[Note added 3.11.15: Theresa May MP, Home Secretary, has declined to respond to our FOI request, which asked why the police aren’t prosecuting people who carry out non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors (Male Genital Mutilation – MGM), when the procedure is unquestionably illegal.

No politicians are denying MGM is illegal.

No civil servants, including those working for the Crown Prosecution Service, are denying MGM is illegal.

The police are not denying MGM is illegal.

The Home Office’s response to our FOI request is here.]

[Note added 8.11.15: We’ll be handing out over 2,000 leaflets during this protest, with some different content to the leaflets we handed out at the recent Conservative party conference in Manchester. The Men Do Complain content is here, while the J4MB content is here. You can access the supporting materials by clicking on the URLs at the bottom of each page.

We’ll be carrying six large placards, two apiece of three designs  – #1, #2, #3. Men Do Complain will be bringing their own placards, as well as a lengthy banner or two.]

Proof that the non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors is illegal in the UK was provided by a prominent barrister in 2013. The default position of the criminal law is that circumcision is a crime and it requires a parliamentary override to stop it being a crime. There is no such parliamentary override. In plain English, carrying out MGM is a criminal offence.

Three weeks ago J4MB supporters travelled to the Conservative party conference in Manchester, and over two days we supported the anti-MGM organization Men Do Complain (MDC). We handed out 2,000 leaflets – the design is here – and we engaged in a huge number of cordial discussions, many with circumcised men, including Jews and Muslims. A short video of our work is here, the third image above was taken on the second day.

We’ll be supporting MDC again on International Men’s Day, in Parliament Square, London, on Thursday, 19 November (12:00 – 16:00). A Men Do Complain blog piece – here – has details of the exact location, and other details. I may be wearing white attire with red marks, similar to the attire worn by MDC supporters at a protest in Belgrave Square, the second of the images above.

I invite you to join us on 19 November, please email me mike@j4mb.org.uk to let me know if you can make it. Some Men Do Complain T-shirts will be available, and if you can don white attire, all the better (red paint will be available). The key objective is to make ourselves (and in turn our messages on MGM) visible, and to once again distribute large numbers of leaflets to members of the public.

The protest will be video recorded, along with interview of passers-by, and we’ll be joined by a TV documentary maker and a cameraman, working on a project for an hour-long television programme on men’s rights issues and MRAs for a major British broadcaster.

The leaflets will point people to important materials such as the evidence that MGM is illegal in the UK and breaches numerous Articles of UN and EU conventions, as well as videos including the findings of the 2012 Global Survey on Circumcision Harm and Child Circumcision: an Elephant in the Hospital.

I look forward to you joining us at this important protest. We’ll be issuing a press release a week before the event, in a bid to maximise media coverage. We’ve been delighted with the number of people who’ve already said they’ll attend the event, but the more protesters we have there, the more impact we’ll have. It really is as simple as that. Please be there, if you possibly can.

Thank you for your support, and for doing what you can to end the barbaric illegal human rights violation that is MGM.

If you’re concerned about human rights violations of men and boys, resulting from the actions and inactions of the state – such as MGM, fathers’ denial of access to children following family breakdowns, denial of support for male victims of domestic violence, and so much more – we invite you you to join us at the second International Conference on Men’s Issues in London, July 8-10, 2016. Details here.