FGM – health, law, education and sustainable goals through upstream and downstream approaches

Gerry QC, FR; Rowland, A; Proudman, C; Home, J; Ali, H

Abstract

This chapter takes a health law and education perspective through consideration of two
significant projects. Firstly, one-to-one interviews with FGM survivors as part of a PhD thesis and
secondly, a community FGM education project. It is based on a collection of works by the authors where
we argue that the use of law in the UK may have reached its outer limits in the ability to prevent FGM
and that a combined health and law approach through a combined upstream and downstream public
health strategy aimed at protecting women and girls through eradication may be a way to reach the
United Nations ‘Sustainable Development Goals to eradicate FGM’ (SDG). It concludes that the health
sector needs to engage as an equal partner with other sectors in national FGM abandonment strategies
for a well-coordinated multi-sectoral partnership. A combined health, law and education approach with
a public health model of intervention, incorporating upstream and downstream policies and initiatives,
is likely to be the only realistic way of eradicating FGM within the timeframe set by the UN.

• Online Publication Date: Dec 4, 2023
• Publication Date: Dec 4, 2023
• Deposit Date: Oct 25, 2021
• Publisher: Routledge
• Book Title: The Routledge International Handbook of Harmful Cultural Practices
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003316701
• Contract Date: Oct 24, 2021