A/HRC/29/20
III. Good practices to eliminate female genital mutilation
A.
Legislative measures
12.
At the time of writing, more than 40 countries have enacted legislation against
female genital mutilation. In Mauritania, ordinance 2005–2015 prohibits medical
practitioners and government health facilities from carrying out the procedure. Egypt and
Kenya prohibit parents and guardians from pressurizing their children to undergo the
practice. Ugandan and Kenyan laws on female genital mutilation make its performance and
the discrimination against a woman who has not undergone the practice a crime. In Nigeria,
while there is no federal law prohibiting the practice, states can enact specific legislation
prohibiting the practice, as several already have.
13.
Research
by
the
Demographic
and
Health
Surveys
Programme
(http://dhsprogram.com) indicates significant reductions in prevalence where States have
enacted and enforced comprehensive criminal sanctions against female genital mutilation.
In Kenya, where the prevalence rate has fallen from more than 50 per cent of girls in 1980
to 20 per cent in 2010, 71 cases related to the practice have gone to court and 16 of these
cases have resulted in convictions. Burkina Faso has witnessed a reduction in the practice
among young women and has recorded at least seven convictions for practising or abetting
female genital mutilation. In 2014, two public mobile tribunal hearings in two separate
provinces involving the mutilation of 14 girls resulted in six-month sentences for the
perpetrators. Eritrea has convicted and fined at least 155 female genital mutilation
practitioners, as well as parents of girls who underwent the practice, while Ethiopia has
undertaken 13 prosecutions and, in Guinea-Bissau, at least 14 cases have gone to court and
one perpetrator has been sentenced since 2012. In Uganda, following the adoption of the
Female Genital Mutilations Act in 2010, 15 cases were brought before courts and, in
November 2014, five people were convicted for performing the practice. Since 1983, when
it introduced a special act prohibiting female genital mutilation, France has jailed about 100
persons for involvement in the practice. French police claims that the number of mutilations
has decreased as a result of the trials and other prevention initiatives. 9 On 26 January 2015,
in the first case since the adoption of a 2008 law against female genital mutilation, a court
in Egypt convicted a medical doctor following the death of a 13 year old girl after he had
performed the practice on her in a private clinic.
14.
Cross-border female genital mutilation is increasingly documented, partly owing to
the criminalization of the practice and to strict enforcement of legislation prohibiting it in
countries with large practicing communities. In accordance with article 44, paragraph 3, of
the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women
and domestic violence, States parties must ensure that the practice is punishable if
committed in a third country by or against one of their nationals or residents, even if the
practice is not considered a criminal offence in that country. Similarly, States parties must
take the measures necessary to establish jurisdiction over a female genital mutilation
offence when an alleged perpetrator is present on their territory. This principle of
extraterritoriality has been introduced into many European laws. Sections 1 and 4 of the
Female Genital Mutilation Act (2003) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland make it a criminal offence for any person, regardless of their nationality or
residence status, to carry out or be involved in carrying out female genital mutilation. In
2006, Italy introduced a specific criminal law provision on the practice (Law No. 7/2006),
9
6
European Institute for Gender Equality, Good practices in combating female genital mutilation
(Luxembourg, 2013).
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