Genital Mutilation
- The PM said schools had in the past been guilty of ‘turning a blind eye’
- He said he wanted his daughters to be able to grow up in a world where the practices were outlawed
Daily Mail UK, 27 July 2014
Teachers and doctors will be under a legal duty to report if young girls in their care could be sent abroad and forced to marry under new rules, David Cameron announced yesterday.
They could be struck off or disciplined if they fail to tell the authorities about children being spirited abroad and made to marry strangers, or if they ignore concerns a girl may be subject to female genital mutilation.
Parents could be prosecuted if they fail to prevent their daughters being subjected to genital mutilation.
British Prime Minister David Cameron (left) speaks with campaigners against female genital mutilation at the 'Girl Summit 2014' in Walworth Academy
The PM said schools had, in the past, been guilty of ‘turning a blind eye’ to the need to protect children at risk.
And he said he wanted his daughters to be able to grow up in a world where the practices were outlawed.
The PM made his comments as he addressed a major international conference in south London on combatting forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
He told the conference: ‘I am a dad with three children – two girls and a boy – and I want my girls to grow up with every opportunity that my son has, with no disadvantage, with the chance to make everything my girls can with their lives.
Delegates listen to the speeches at the 'Girl Summit 2014' in Walworth Academy
‘There are so many things when it comes to equality that we need to address whether it is equal pay or equal rights or equal opportunities including in political life but what seems to me what is so important about these issues is that they are absolutely standing rebuke to our world that they still exist.’
He added:
‘I’ve told you about my children. So my daughter – my eldest daughter is 10; not that much younger than some of the children who get pushed into childhood or early marriage; not that much younger than girls who get cut and have their lives, in so many ways, taken away from them.
‘And this really is about the world that we want children like my daughter to grow up in. Is it going to be a world where we recognise that these practices are unacceptable, but instead of just saying that, instead of just signing declarations, instead of just passing laws, we actually commit to do everything we can, in our own countries and globally, to outlaw these practices forever.’
The PM – who had already passed a law making forced marriage a specific criminal offence, also said he wanted schools to do more to warn and protect children from danger.
Children are vulnerable in schools, he said, which ‘haven’t necessarily understood that these practices are going on and they have turned a blind eye.’
As well as the new rules for parents, teachers and doctors,
victims of FGM will be given lifelong anonymity the moment an allegation is made.
Mr Cameron told schools to stop being ‘coy’ about offending cultural sensitivities, and described how
some girls were ‘disappearing off the school roll’ and ‘not coming back after the school holidays’.
He added:
‘You read far too many stories about girls being taken on holiday to Turkey, to Pakistan and to India and not coming back and we need to get over that by advertising properly in schools.’
Justice minister Simon Hughes said schools used to be nervous that challenging communitites on issues of FGM or forced marriage amounted to “tresspassing on a cultural space that was inappropriate” but that had changed in recent years.
‘It is no longer culturally embarrassing in this country challenge people’s beliefs and practices,’ he said.
MORE:
Police Arrest 72-year-old Man on Suspicion of Conspiracy to Commit FGM
-After he Arrived at Heathrow Airport with 11-year-old Girl on Flight from Uganda
- Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 makes it illegal to participate in any arrangement for FGM on another either inside or outside UK
- Woman, 40, also arrested in Hackney under the Act
- Both suspects taken to east London police stations where they remain
- Girl - a British national - taken into care by social services
- 170,000 girls and women in UK have undergone FGM, with 65,000 at risk
Two people have been arrested for conspiracy to commit female genital mutilation (FGM).
A 72-year-old man was stopped by police at Heathrow Airport yesterday morning after arriving with an 11-year-old girl on a flight from Kampala, Uganda.
Specialist officers took the girl - a UK national - into the care of social services.
A 72-year-old man was arrested as he arrived at Heathrow from Kampala, Uganda with an 11-year-old girl
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Officers acted upon information given and a 40-year-old woman was arrested in Hackney under Section 2 of the FGM Act 2003, namely aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring a girl to carry out FGM on herself.'
The man was arrested on suspicion of the same offence in Newham, east London, today.
Both suspects have been taken to east London police stations where they remain in custody.
The police spokesman added: 'The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 makes it illegal to participate in any sort of arrangement for FGM to be performed on another, either inside or outside the UK.'
The arrests come in the wake of news that militant group ISIS may have ordered compulsory FGM for all women and girls in a region of Iraq now under its control.
The extremist group has seized large swathes of the troubled country's northern regions and is now said to be imposing its hardline Sharia rules on the population.
The United Nations expressed deep concern yesterday at reports all girls and women in and around city of Mosul are to being forced to undergo FGM procedures.
It also follows David Cameron's announcement this week that teachers and doctors will be under a legal duty to report if young girls in their care could be sent abroad and forced to marry under new rules.
They could be struck off or disciplined if they fail to tell the authorities about children being spirited abroad and made to marry strangers, or if they ignore concerns a girl may be subject to female genital mutilation.
Parents could be prosecuted if they fail to prevent their daughters being subjected to genital mutilation.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visit a school in Kampala, the city where the 11-year-old girl
who arrived at Heathrow with the 72-year-old man came from
African country Somalia, whose capital Mogadishu is pictured, has one of the highest levels of FGM
Justice minister Simon Hughes said schools used to be nervous that challenging communities on issues of FGM or forced marriage amounted to “trespassing on a cultural space that was inappropriate” but that had changed in recent years.
‘It is no longer culturally embarrassing in this country to challenge people’s beliefs and practices,’ he said.
Unicef warned ahead of the summit that while the rate of FGM and child marriage has fallen over the past three decades, population increase in developing nations alone could reverse this trend if 'intensive action' is not introduced.
It said its research showed that more than 130 million girls and women have experienced some form of FGM in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where it is most common.
In addition some 700 million women alive today worldwide were married as children, including more than a third - 250 million - who were married before the age of 15.
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