Resources

Although there are various international human rights instruments under which FGM could be considered a violation, so far the African Union’s Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (also called Maputo Protocol)  is the only treaty that directly refers to FGM as a human right violation.
 
The adoption of a national legislation is necessary because it brings to light the commitment and political will to fight against Female Genital Mutilations. The existence of legislation contributes to face a practice considered as an ancestral tradition and to protect women and girls who want to finish with this practice. Among the twenty eight (28) African States concerned by the practice, nineteen (19) are equipped with a national law repressing genital mutilations in penal case. Also some non-African countries have specific anti-FGM legislations.
 
In this section, you will also find documentation about FGM produced by NPWJ and by others.