Universal-Womens-accesss-to-justice-Publications-Practitioners-Guide-Series-2016-ENG

V
WOMEN’S ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 207
Female genital mutilation
The World Health Organization defines female genital mutilation
(also known as FGM) as “all procedures that involve partial or
total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to
the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”. 550
Like forced and early marriage, female genital mutilation has
been identified as a “harmful traditional practice”, or simply a
“harmful practice” as a method of rejecting purported
traditional or customary justifications for such practices.
The UN Secretary-General’s In-depth study on violence has
underscored that over 130 million women alive today have
undergone FGM. These women are primarily from countries in
Africa and the Middle East, but the practice also commonly
occurs among a number of immigrant communities in Europe,
North America and Australia. 551
FGM is recognized internationally as a practice which
necessarily impairs the enjoyment of human rights of women,
including rights to health, security and physical integrity, the
right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in
death. It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes and
constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women.
Female genital mutilation is classified into four major types:
Clitoridectomy: partial or total removal of the clitoris (a
small, sensitive and erectile part of the female genitals)
and, in very rare cases, only the prepuce (the fold of
skin surrounding the clitoris).
550
World Health Organization, “Female genital mutilation’, Fact sheet
No 241, updated February 2014, available at URL:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/.
551
UN Secretary-General, “In-depth study on all forms of violence
against women”, UN Doc A/61/122/Add.1 (2006), paragraph 119.