ABSTRACT
Female genital mutilation (FGM) exemplifies the female body “invaded and owned” in violation of women’s and girls’ human rights. A significant proportion of UNICEF’s estimated 200 million victims resides in sub-Saharan Africa, but FGM affects all continents. Ending FGM by 2030, a target of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5.3), has inspired authorities to address the public health threat. One preventive is adoption of national anti-FGM legislation. Nevertheless, domestic jurisprudence used by prosecution and child protection agencies is neither well understood nor well disseminated and is often considered ineffective. This chapter analyzes domestic case law/jurisprudence involving FGM in high-income and low-income countries. Have courts developed effective responses? Should protective litigation be encouraged? What are the major trends? We consulted World Lii, an online law repository, to uncover domestic court cases involving FGM, while outcome data from LexisNexis, Westlaw, and publicly available databases revealed appeals and case histories. Our analysis of domestic case law on five continents shows the efficacy of application if prosecution and child protection agencies are better understood and information accessibility increased. Overall, improvement should be sought in knowledge and implementation of laws criminalizing FGM. They provide efficient tools of empowerment for women and girls and send a strong message that certain behaviors are no longer tolerated.
