Loi & MGF

Africa

There are specific legal obligations for the African continent, including:

• the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (art 18)
• the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (art 21)
• the Maputo Protocol (Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa, art 5).

The Maputo protocol (The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa) obliges States to implement legislation against FGM, as well as other measures such as public awareness of FGM in all sectors of society through programs of information, informal or formal education and sensitization, provision of necessary support to survivors (including health services, legal and judicial support, psychological and emotional advice as well as professional trainings), and protection of women who are at risk (art.5, Maputo)

“Ratifying the Protocol obliges the State to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights. Article 5 of the Maputo Protocol is quite clear that States have an obligation to prohibit ‘through legislative measures backed by sanctions, all forms of FGM, scarification, medicalisation and para-medicalisation of FGM and all other practices in order to eliminate them’.” 

In 2019, 15 out of 55 African Union Member States had not signed and ratified the the Maputo Protocol, including several countries where FGM is prevalent such as Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. – This means that these countries were not legally bound by the provisions in protocol. 
The deadline set for ratifying the Maputo Protocol was 2020. Progress has been made since 2019. However, according to Equality Now, in 2021, 13 countries are yet to ratify it including three that have neither signed nor ratified it. (Equality now, website, unknown date) Most countries who have signed/ratified also do not report on their implementation, making it difficult to track progress. (African Union, 2020)

Europe

In the European region, FGM is considered a violation to several treaties and conventions:

• the European Convention on Human Rights
• the EU Directive on Victims’ Rights
• the Istanbul Convention (the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence)

The Istanbul Convention recognized the existence of FGM in Europe and the need to systematically address the practice and its prevention. One of the “four Ps” of the Convention is prosecution, meaning to prosecute offenders that subject (or try to subject) a woman or girl to FGM. 

Thus, all States that commit to the international human rights instruments cited above are obliged to prevent FGM and protect women and girls from the practice. One of the key duties is to put in place legislative measures to prohibit FGM. However, as most of them are examples of “Soft law” they are not legally binding.