Rights organisation concerned about violence against women

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) expressed grave concern on Tuesday over reports of violence against women in Mali. Apart from forced marriages and polygamy, which are common, 24 percent of Malian women marry before the age of 15 years and 94 percent undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), OMCT said in a report to the UN Human Rights Committee. "Early marriage often means that girls discontinue their schooling and leads to adolescent pregnancy, which can have adverse health consequences because the girl is not yet physically or psychologically mature enough to bear children," OMCT said. "FGM has been condemned by health experts around the world as damaging to a woman's health. OMCT urges the Malian government not only to repeal all laws justifying such practices, but also to criminalize such practices and raise awareness about the harms that accompany such practices." The OMCT report titled: "Violence against Women in Mali", was submitted to the UN Committee in Geneva as it began to examine a report on the implementation of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights in Mali. The Committee's 77th session focusses on discrimination against women. "Mali has ratified most major international and regional human rights treaties and its Constitution proclaims to defend the rights of women. However, many discriminatory laws continue to exist in Malian legislation," OMCT said. "These discriminatory laws relate to a woman's inability to pass on her Malian citizenship to her child, women's rights in marriage, the minimum age of marriage for women, and women's rights in divorce and widowhood." In Geneva, Mali's representative to the UN, Sinaly Coulibaly, told the Committee's 77th session on Tuesday that his country's report dealt with human rights guaranteed by the Constitution, as well as important reforms in political, economic, social and institutional dimensions designed to provide for more effective application of those rights. With its submission of the report, Mali had demonstrated its attachment to rights that arose from the inherent dignity of human beings, he added. The Committee was due to reconvene on Wednesday, 26 March, to continue its consideration of the Malian report, UNHCHR reported. Details of Mali's report to the Committee Details on OMCT's work are available at: www.omct.org