FGM and Medicalisation - Position Paper

This position statement outlines the importance of reflecting on medicalised female genital mutilation (FGM) and other related medical practices carried out within Europe.

According to the official definition adopted for the first time in 1997 by the WHO and other UN agencies, the ‘“medicalisation” of FGM refers to situations in which FGM is practised by any category of health-care provider, whether in a public or a private clinic, at home or elsewhere. It also includes the procedure of reinfibulation at any point in time in a Survivor’s life.

This statement was developed by the End FGM EU secretariat in cooperation with the members part of the Network’s 2018 Medicalisation Working Group.