Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation

A/HRC/RES/38/6View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2018.

What other versions does this mandate have?

5 versions · 2016–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/59/16

2025A/HRC/RES/59/16Elimination of female genital mutilationLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/HRC/RES/50/16Elimination of female genital mutilationCompare with previous version
2020A/HRC/RES/44/16Elimination of female genital mutilationCompare with previous version
2018A/HRC/RES/38/6Elimination of female genital mutilationCompare with previous version
2016A/HRC/RES/32/21Elimination of female genital mutilation

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

12 topics

Capacity Building Conferences Crime Prevention Education Female Genital Mutilation Financial Assistance Gender Discrimination Gender-Based Violence Harmful Traditional Practices Laws and Regulations Right to Health Women's Rights

What does this mandate say?

24 operative paragraphs

Urges States to condemn all harmful practices that affect women and girls, in particular female genital mutilation, including medical acts performed within or outside of medical institutions, and to take all necessary measures to prohibit female genital mutilation and to protect women and girls from this form of violence;

Urges States to adopt, implement, harmonize and enforce laws and policies to prevent and put an end to female genital mutilation, protect those at risk and support women and girls who have been subjected to the practice;

Calls upon States to develop and implement, with the participation of the relevant stakeholders — including girls, women, religious and traditional leaders, community leaders, health-care providers, civil society, human rights groups, men and boys and youth organizations — integrated, comprehensive and coordinated strategies and policies to prevent and eliminate all forms of female genital mutilation;

Urges States to ensure the national implementation of international and regional obligations that they have undertaken under the various international instruments that protect the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls;

Stresses that the empowerment of women and girls is key to breaking the cycle of discrimination and violence and to promoting and protecting human rights, including the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health;

Calls upon States, the international community and the United Nations system to stop the medicalization of female genital mutilation, which implies drawing up and disseminating guidance and legal provisions for medical personnel and traditional birth attendants so as to provide an adequate response to the chronic mental and physical health problems of the millions of women and girls who have undergone female genital mutilation, as these problems hinder progress in the field of health in general and in the protection of human rights, including the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health;

Urges States to respect, protect and promote the human rights of all women and girls, and to adopt and expedite the implementation of laws, policies and programmes that protect and enable their enjoyment of all human rights and all fundamental freedoms, including their sexual and reproductive health;

Urges States to promote accountability and ensure access to justice for the effective implementation and enforcement of laws aimed at preventing and eliminating all forms of female genital mutilation, including by informing women and girls about their rights and removing all barriers to access to legal assistance and remedies;

Calls upon States to take the following immediate and effective measures to eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation:

Address the root causes of gender inequality, including gender stereotypes and negative social norms, attitudes and behaviours, the socioeconomic drivers of violence and unequal power relations such as patriarchal norms that perpetuate female genital mutilation;

Place special emphasis on formal and informal education, in particular for young people, including girls, and for parents and religious, traditional and community leaders, about the harmful effects of female genital mutilation, and, in particular, encourage men and boys to become more involved in information and awareness campaigns and to be agents of change within communities, with the meaningful participation of women and girls who have been subjected to the practice;

Continue and intensify their efforts to provide information and raise awareness about the harmful effects of female genital mutilation, increase their support for action to eliminate the practice at the community, national and international levels, and organize activities within this framework during the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, with the involvement of religious and traditional authorities;

Develop, support and promote, as appropriate, educational programmes, including programmes on sexual and reproductive health, that challenge the negative stereotypes and harmful attitudes and practices that sustain female genital mutilation and perpetuate violence and discrimination against women and girls;

Adopt national legislation prohibiting female genital mutilation, in line with international human rights law, and take steps to ensure its strict application, while working to harmonize their laws in order to effectively combat the cross-border practice of female genital mutilation, including by strengthening transnational police and judicial cooperation in the exchange of information on victims and perpetrators of female genital mutilation, in accordance with national laws and policies and international human rights law;

Systematize the collection of data on female genital mutilation, encourage research, particularly at university level, transparency, accountability and data-sharing by the relevant stakeholders, and use the results to strengthen public information and awareness-raising activities and effectively measure the progress made in eliminating female genital mutilation;

Assist professional associations and trade unions of health service providers in adopting internal disciplinary rules prohibiting their members from engaging in the harmful practice of female genital mutilation;

Calls upon States to provide assistance to women and girls who are victims of female genital mutilation, including through appropriate support services for treatment of the physical, physiological and psychological consequences;

Encourages States to consider presenting, during the universal periodic review, relevant recommendations on measures to prevent and eliminate female genital mutilation;

Invites the international community to keep the issue of the elimination of female genital mutilation on the agenda of development policies and to devote special attention to the issue in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals between now and 2030;

Calls upon States to continue to increase technical and financial assistance for the effective implementation of policies, programmes and action plans to eliminate female genital mutilation at the national, regional and international levels;

Invites the Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting of the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Children’s Fund to continue to develop the national capacities of States and local communities, including in the health sector, to ensure the effective implementation of policies, programmes and action plans with the involvement of all stakeholders, and encourages States and development cooperation agencies to consider increasing their financial support for the Joint Programme;

Invites the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the relevant human rights treaty bodies to continue to give special consideration to the question of the elimination of female genital mutilation;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in close collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and other United Nations specialized agencies, funds and programmes, international human rights mechanisms and civil society organizations, to organize a two-day meeting in 2019, preferably in Addis Ababa, to discuss progress, gaps and challenges in the application of human rights norms, standards and principles to the measures taken by State and non-State actors to prevent and eliminate female genital mutilation in different contexts, including in the context of communities, humanitarian assistance and migration and other population movements, and to submit a report on the outcome of the above-mentioned meeting at the forty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council;

Decides to continue its consideration of the question of female genital mutilation in accordance with its programme of work.

Paragraph content is machine-extracted from UN documents. For authoritative content, please refer to the official UN document.

No headings found in this document.

Who created this mandate?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What does this mandate say?

Table of contents