In the light of the above, the Assembly calls on Council of
Europe member States to:
5.1 recognise
female genital mutilation as violence against women and children
and systematically include this issue in national procedures and
policies to combat violence, as well as to publicly condemn female
genital mutilation, including through relevant legislation;
5.2 run public awareness-raising and information campaigns
on combating female genital mutilation, provide information in the
languages most spoken by the practising communities, and support,
including financially, the initiatives of non-governmental organisations
in this field;
5.3 raise awareness among victims and their families of the
fact that, contrary to their beliefs, female genital mutilation
is not an issue of honour but an act of violence against women and
girls, and an act against the human right to health;
5.4 criminalise the act of subjecting a woman or girl to genital
mutilation or coercing her into undergoing it, and the act of inciting
a girl to undergo such an act, including where this is practised
by health-care professionals, or providing the perpetrator with
the means required for this purpose;
5.5 take all necessary measures to prevent girls from being
subjected to genital mutilation when travelling to their parents’
countries of origin and, to this end, step up international judicial
and police co-operation;
5.6 ensure extraterritorial jurisdiction for domestic courts
so that criminal prosecutions can be initiated when mutilation has
been committed abroad on, or by, nationals or residents of Council
of Europe member States;
5.7 sign and/or ratify the Council of Europe Convention on
Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence
(CETS No. 210, “Istanbul Convention”), fully apply its provisions and
co-operate to the closest possible extent with the Group of Experts
on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO)
and the Committee of the Parties in monitoring implementation of
this convention;
5.8 provide women and girls who have been subjected to or
are at risk of being subjected to genital mutilation with access
to emergency services, such as free helplines and shelters, and
to health-care and advice services;
5.9 arrange and co-ordinate the collection, at national level
and in line with a common methodology, of data on cases of female
genital mutilation, ensure they are disseminated to the authorities
involved in the fight against these practices, with due regard for
international data protection and confidentiality standards, and
on this basis frame appropriate and targeted policies to bring an
end to female genital mutilation;
5.10 train health-care professionals, teachers, the police,
social workers and those working in reception centres for asylum
seekers in how to detect female genital mutilation in a culturally
sensitive manner without diminishing the seriousness of the practice,
and set up mechanisms making it possible to identify girls at risk
or those having been subjected to genital mutilation;
5.11 encourage the reporting of women or girls at risk by providing
adequate legal protection to professionals where reporting is mandatory;
5.12 provide training for health-care professionals to enable
them to diagnose female genital mutilation and provide appropriate
care for women and girls suffering from the physical and psychological
consequences of this mutilation;
5.13 recognise female genital mutilation, or the well-founded
fear of female genital mutilation, as persecution within the meaning
of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, introduce
gender-sensitive asylum procedures and incorporate the female genital
mutilation issue into individual interviews with women coming from
countries where this is practised;
5.14 include the fight against female genital mutilation in
international co-operation and development aid activities.
