Crimes (Definition of Female Genital Mutilation) Amendment Bill

I move, That the Crimes (Definition of Female Genital Mutilation) Amendment Bill be now read a second time.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s with a great deal of feeling that I address the House today as we carry out our duty as parliamentarians to protect the most vulnerable in our society.

So it is with great feeling and with a sense of responsibility for the most vulnerable that I approach the second reading of the Crimes (Definition of Female Genital Mutilation) Amendment Bill. Its purpose is to update the definition of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the New Zealand Crimes Act 1961 to close any loopholes and to reflect the will of the girls, women, and wider communities affected by this harmful practice. It’s certainly sobering to think that in a country which was the first in the world to give women the vote that we need to have such a law. However, no matter how rare the practice of female genital mutilation may be in New Zealand, it is our duty to make it very clear from the highest levels of Government that this practice, a practice which is inflicted on those who often have no understanding or choice in it, is completely unacceptable—in fact, utterly rejected—in New Zealand.

The most important people to be acknowledged in this process are those women and girls who are affected by this practice. Thanks also to the groups and individuals who appeared before the select committee. The committee received 28 submissions and heard oral evidence from nine submitters in Wellington. Thanks to FGM Education Programme, Ayan Said, Nikki Denholm, and the Somali community. We heard from the Canterbury District Health Board, the Auckland Women’s Health Council, the Humanist Society of New Zealand, Family Planning, the Human Rights Commission, and the Intersex Trust Aotearoa. Acknowledgement too, to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice, who made their contributions and advised the committee. I’d like to thank the Health Committee chair, Louisa Wall, for her advocating this bill. Also, too, it must be noted, the Deputy Speaker, the Hon Anne Tolley, in the Chair tonight, for your work with the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians and helping us to bring this bill to the House.

I’d like to acknowledge also the importance of the bill as evidence of the ability of MPs to actually work well collaboratively from both sides of the House together. Jo Hayes from the National Party, Priyanca Radhakrishnan from Labour, and Golriz Ghahraman from the Greens, joined me in working together as part of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians New Zealand group—or, as we fondly call it, CWP.

I am very proud to be part of the very first cross-party multi-members’ bill. This is an historic night for us. This is historically significant for us not just as parliamentarians but as women. What we have in common might be not our minds or our ideologies but our bodies—the female body, which we are setting out to protect from powers who would seek to mutilate it in the name of religious traditional culture. We parliamentarians who were involved in this process do not speak as women with no understanding of culture or tradition. We do not speak just from the perspective of New Zealanders but from what is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Female genital mutilation is recognised as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. The WHO estimates around 200 million of our sisters and their daughters have undergone this violation; these are women and girls that are alive today. For most, it is carried out when they’re aged between four years old and eight years old. This is old enough to know, in the hours and minutes before their bodies are cut and mutilated, that something bad is about to happen, old enough to experience immense fear before the excruciating pain and disfiguring act, and old enough for the memory of the mental anguish to be imprinted on their souls and remain with them for life.

I, as a woman, stand here with a voice to speak directly about this violation of our sisters with a voice that many of them around the world and in New Zealand do not have. I can speak about not only the mental damage but also the physical. It’s not nice to hear, but it’s far, far worse to experience: the recurrent urinary and vaginal infections, the chronic pain, the infertility, the haemorrhaging, the epidermoid cysts, the difficult labour, and the abnormalities in sexual function. These terrible inflictions are why we are here to amend and close those loopholes in the Act.

I feel that it’s important to make it known that this anti-women practice is unfortunately not confined to one culture or religion. FGM really came across New Zealand’s radar in the early 1990s when we experienced a growing number of refugees and immigrants. The practice was made illegal in 1996. Let me make it clear: it’s against the law even if a girl or woman says she wants it done. It’s against our law, including arranging for a child to be sent outside of our borders to have it done. This stance against female genital mutilation is greater than the individual; it is our free society in New Zealand which categorically says no to this practice. However, since 1996, we’ve come to learn more about the practice and the loopholes in the law, and that’s why we’re here today, to do our utmost to close those loopholes and spare any more girls from being put through this torture.

Firstly, in line with the WHO, the amendment seeks to remove the word “external” when referring to female genitalia. This bill ensures all types of genital mutilation are illegal in New Zealand. We’ve been specific in our amendments to name them and ban four procedures, as defined by the WHO. The amendment includes specifying what mutilation is, to include the incision, infibulation, or mutilation of a whole or part of the labia majora, labia minora, or clitoris, and also the means by which it is carried out, including pricking, piercing, incising, scraping, and cauterising the genital area.

This, of course, brought forward submitters who sought exceptions to the Act, and these will be clear in the amendments. The bill does not seek to change these. This would encompass procedures carried out by a doctor for gender confirmation surgery. It would not affect procedures performed by a doctor or midwife on a woman in labour or immediately after giving birth. The amendment seeks to extend those who can perform some procedures to include a nurse or nurse practitioner, to protect these medical professionals from potential liability if they were carrying out a procedure such as lancing an abscess or injecting a steroid. The bill does not aim to criminalise some cosmetic procedures but will allow for some exceptions. Piercing and tattooing would be covered under existing regulations.

The need for education around female genital mutilation is a message that has come through strongly from the submitters that came to select committee, including from Family Planning. Now we suggest other non-legislative measures to complement the changes to the law. A set of guidelines, national guidelines, is needed for consistency when authorities deal with cases of FGM. This would help determine whether a procedure is for cosmetic or enhancement purposes, and guidelines would help police in their response to cases of FGM and to cover any resulting prosecution.

Education needs to go hand in hand with any amendments to the law. Several submitters recommended this, including the Auckland Women’s Health Council. The programme would be for communities where the practice takes place, and also for health professionals, police, social services, and lawyers.

Some submitters to the committee raised concerns about seemingly related issues. This included male circumcision, with submitters saying that this is carried out without consent. Others wanted the bill to include intersex genital mutilation. Their reasoning was that surgery on intersex children was performed without their consent. Now, both of these issues are of great importance; however, it was decided to be outside the scope of this bill, which is deliberately narrow to focus on the one issue of FGM.

The Crimes (Definition of Female Genital Mutilation) Amendment Bill seeks to provide greater protection for women and girls, who deserve to have sovereignty over their own bodies, it seeks to provide clarity for the medical and legal fraternity on what FGM is, and it aims to offer protection for doctors, midwives, nurses, and nurse practitioners when carrying out their own professional duties.

So let us make a strong and loud statement today in this House that we take responsibility for the physical and mental wellbeing of women and girls of all ethnic, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds in New Zealand. We will do our utmost to protect your bodies and your minds from harm. I commend this bill to the House.

Bill read a second time.

In Committee