WRITTEN QUESTION E-0707/03

by Gianfranco Dell'Alba (NI) to the Council

(10 March 2003)

Subject: Right of asylum for women threatened with female genital mutilation

Is the Council aware that over the last few days in Kenya a hundred or so girls and young women have sought refuge in a church in order to avoid the risk of having to undergo genital mutilation an ancestral practice which is still carried out in at least 28 African countries and which is inflicted each year on over 2 million girls?

In the light of Parliament's resolution of 20 September 2001(1) and the international STOP FGM appeal which has been signed by thousands of prominent figures and ordinary people throughout the world and which calls, amongst other things, for the right of asylum to be granted to women who are threatened with mutilation (a practice which may be regarded as an extremely serious infringement of the most basic human rights):

- does the Council not think that, given the particular situation of the 100 Kenyan women, the EU should as a matter of urgency include such a situation amongst those in respect of which asylum within the EU Member States should be granted?

- what action has the Council taken (or does it intend to take) in response to this situation?

(1) OJ C 77 E, 28.3.2002, p. 126.

Reply

(29 September 2003)

The Council has so far not discussed the specific case of Kenyan girls and women having sought refuge in order to avoid the risk of having to undergo genital mutilation.

Concerning the conditions in which asylum should be granted in the Member States, the Council has been examining for some months the Commission proposal for a Council Directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third-country nationals and stateless persons as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international protection(1).

The purpose of the proposal is to provide a framework for an international protection regime, based on existing international and Community obligations and current Member States' practice, and separated into the two complementary categories of refugee and subsidiary protection. The proposal includes provisions on the minimum rights and benefits to be enjoyed by the beneficiaries of refugee status and of subsidiary protection status.

At its meeting on 27/28 February 2002, the Council examined some Articles of this proposal relating in particular to the minimum obligations that Member States will have to those to whom they grant international protection.

The Council instructed its relevant bodies to further examine the proposal with a view to reaching a political agreement within the time limit decided by the Seville European Council (June 2003).

It is recalled that at its meeting on 28 November 2002, the Council reached agreement, subject to some parliamentary scrutiny reservations and reservations from one delegation, on the rules for the recognition of a third-country national as a refugee or as a person eligible for subsidiary protection.

Discussions in the Council bodies have shown that the rights to be granted to beneficiaries of refugee status are virtually uncontested, while divergences persist concerning the level of the rights to be granted to the beneficiaries of subsidiary protection status. Moreover, at major United Nations conferences on women's rights and human rights, all Member States of the European Union, in particular when holding the Presidency of the European Union, regularly and unanimously support the elimination of harmful traditional practices, including genital mutilation.

(1) OJ C 51 E, 26.2.2002, p. 325.