UN: Religious circumcision victim calls for boys to be protected
UN: Religious circumcision victim calls for boys to be protected Source link
All posts tagged: circumcision
Success! Prosecution guidance includes circumcision for first time
New Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance on offences against the person includes male circumcision for the first time. The inclusion comes after successful advocacy from the National Secular Society, which campaigns to protect all children from non-therapeutic genital cutting. The new guidance says that circumcision “can cross the line into a harmful practice”, and encourages prosecutors to consider whether “child cruelty”, “allowing a child to suffer serious harm” or “assaults” have been committed. In a clear indication that the practice can constitute child abuse, the guidance instructs prosecutors to “refer to the Child Abuse (non-sexual) prosecution guidance”. The guidance comes amid new NSS research which shows 29 babies were hospitalised with serious post-circumcision complications – including haemorrhage, shock and sepsis – between 2022 and 2024 at just one NHS trust. The data also reveals over 1,000 emergency department admissions of boys with circumcision-related complications between 2009 and 2024 at the same trust. “Gratuitous infliction of pain” The NSS urged the CPS to include circumcision in prosecutorial guidance following the conviction of two ritual circumcisers for …
Scottish NHS calls for end to religious circumcision funding
New research reveals Scottish taxpayers are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds to bankroll the ritual genital cutting of boys, despite calls from within the NHS to end the funding. A newly published response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request reveals one NHS Scotland paediatric centre, Lothian, is spending “up to £300,000 per year” on non-therapeutic male circumcision (NTMC). Ritual circumcision is provided at four paediatric centres – Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lothian and Tayside – suggesting the true annual figure could be in the millions. This could be “up to a third of the paediatric surgery waiting list”, the response adds. The response also shows that NHS National Services Scotland has “made a request to cease funding of NTMC on the NHS in Scotland”. Circumcising boys is considered a religious rite in some Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities. Scotland is the only UK nation that funds religious circumcision on its NHS. The National Secular Society has repeatedly called on the Scottish Government to end NHS funding for ritual circumcisions on the grounds …
Struck off circumcision doctor still circumcising boys
A struck off GP who hospitalised a baby boy after a “reckless” and “cavalier” religious circumcision is still performing circumcisions as a layperson, the National Secular Society can reveal. Following the circumcision, which put the child “at risk of fatal complications”, Lancashire-based Zuber Bux was erased from the medical register in 2019. He had also dishonestly produced expert reports on food poisoning cases to enrich himself. Despite his erasure, Bux’s website and LinkedIn page both state he still performs circumcisions on children for “religious/cosmetic reasons” in North West England. Both pages fail to explicitly acknowledge he was struck off. His website says: “I am no longer working as a doctor in the United Kingdom. And I am no longer registered with the GMC [General Medical Council]”. An FOI request from the NSS to the GMC now shows three doctors with circumcision related complaints lodged against them between 2012 and 2022 have been struck off. There is currently no legal requirement for circumcisers to be medically trained or even to have “proven expertise”. The developments come …
CPS draft guidance classes circumcision as potential child abuse
Draft prosecution guidance on harmful practices has classified non-therapeutic male circumcision (NTMC) as a potential form of child abuse. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance states circumcision can be a “painful and harmful practice” and “may be a form of child abuse or an offence against the person”. The National Secular Society campaigns to protect all children from medically unnecessary genital cutting. It has repeatedly called on the Government to protect boys from NTMC until they are old enough to decide for themselves, based on their own values. The CPS said it has “recently prosecuted cases where significant harm and distress has been caused to victims”, referring to the jailings of Mohammad Siddiqui and Mohammed Alazawi for circumcision related crimes against boys last year. Unanaesthetised circumcision was “gratuitous infliction of pain” In January 2025, Mohammad Siddiqui was jailed for child cruelty, amongst other crimes, after performing an unanaesthetised circumcision on an infant. Pre-existing CPS guidance includes child cruelty as a form of child abuse. In court, the CPS’s KC described the unanaesthetised circumcision as “gratuitous …
NSS calls for Government action after latest circumcision death
