Human rights defenders criticize formality in response of "Roszdravnadzor" on female circumcision in Ingushetia

The "Roszdravnadzor" (Federal Public Health Supervisory Agency) has declined to answer the question of whether female circumcision is acceptable, claims the Centre for the Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence. The NGO demands to close a clinic in Ingushetia after complaints that a nine-year-old girl had been subjected to female genital mutilation surgery.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that a woman from Chechnya has succeeded in seeking the institution of a criminal case in Ingushetia about the intentional infliction of slight harm to the health of her nine-year-old daughter. The woman claims that her former husband, without her knowledge, took the girl to a clinic in Magas, where the girl had been subjected to female circumcision surgery.

The Ingush Department of the "Roszdravnadzor" conducted an inspection in the clinic. "During the inspection, gross violations of licensing requirements were revealed," the "Roszdravnadzor" reports in its letter sent on June 10 to the Centre for the Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence at the Consortium of Women's NGOs.

In its letter, the "Roszdravnadzor" emphasizes that the revealed violations have already been eliminated. The federal institution did not disclose the nature of the detected violations.

The response from the "Roszdravnadzor" did not satisfy human rights defenders. "Unfortunately, we did not receive an answer to the main questions: whether female circumcision is considered in principle an unacceptable practice and whether the 'Roszdravnadzor' attributes it to serious violations of the law," advocate Mari Davtyan commented on the response from the "Roszdravnadzor".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 11, 2020 at 04:13 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.