also in FR, and in NL. – Linked on our blogs with Give someone you never met, a gift they will never forget, and with Clinic to fight taboo of female mutilation.
- Your father promised your little sister in marriage to a man within your community. The ceremony will be performed in that country during the holidays. You are worried that something will happen to her.
- One of your pupils doesn’t seem right since returning after the holidays. She spends most of break time in the toilets and no longer goes swimming.
- You are a paediatrician. You’ve noticed that a young girl had just been circumcised.
- You have noticed that, in the stair-well of your building, there is endless to-ing and fro-ing of families with young girls. You hear them shouting in the neighbouring apartment.
- Your older sisters have both undergone the “tradition”. You don’t know when or how and you are afraid … (Missions of INTACT 1/2).
english Homepage;
Who? Where? Belgium? Activities; FGM; Rights; Thematics; Press; News; Links; Support;
Contact … whatever the situation is.
Missions of INTACT 2/2: … Mutilation is FORMALLY PROHIBITED under Belgian law and can incur harsh penalties.
- INTACT aims to act within the law by using all the resources of international conventions and laws to try to help the mutilated women and young girls and, above all, those at risk.
We are prepared to tale legal action if a case justifies it, both in Belgium and abroad. - INTACT can act at all the stages of the procedure in the litigations giving place to the application of the criminal laws and other laws designed to protect against torture and any affront to a person’s physical, psychological or moral integrity (article 409 of the Belgian Penal code).
We support and guide those who come forward:
- The association can also act at the legal level in order to protect an at-risk individual or victim of genital mutilation or any other harmful “traditional” custom and to help, to the extent of its power, any person requesting a consultation on theirs rights and obligations and how to protect them.
- Intact is a non-profit organisation recently established by a group of people from the academic, charity, medical and legal sectors with the objective of taking any initiative, and supporting any action, particularly in the legal and judicial field, to help abolish female genital mutilation.
- Intact also supports any action aimed at eliminating any harmful « traditional » practices which more generally affect the health of women and children, including child marriage and arranged marriage.
What /Why? Torture is not culture. And yet …:
- Many reasons are given for perpetuating this custom, including religion, despite the fact that no sacred text or religion prescribes this practice. It is maintained solely because of a deeply rooted tradition.
- In today’s world, we maintain that excision makes no sense in any culture, and abandoning it is no threat to the identity and the cultural heritage of the communities who practice it. Torture is not culture. This is not about stigmatising a race, but of fighting a harmful practice wherever it is found, as we must combat all harmful practices.