Male genital mutilation in Finland
Revision as of 09:53, 19 September 2021 by Ghost Marten (talk | contribs) (+reference and clarification for the 2016 decisions. The Supreme Court of Finland has removed the Finnish-language explanation of these decisions from their website, but the Swedish one is still up. We'll see how long...)
- On October 17, 2008 the Supreme Court of Finland decided that a doctor mutilating their four and a half year old son was not punishable.
- On March 31, 2016 the Supreme Court of Finland made two more decisions saying that mutilating boys is OK. A father father was sentenced only because he had had his son mutilated without the mother's consent (so it's still "our boy, our choice", not "my body, my choice", says the Supreme Court of Finland) and two other parents who had their two sons (aged 7 and 12) mutilated, were freed. The Supreme Court stated that the parents should have asked consent from the 12-year-old, but still did not sentence the parents.[1]
- On June 11, 2018 a citizens' initiative aiming to ban all genital mutilation of children was launched, but it failed to get the 50,000 statements of support within six months (from people who are eligible to vote in Finland) needed in order to force the Finnish Parliament hear it, gaining only 12,978. Thus the initiative was not heard by the Finnish Parliament.
- While banning female genital mutilation gained support of the Finnish parliament, a suggestion to also ban MGM was made in the beginning of October 2020 by the Finns Party ("Perussuomalaiset"), but other parties objected to it. The Finns Party is frequently referred to as "far-right" by people who hate it.
- When the Finnish Parliament finally voted on the matter as suggested by member of parliament Sebastian Tynkkynen (from the Finns Party), all Finns Party members present except for two (Mika Niikko and Tom Packalén) opposed MGM. Five members of parliament from the National Coalition Party ("Kokoomus") also opposed MGM. From other parties, all members of parliament who were present in the vote except for two supported the mutilation of little boys' penises. The two that didn't support MGM were Sanna Marin (Finland's Prime Minister) and Erkki Tuomioja, both from the Social Democrat party. They didn't oppose it either as they voted "empty", as did five National Coalition Party members as well.
- The entire discussion preceding the vote can be listened to on Sebastian Tynkkynen's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJnSHh9IjkQ (in Finnish, as all other references). A transcript can be found on the Parliament's website: https://www.eduskunta.fi/FI/vaski/PoytakirjaAsiakohta/Sivut/PTK_139+2020+9.aspx
- Another citizens' initiative aiming to ban MGM was launched on October 21, 2020. It failed again, gaining only 26,051 statements of support in six months. This initiative was launched by the youth organization of the Finns Party and it was advertised a lot by Sebastian Tynkkynen (here, here and here, and a day before the initiative closed also here) which probably explains why it got a good start and ended having much more (but still nowhere nearly enough) support in comparison to the previous initiative.
References
- ↑ https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-8777978 Cited September 9, 2021