Translation

• Legislation should provide that this law shall be translated into all local languages. 

• Legislation should provide for educational materials on this law to be created for non-literate people.

• Legislation should also provide that during investigations or court cases licensed interpreters and cultural mediators are present to translate. Such interpreters or mediators should receive training on the issues related to FGM and should under go questioning from the court to determine they are eligible to provide accurate translation. 

Statistical Compilation on FGM

Legislation should provide that a state agency is mandated to keep statistics on how many women and girls have undergone FGM or are at risk of undergoing FGM so that the issue will not be marginalized and to promote law and policy implementation.  Legislation should mandate funding to obtain statistics over many years so that changes may be noted and analyzed.

• European Parliament Resolution of 24 March 2009 on combating female genital mutilation in the EU (2008/2071(INI)) P6_TA(2009)0161:

[The European Parliament] [c]alls on the Member States to quantify the number of women who have undergone FGM or are at risk in individual countries, taking into account the fact that there are as yet no figures available for many countries, which likewise do not have harmonized data-gathering systems.

Funding

Legislation should mandate funding to address the necessary aspects of creating change to stop the practice of FGM. This includes funding needed to implement the law, change social norms and influence individual beliefs and expectations. Funding to that end should be mandated for the child protection system, changes to the criminal justice system, to provide training and education, and to enable data collection on aspects relating to the new laws.

Time Frame to Enforce Laws

The time between the enactment and enforcement of a new FGM law must be carefully calculated so that amendments and regulations which are necessary to the enforcement of the new law will be enacted and promulgated speedily.

Amendments to Laws

Drafters should anticipate and allow for amendments to the law on FGM as unintended consequences and unforeseen manifestations of the practice of female genital mutilation occur.

Removal of Conflicting Provisions

Because the elimination of FGM involves extensive social change, drafters should review and reform other laws that prevent the equality of women and girls.  Legislation should require that laws, in any area, that conflict with the underlying goal of women’s equality, safety and education, be removed or amended. 

Drafters should specifically review conflicting customary and religious laws or situations of dual legal systems where civil law operates adjacent to customary or religious laws which often govern family relations and property rights and may discriminate against women. 

To this end, drafters should develop and review laws in other areas to ensure they reflect a commitment to establishing the equality of women and girls.  Examples include:

• Development of uniform civil laws relating to family and property law that have clear supremacy to conflicting customary or religious law.
• Development of laws that prevent discrimination against minorities.
• Development of immigration laws that protect and prioritize the rights of women and girls. 
• Development of laws that protect the advancement of women in employment. 
• Development of laws that ensure the right to health and education for women and girls.