Female Genital Mutilation - World Health Organization

ased on the idea of the inferiority or superiority
of either of the sexes or on stereotypes for men
and women (Art. 5.a).
● The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990)
protects the right to equality irrespective of sex
(Art. 2), to freedom from all forms of mental and
physical violence and maltreatment (Art.19.1), to
the highest attainable levels of health.
● The Vienna Declaration and the Programme of
Action of the World Conference on Human Rights
(1993), expanded the international human rights
agenda to include gender-based violations which
include female genital mutilation.
● The Declaration on Violence against Women (1993)
states that violence against women must be
understood to include physical and psychological
violence occurring within the family, including
female genital mutilation and other traditional
practices harmful to women.
● The Programme of Action of the International
Conference on Population and Development
(ICPD, 1994) included a recommendation on
female genital mutilation which commit
governments and communities to: “urgently take
steps to stop the practice of female genital
mutilation and to protect women and girls from all
such similar unnecessary and dangerous practices”.
● The Platform of Action of the Fourth World
Conference on Women (1995) included a section
on the girl-child and urged governments,
international organizations and non governmental
groups to develop policies and programmes to
eliminate all forms of discrimination against the
girl child, including female genital mutilation.
The regulatory bodies of nurses
and midwives and FGM
Each country has a regulatory body for nurses and
midwives. In some countries this is a Nurses and
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
STUDENT MANUAL
35
Midwives Council or Board; in other countries it is the
Medical Council. Whatever the existing structure, this
body has the legal mandate to take appropriate action
against a professional nurse or midwife who acts
against the standards set for professional conduct.
The International Confederation of Midwives
(ICM) and the International Council of Nurses (ICN)
are the international regulatory bodies in all matters
concerning professional midwifery and nursing
respectively. Both the ICM and the ICN have policies
against the practice of FGM.
● Female genital organs are vital to the sexual
response of women, and cutting or removal of even
a few millimetres of highly sensitive tissue results
in substantial damage. The experience of
mutilation has a lasting impact psychologically, and
memory of the pain and trauma remains with girls
and women throughout their lives.
● Two of the most important ethical principles of
health professionals are:
– to do no harm, and
– to preserve healthy functioning body organs at
all costs unless they carry a life threatening
disease.
● FGM entails the cutting of healthy functioning
body organs simply to comply with traditional
ritual, and with no medical justification. It is
usually performed on children who have no
awareness or power of consent. Furthermore, the
consent of parents or guardians is not valid when
the act performed is damaging, rather than
beneficial, to the child.
● It is also unethical for a health professional to
damage a healthy organ in the name of culture. The
argument put forward by health professionals that an
operation performed by a skilled person in hygienic
conditions poses less risk to health and is therefore
less damaging is not valid. Any health professional
taking such action would be guilty of misconduct