International legal obligations to combat female genital cutting (FGM/C)

FGM/C constitutes a grave violation of human rights. The practice violates both the right to physical and mental integrity and the right to health. FGM/C represents a form of gender-based violence and discrimination against women and girls.

The prohibition of FGM/C extends as far back as the core UN human rights instruments, and specifically to the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment, such as those formulated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture. The right to health is guaranteed by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. These same rights are also protected by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• For more on this topic, see the conventions more specifically at http://www.humanrights.ch/en/standards/un-treaties/ (English, German and French) or http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/InternationalLaw.aspx (English and French).
• This website shows the status of ratification of the core UN human rights treaties in all UN member countries: http://indicators.ohchr.org/
• Article 24(3) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), adopted in 1989, explicitly obliges state parties to take effective measures with a view to “abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children”. The UNCRC has been ratified by 196 states and thus has universal validity. (Full text of the UNCRC; Current ratification status of the UNCRC)

Not only international human rights conventions at UN level put countries under an obligation to combat FGM/C; there are regional instruments that do so as well.

• For Europe, this obligation extends all the way back to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), dated 4 November 1950, and specifically to Article 3 thereof, which protects physical integrity. All 47 member states of the Council of Europe have ratified the ECHR. (Full text of the European Convention on Human Rights; Current status of ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights)
   
• The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, dated 11 May 2011, also known as the Istanbul Convention, explicitly prohibits the mutilation of female genitalia (see Art. 38, Istanbul Convention). The Istanbul Convention has been ratified by most of the states of the Council of Europe. Switzerland signed the convention on 11th september 2013 and ratified it on 14th december 2017. The convention has entered into force in Switzerland on 1st of April 2018.
  The Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention and the current status of ratification of the Istanbul Convention.
  Network Istanbul Convention
   
• In Africa’s case, the prohibition of FGM/C stems from the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, adopted on 27 June 1981, (also known as the Banjul Charter), which provides extensive protection, analogous to that of the UN human rights treaties. The Banjul Charter has been ratified by 53 of the 54 African states (Full text of the Banjul Charter; Current status of ratification of the Banjul Charter).
   
• The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, adopted on 11 July 1990, further obliges the state parties to safeguard the physical integrity of children and their health and prohibits all forms of gender-based discrimination. Article 21 stipulates the elimination of all social and cultural practices that are harmful to children. This Charter has been ratified by 41 of the 54 African states. (Full text of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the status of its ratification)
   
• Article 5 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, dated 11 July 2003, explicitly requires the state parties to prohibit, condemn and eliminate all forms of FGM/C and to take measures to protect persons at risk and support victims. The protocol has been ratified by 36 of the 54 African states.  (Full text of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; Current status of ratification of the Protocol).

Action has also been taken to combat the practice of female genital cutting at political level, e.g. at international conferences such as the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 or the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

• Female genital cutting was condemned by the UN General Assembly for the first time in 2012. Read here the full text of the resolution of the UN General Assembly (A/Res 67/146), Intensifying Global Efforts for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilations of 20 December 2012. The UN General Assembly returned to the issue in 2014 and 2016, reinforcing its condemnation of this harmful practice.
• You can find further documents on the website www.womenshumanrights.chhttp://www.womenshumanrights.ch under the keywords “female genital mutilation”.
• A list of the recommendations about combating FGM/C issued to Switzerland by international human rights bodies can be found in the Universal Human Rights Index under the keywords “female genital mutilation”.
• For further information on the implementation of international conventions in Switzerland see the website www.humanrights.ch.