Strasbourg, 02/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - Female genital mutilation, circumcision of young boys for religious reasons, early childhood operations on intersexual children and coercion of children into piercings - even simple earrings - tattoos and plastic surgery: the list of violations of the physical integrity of children as a result of adults' wishes is much longer than one might at first imagine. They are abuses of power, if one might use a “sound bite” to summarise the report debated by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Tuesday 1 October.
The report, drafted by Marlene Rupprecht, a German Socialist well known for her efforts on behalf of children's rights in her own country, received wide support from assembly members of all colours. They adopted a resolution (77 votes to 19, with 12 abstentions) strongly recommending that member states do more to raise awareness of the potential risks of some of these procedures for children's physical and mental health.
Differences were apparent during the debate. These related to circumcision, which is practised in both Judaism and Islam. “There is nothing to prove that it has any harmful effects in the long term”, said Moldovan Conservative Valeriu Ghiletchi, arguing, on the contrary, that “it appears to have beneficial effects”. Alexander Sidyakin (European Democrats, Russia) said that this “tradition” was not practised in his country, where “there is no question of challenging religious freedom, for example in the republics of the Caucasus”. Turkish Liberal Nusuna Memecan and compatriot Tulin Erkal Kara (European Democrats) were particularly strong in expressing their views, one accusing the rapporteur of a “narrow and biased view” and the other complaining about circumcision and female genital mutilation being lumped together. Rupprecht, unmoved, referred to her very well researched document and stressed that new medical research indicates that circumcision is far from being risk-free, and that no effective pain-killer exists for use when the practice is carried out on infants. Fundamentally, the text adopted argues for the freedom of every individual to determine what happens to his/her body, the obligation to wait until the child - who is not a “mini person with mini rights” - can give his/her informed consent to whatever violation of his/her physical integrity. This dimension is even more significant in relation to intersexual children who have both male and female body parts. This rare condition is now the subject of greater research and it has revealed that the wellbeing and mental health of numerous intersexual people have been damaged as a result of operations that were decided on before they were old enough to agree to them. With this vote, the PACE has clearly stated its position for a change in society where no intervention that will permanently affect the physical integrity of a child should be carried out until that child is old enough to make an informed decision. (VL/transl.fl)