Female genital mutilation from the Spanish legal perspective

Abstract

Female genital mutilation (FGM) encompasses all acts that intentionally alter or cause lesions to the female genital organs without medical reasons to justify them. Today, genital mutilation is a reality that affects more than 135 million women across the world and to which around 2 million children and adolescents are subjected every year. The practice of FGM is proscribed in all member States of the European Union. To combat FGM through the power of legislation in Spain, within the wider context of eliminating the different forms of discrimination against women and in response to specific contractual international obligations incurred by Spain, two laws have been passed. The first of these, L. O. 11/2003, approved September 29th, modifies the Criminal Code, such that a new crime of genital mutilation is defined through a new revision of article 149 of the Criminal Code. The second law, L. O. 3/2005 of July 8th, modifies the Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial, to permit the extraterritorial prosecution of the practice of FGM. Here we analyze the existing legal protections to put a stop to this practice, which violates the right to personal and physical integrity of girls and women, which highlight a violation of human rights based on the victims belonging to the female sex and to the social role assigned to them, which require new instruments directed to preventing all discrimination, among whose most injurious modalities is gender-based violence.