Family Law

Female genital mutilation (FGM) was made a specific criminal offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 and is now regulated by the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, as amended by the Serious Crime Act 2015. The latter introduced FGM protection orders, which are civil orders, primarily designed to protect girls at risk of FGM. Since 2015 several cases have reached the courts and this article considers the most recent of them. Ruth Gaffney-Rhys's article in the September issue of Family Law ([2018] Fam Law 1157) begins with an overview of the criminal law provisions and is followed by a discussion of the two cases tried in the Crown Court in 2018. The article proceeds to explain FGM protection orders and analyses three applications recently heard in the High Court, ie M v F and another [2017] EWHC 3566 (Fam), Re X (A Child) (Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order) (Restrictions on Travel) [2017] EWHC 2898 (Fam), [2018] FLR (forthcoming) and A Local Authority v M and N (Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order) [2018] EWHC 870, [2018] FLR (forthcoming).

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The full version of this article appears in the September 2018 issue of Family Law. 

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