Adoption of anti-FGM/C laws in Africa

Campaigning for an end to the practice in Kenya and within the continent greatly increased from the 1970s, with NGOs and women’s organisations bringing the issue to public attention (UNICEF 2013). In Kenya, legislation against the practice started with the domestication of the 1990 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child through the enactment of the national Children Act 2001, which outlawed ‘female circumcision’.1 The Children Act 2001 was preceded by the first governmental ban prohibiting state hospitals and clinics from practising FGM (as it was then called) in 1989, and the 1999 National Plan of Action for the Elimination of FGM, which emphasised the importance of education. The Children Act 2001 was revised and amended by the Children Act 2022. The passing of this law led to calls for its criminalisation by civil society, policy makers, and legislators. This agitation resulted in the adoption of the National Policy for the Eradication of Female Genital Mutilation, approved in 2010, which preceded the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act (hereafter the anti-FGM Act), signed into law in October 2011. The law defines FGM/C, criminalising its performance, procurement, aiding and abetting, failure to report, and extraterritorial aspects of the practice.

The passing of this law was spearheaded by legislators, in particular women, with the support of the then National Commission on Gender and Development and the Ministry for Gender, Children, and Social Affairs. The UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation (hereafter the UN Joint Programme), launched in 2008, also supported the process. The Bill was drafted by the Kenya Women’s Parliamentary Association and introduced into parliament by Jebii Kilimo and Sophia Abdi Noor, both from practising communities, who were passionate advocates for the end of FGM/C (UNFPA n.d.). The women parliamentarians used a strategy which involved identifying male parliamentary allies who were likely to support an anti-FGM/C Bill, creating awareness and seeking their support. Nationwide public awareness-raising meetings were held on the practice and the Bill before parliament. The UN Joint Programme also supported capacity building for those who would be responsible for upholding the law, training police, probation officers, and community leaders, in addition to supporting media messaging via television and radio (ibid.). The Bill received support from several male legislators and did not face any opposition in its three readings in parliament, passing with the full support of all legislators.

Despite public awareness of the law, there remained disquiet among some communities which felt that the law was an assault on their cultural way of life, and some were unclear on what the law really entailed. However, outright public protest was only seen almost a decade after the law was enacted. In Kajiado County there have been several public protests, mainly by Maasai women, since the law was passed. In 2014 and 2015 there were protests by hundreds of Maasai women (see Hughes, Chapter 14, this volume). More recently, in 2020, public defiance of the law was evident in the Kuria community, when citizens danced in the streets and girls who had undergone FGM/C were paraded in the region’s main urban centres. Men carrying machetes surrounded the girls, threatening to deter anyone who tried to interfere or disrupt the ceremony.2 Muiruri (2020). Peter Muiruri, ‘Kenyan efforts to end FGM suffer blow with victims paraded in “open defiance”’, The Guardian, UK, 21 October. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/oct/21/kenyan-efforts-to-end-fgm-suffer-blow-with-victims-paraded-in-open-defiance [Accessed 16 August 2025].

What the passing of the anti-FGM/C law shows is that while its main proponents were women who had themselves undergone the cut, its main opponents are also women who, despite undergoing the cut and some living with its negative consequences, still strongly believe in its importance as a marker of belonging to a community and a culturally significant practice (see Kamau, Chapter 12, this volume).

In 1984, a National Committee for the Abandonment of Harmful Practices Affecting Women and Children was established in Senegal, following a conference held in Dakar where African NGOs formed the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (Berer 2015; also see Fusaschi, Chapter 2, this volume).4 Since 1984, IAC national committees have been formed in twenty-eight African countries and affiliates established in fifteen countries outside Africa. This committee (the IAC) held countrywide panel discussions and seminars to provide information at a grassroots level about the harmful health effects of FGM/C. In February 1998, then president Diouf called for its eradication, and a national debate on the issue. The Ministry of Women, Children and the Family sponsored public programmes, and an information campaign was run on the radio. For the next ten months, following the presidential directive and in the wake of active debate among Senegal’s parliamentarians, legal scholars, religious leaders, and local anti-FGM/C activists and programme leaders, parliament enacted legislation outlawing the practice. In January 1999, a law prohibiting FGM/C was enacted under Article 229 of the country’s 1965 Penal Code (28 Too Many 2018, 2021).5 With the exception of Mali all other neighbouring countries have adopted laws prohibiting FGM/C: Guinea in 1965, revised in 2000; Mauritania 2005; Guinea-Bissau 2011; and The Gambia in 2015. The Ministry of Family Affairs then produced and adopted Action Plan 2000–2005, which aimed to eradicate FGM/C in Senegal by 2015. This was relaunched to cover 2010–2015 in partnership with the UN Joint Programme, starting in 2008. In addition, Law No. 2005–2018 on Reproductive Health in Senegal sets out in Article 4 that the relevant services to be provided by government include those specifically tackling FGM/C, sexual abuse, and practices harmful to reproductive health. Critics of the law argued that the Senegalese government had only adopted it to ‘please American sensitivities’ and ensure the continuation of American aid to Senegal (Shell-Duncan et al. 2013).

There is little documentation of any major protest against the enactment of the law in Senegal, although there has been notable resistance to its implementation and enforcement by those who feel that FGM/C is an important part of their culture that should continue. This defiance is demonstrated by several public outcries at the arrest of perpetrators over the years.