Defend the Human Rights of Adolescent Girls

Egypt - FGM:  As you may know from previous reports, our Middle East consultant traveled to Egypt and met with lawyers from our partner organizations, the Center for Egyptian Women's Legal Assistance (CEWLA) and the Egyptian Coalition for Children's Rights (ECCR) to work with them on the case of 13-year-old Soheir, who died after a doctor performed female genital mutilation (FGM) on her at the behest of her father in a clinic in Cairo.  Soheir's death highlights the immediate need for effective implementation of the 2008 FGM law in Egypt with 72% of procedures being performed by doctors in private clinics.

The doctor was interrogated and released on bail pending an investigation.  In July 2013, in collaboration with our partners, we issued an Action supporting their call for the father and doctor to be prosecuted for FGM and manslaughter. After issuing an Action Update in December 2013 (accessible here), urging the government to live up to its national and international obligations, the Ministry of Health and Population closed the doctor's clinic on February 5, 2014 pending further investigation by the Attorney General.  The Egyptian Medical Syndicate will also conduct a professional ethics investigation into the doctor's actions.

Equality Now will continue to work with our local Egyptian partners to monitor these investigations to ensure that they are properly conducted and that those responsible for Soheir's mutilation and death are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  As medicalization of FGM is on the rise in Egypt, please continue to keep the pressure on officials to effectively enforce Egypt's anti-FGM law and full prosecute all violators.

Protecting the Girl Child:  Using the Law to End Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Related Human Rights Violations

Building on the body of Equality Now's work for the protection of girls' and women's rights, Equality Now's report (accessible here) illustrates the impact of child marriage on a girl's young life through case studies of Jamila married at age 10 and Sahar married at age 12 in Afghanistan; Perpetua married off at birth in Cameroon; Leila and Adriana both married at 14 in Guatemala; Asman in India married at 15; Rawan married at 16 in Jordan, Evelyn in Kenya who escaped marriage at 14 years old; Beatrice married at 14 in Malawi, Mariam married in 14 in Mali; Khadijetou married at 8 and Minetou married at 12 in Mauritania; Dewan in Papua New Guinea who barely escaped marriage, Hind from Syria married at 14; and Lulu married at 14 in Tanzania.  These were provided by our local partners who also made recommendations to their governments on critical steps to tackle the issue.  Issued on February 18, 2014, the report calls on all governments to support a comprehensive response to end child marriage and ensure a girl is healthy, safe, educated and empowered and her rights are protected.

"Child marriage directly affects approximately 14 million girls a year.  It legitimizes human rights violations and the abuse of girls under the guise of culture, honor, tradition, and religion.  It is part of a sequence of discrimination that begins at a girl's birth and continues throughout her entire life.  Furthermore, when  child bride gives birth, the vicious cycle of poverty, poor health, curtailed education, violence, instability, disregard for the rule of law and legal and other discrimination often continues into the next generation, especially for any daughters she may  have," said Jacqui Hunt, London Director, Equality Now.

Brazil - Sex Tourism:  We continue to work with a pro bono law firm on the civil case filed on behalf of several Brazilian girls who were sexually exploited by clients of a U.S. fishing tour company that ran sex tours to the Amazon. Employees of the company are alleged to have lured minors from nearby communities onto the fishing tour boats, where the girls were subsequently raped by clients of the fishing tours.  Oral argument on the defendant's appeal of the decision lifting the stay in the U.S. civil case took place in early January.  We hope to hear a positive decision saying that the case can move forward from the appeal court soon,

There has been significant attention in Amazonas recently regarding the significant delays in cases of child sexual exploitation in the Amazonas courts, including the criminal case against the defendant in our civil case.  Local and federal politicians are looking into this matter, and the Brazilian National Council of Justice has investigated these delays.  Our partner in Manaus, IACAS, has led efforts to call attention to this issue.  We have supported their efforts by sending a letter to Brazilian officials calling for them to immediately address the delays in these cases.

Thank you for your support of the AGLDF program, and thank you for your belief in the importance of our work.

Update on AGLDF campaigns

Yemen – child marriage: Equality Now and partners in Yemen have been pushing for a child marriage law in Yemen since 2009 . In a promising development Yemeni Human Rights Minister Hooria Mashhour in September 2013 requested the reintroduction of a parliamentary bill that would effectively ban child marriages in the country. Equality Now and our partner YWU support the Minister in her efforts and we issued an update highlighting a number of child marriage cases and supporting the efforts of the Yemeni Human Rights Minister in calling for renewed discussion of the child marriage legislation. We are hopeful that a draft bill setting a minimum age of marriage will soon be considered and passed.

You can read commentary on this development from Equality Now’s Suad Abu-Dayyeh: http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/11/20/yemen-to-finally-ban-child-marriage.html

Egypt - FGM: We would also like to share details of a new campaign we have undertaken on FGM in Egypt. In June of this year, 13-year-old Soheir died after a doctor performed female genital mutilation (FGM) on her at the behest of her father in a clinic in Cairo. The doctor who performed the procedure was interrogated by prosecutors and released on bail pending investigation. Soheir’s death highlights the immediate need for effective implementation of the 2008 FGM law in Egypt with 72% of procedures being performed by doctors in private clinics.

Our Middle East consultant traveled to Egypt and met with lawyers from both the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA) and the Egyptian Coalition for Children’s Rights (ECCR) who are pushing for both the father and doctor to be prosecuted for FGM and manslaughter. We are working with them on pushing this case forward and we issued an Action on the case in July 2013. Progress has been slow due to the political situation in Egypt but we have recently learned that the medical report has been released and are strategizing with partners on next steps in the case.

Brazil – Sex tourism: We continue to work with a pro bono law firm on the civil case filed on behalf of a number of girls in Brazil who were exploited in prostitution by a “fishing tour” company that brought American sex tourists to the Amazon. The stay in the civil case against the sex tour operator was lifted in November 2012 and although the defendant is appealing, his lawyers have reached out to us about a possible settlement. Our NY Director and the pro bono attorney in the case traveled to Manaus at the end of February 2013 and again in October 2013 to meet with the plaintiffs and our partner, IACAS.  During the October trip, the plaintiffs were interested in settling the case, as this will bring about a quicker resolution, and the pro bono lawyer will continue negotiation with the defendant’s attorney to arrive at an agreed figure. A mandatory mediation has been ordered by the U.S. court for early December 2013 to encourage settlement negotiations before the case potentially goes to trial. 

The 4 plaintiffs are still dealing with the trauma from their exploitation and Equality Now has arranged for them to receive weekly counseling sessions with assistance from our NGO partner and a consultant. As a result of awareness created by the Brazil case a recent public hearing was held in Manaus about commercial sexual exploitation of children at which posters and leaflets on the issue were handed out. In addition a law was recently passed that requires fishing guides (some of whom were luring girls onto boats to be exploited) to register and take a course on children’s rights and accountability. We also recently learned that Nick Kristof’s Half the Sky initiative is exploring taking a trip to Brazil to possibly include this story in a second book.

Thanks for your support!