Following the death of a six-month-old boy, the National Secular Society has again called on the Government to protect children from non-therapeutic male circumcision (NTMC). Mohamed Abdisamad died in February 2023 from an “Invasive Streptococcus pyogenes infection following male circumcision”. Above: NSS human rights lead Dr Alejandro Sanchez discusses the case on LBC radio The assistant coroner in the case, Dr Anton van Dellen, sent a prevention of future deaths report to the Department of Health and Social Care last month. The report notes the complete lack of regulation of NTMC and states: “In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you have the power to take such action.” It echoes concerns repeatedly raised by the National Secular Society, which campaigns to protect all children from medically unnecessary genital cutting. There is no legal requirement for circumcisers to be medically trained or even to have “proven expertise”. Previous calls by NSS to protect boys ignored In a letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes …
Dozens dead in South Africa circumcision initiation rite
Zolani Mkiva, secretary general of the Congress for Traditional Leaders of South Africa, said unscrupulous illegal schools saw initiation as a money-making venture. He told the state broadcaster: “This now has become a national disaster. We can’t afford that year on year we lose 50 children in a sacred ritual that’s meant to prepare young men for leadership and the future.” South Africa’s traditional affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa has blamed negligence by the initiation schools, but also said parents were failing to heed advice. He said: “There is negligence in terms of meeting health standards in some of the initiation schools. If you take your child to an initiation school, you never make a follow-up, you do not monitor, you do not go there to see whether the child does drink water, you are placing your child at risk.” Under South African law, only children who are 16 years and above may be admitted to initiation school with parental consent. Mr Hlabisa said 41 people have been arrested in relation to illegal initiation schools, including …
Government greenlights no anaesthesia circumcision of boys
The Government has “no plans” to require ritual circumcisers to use anaesthesia, and refuses to say whether unanaesthetised non-therapeutic circumcisions are even legal. Responding to a series of parliamentary questions from Lib Dem peer Paul Scriven, the Government would only acknowledge that there is no legal requirement for circumcisers to be medically trained or to have “proven expertise”. The National Secular Society campaigns to protect all children from non-therapeutic genital cutting. Male circumcision is performed on babies and children for religious reasons in some Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities. ‘Gratuitous infliction of pain’ Earlier this year, ritual circumciser Mohammad Siddiqui was convicted of child cruelty for performing an unanaesthetised circumcision on an infant. In court, the Crown Prosecution Service described this as “gratuitous infliction of pain” and a “deliberate disregard” for the child’s welfare. The judge in the case called for “safeguards and protections” to be put in place as a “matter of urgency, to ensure that babies and young children are protected.” Despite this, religious groups openly perform unanaesthetised circumcisions. An FAQ page on …
Scottish Government mulling circumcision human rights compatibility
The Scottish Government is “currently considering” whether NHS provision of ritual circumcision is compatible with new human rights legislation. Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Neil Gray said the Scottish Government “takes the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people very seriously” and is “committed to ensuring that children’s rights are respected”. The announcement comes in response to a parliamentary question from Emma Roddick MSP, which was tabled following an approach from the National Secular Society. Above: press coverage in the Daily Record Scotland is the only UK nation to routinely fund religious circumcision of boys on its NHS. Last year, it became the first nation to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law. The convention enshrines a child’s rights to be heard, to freedom of religion or belief, and to protection from harmful traditional practices. Following the incorporation, which requires public bodies to act compatibly with the convention, the NSS called on Mr Gray to end Scottish NHS funding of non-therapeutic circumcision. In 2016, the …
NSS calls for action on circumcision in men’s health strategy
The National Secular Society has called for boys to be protected from non-therapeutic male circumcision (NTMC) in response to a Department of Health consultation. The NSS campaigns to protect all children from ritual genital cutting. The consultation will inform England’s first ever men’s health strategy, which aims to improve outcomes for conditions that specifically affect men and boys. The NSS said circumcision is a surgery that should only be performed by doctors and, when it comes to children, only with medically necessity. It recommended decisions about NTMC be deferred until the individual is old enough to decide for himself. It also called on the Government to improve data collection on the prevalence and complication rate of NTMC. Current legal arrangement endangering the lives of children There is no legal requirement for circumcisers to be medically trained or to “have proven expertise”. The NSS cited the recent convictions of Mohammad Siddiqui and Mohammed Alazawi as evidence this legal arrangement is endangering the lives of children. Siddiqui, who was jailed in January for actual bodily harm and …