Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Green-top Guideline no. 53. 2009.
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION AND ITS MANAGEMENT
An extract from its first page:
This Guideline, published as an RCOG Statement in 2003 under the same title, has been revised as a Greentop Guideline.
1 Background and introduction
1.1 Definition
Female genital mutilation is defined as all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs, whether for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons.
There are controversies over the use of the term ‘mutilation’. According to a joint WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA statement, the use of the word mutilation reinforces the idea that this practice is a violation of the human rights of girls and women and thereby helps to promote national and international advocacy towards its abandonment. They also state that, at the community and individual level, the term can be problematic. In this spirit, in 1999, the UN Special Reporter on Traditional Practices called for tact when dealing with individual patients and suggests that the term ‘cutting’ may be more acceptable.
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