Access to Justice: Accelerating the Abandonment of FGM/C
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ACCESS TO JUSTICE: ACCELERATING THE
ABANDONMENT OF FGM/C
Gretchen Kail*
I. INTRODUCTION
Comprehensive national legislation plays a key role in chang-
ing social norms.! Change in national-level legal norms can di-
rectly impact traditional, cultural practices, but top-down
approaches alone cannot create sustainable norm change.2 Last-
ing, meaningful social change requires the participation of those
most closely affected by the social norm.3 Through a bottom-up
approach, legislation can directly empower women, girls and their
communities, provide greater leverage for collective action, and
support social norm change.'
FGM/C5 affects the lives of millions of women and
* Gretchen Kail was a Juris Doctor Candidate at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The
author thanks Ms. Ivana Minoska for her ongoing encouragement in finalizing this work. Be-
cause of the opportunity to try and walk in her shoes, the author's love and heartfelt thanks goes
out to Ms. Ann Lee Skalski.
1 Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR], Good
Practices and Major Challenges in Preventing and Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation, ¶ 4,
U.N. Doc. A/HRC/29/20 (Mar. 27, 2015) [Hereinafter OHCHR, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/29/20].
2 UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUN! [UNICEF], CHANGING A HARMFUL CONVENTION:
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION/CUTrING (2008) [hereinafter UNICEF, CHANGING A HARMFUL
CONVENTION].
3 Monkman et al., The transformatory potential of a village empowerment program: The
Tostan replication in Mali, 30 WOMEN'S STUD. INT'L F. 451 (2007).
4 OHCHR, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/29/20, supra note 1; see also UNICEF, CHANGING A HARM-
FUL CONVENTION, supra note 2.
5 A word on terminology: female genital cutting, female genital mutilation, and fe-
male genital mutilation/cutting, refer to the same practice or procedure. Mutilation empha-
sizes the gravity of the act while adding the word cutting reflects a more neutral,
nonjudgmental approach. See WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION [WHO], ELIMINATING FEMALE
GENITAL MUTILATION: AN INTERAGENCY STATEMENT 3 (2008) [hereinafter WHO, AN INTER-
AGENCY STATEMENT]. Attempting to frame the discussion of legislation and issues of access to
justice within the social norm and cultural components of the practice, this Note follows the
guidance of some United Nations (U.N.) agencies and refers to the practice as female genital
mutilation/cutting (FGMIC); c.f ISLAMIC RELIEF CANADA, FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING IN IN-
DONESIA: A FIELD STUDY 9 (Mar. 2013-2016) (using female genital circumcision throughout a
report on the practice in Indonesian society); see also Sandra Danial, Cultural Relativism vs.
Universalism: Female Genital Mutilation, Pragmatic Remedies, PRANDIUM, Spring, 2013, at 1-10
(addressing the practice within the cultural relativism and universalism debate).
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Access to Justice: Accelerating the Abandonment of FGM/C
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