Turning back the clock on FGM in the Gambia would deprive women and girls of their rights

I am alarmed by efforts to repeal the Women’s Amendment Act (2015) prohibiting female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Gambia, as well as similar efforts under way to lift legal protections against harmful practices in other countries.

Turning the clock back to legalize FGM in the Gambia would deprive women and girls of their rights and be an unprecedented step backwards. It would violate numerous international and regional agreements the country has signed, including the 2012 United Nations General Assembly resolution against female genital mutilation, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Moves in one country also risk emboldening others to try to renege on their duties to protect the rights of women and girls.

The Gambia has made significant gains in women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, including the 2015 law banning this entrenched and harmful practice. If the law is repealed, it will be a major setback in our efforts to end violence and harmful practices against women and girls and improve their lives.

I also am disturbed by the falsehoods that are being spread to justify removing such protections. Female genital mutilation does not make women cleaner. Indeed, it does cause medical complications, and it is never safe, even if performed by medical personnel.

Under international human rights law, female genital mutilation is a human rights violation, and culture and religion can never be used to justify it. It causes devastating consequences that can include chronic pain, infections, depression, birth complications, sexual health problems, infertility and even death.

Globally, the statistics are staggering. Over 230 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to female genital mutilation – a 15 per cent increase since 2016.

Worryingly, we are also witnessing similar efforts in other countries to repeal the laws protecting women and girls from discrimination, violence and harmful practices. We stand ready to support the Gambia and other countries in their efforts to turn the tide on this global scourge.

Let us not rest until every woman and girl has the right to live a healthy, empowered, and full life.

About UNFPA and UNICEF’s work to end female genital mutilation:

UNFPA and UNICEF run the Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation, the largest global programme to accelerate the elimination of the practice. Working with communities, it drives action at global, regional, and national levels in 17 countries (including the Gambia) to abandon the practice, providing services to survivors, and supporting data and evidence generation to better inform advocacy and programme initiatives.