Female Genital Mutilation: A Guide to Laws and Policies Worldwide (review).

Harvard Human Rights Journal. August 2001;23(3):836-840.

Neuwirth J.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Jessica Neuwirth – Female Genital Mutilation: A Guide to Laws and Policies Worldwide (review) – Human Rights Quarterly 23:3 Human Rights Quarterly 23.3 (2001) 836-840 Book Review Female Genital Mutilation: A Guide to Laws and Policies Worldwide Female Genital Mutilation: A Guide to Laws and Policies Worldwide, by Anika Rahman & Nahid Toubia (Zed Books, 2000). Female Genital Mutilation: A Guide to Laws and Policies Worldwide is a book that attempts to fulfill a dual purpose, to serve both as a an analytical review of efforts to stop female genital mutilation (FGM) and as a documentary resource on laws relating to FGM. The book accomplishes this latter purpose more successfully than the former. Part II of the book, entitled “Reference,” contains a country-by-country guide to the laws of forty-one countries, including twenty-eight African countries in which FGM is practiced and thirteen European, North American and Asian Pacific countries in which issues relating to FGM have arisen with regard to immigrant populations from Africa. The inclusion of relevant legal text is particularly helpful as often these texts are very difficult to obtain. There are also several useful charts in Part II of the book, including one summarizing the status of law in these countries, with a clearly organized breakdown of criminal laws, child protection laws, constitutional laws, civil laws and ministerial decrees, as well as a breakdown of laws and regulations specifically…

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