Entitled, empowered or victims – an analysis of discourses on male and female circumcision, genital mutilation/cutting and genital cosmetic surgery

ABSTRACT

Male and female circumcision/genital cutting/mutilation involve conflicting human rights, such as the right to bodily integrity and the right to culture or religion. However, operations performed on (even neonatal) male genitalia are widely accepted, whereas any operation for cultural or religious reasons on female genitalia – whether infant or adult – is considered a human rights violation. This article analyses the differences in human rights discourses on these topics and questions the validity of and the justifications for these different approaches. It looks beyond the ‘children’s rights vs. parent’s/family rights’ – discourses and focuses on revealing and analysing the underlying gendered structures that cause different approaches to male and female circumcision/genital cutting/mutilation and that affect adults as well as children. In this analysis, it will also compare female circumcision/genital cutting/mutilation to genital cosmetic surgeries. The article will also employ feminist and Foucault’s theories on power to explain why and how these different approaches in human rights discourses are created, and how they both enforce and rely on heteronormative structures in societies. These processes place people in different positions according to their culture and gender, and can simultaneously either offer or deny protection against human rights violations, victimise or empower.

KEYWORDS:

• Human rights
• gender
• circumcision
• female genital mutilation (FGM)
• female genital cutting (FGC)
• genital cosmetic surgery

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

E. Katariina Paakkanen has obtained LL.M., LL.B. and B.Soc.Sci. degrees from the University of Helsinki, Finland, and is also a PhD student at the University of Helsinki. She currently works at the criminal and procedural law unit in the ministry of justice in Finland. She has been awarded with a grant for her PhD by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Her PhD studies are focused on public international law and human rights.

ORCID

E. Katariina Paakkanen http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1206-3300

Notes

1. See for example: Rebecca Steinfeld’s webpage, ‘Hysteria: Male Circumcision is a Feminist Issue Too’, http://www.rebeccasteinfeld.com/2015/01/hysteria-male-circumcision-is-feminist_29.html (accessed March 27, 2019).

2. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Male Circumcision, Global Trends and Determinants of Prevalence Safety and Acceptability (2007), http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/rtis/9789241596169/en/ (accessed July 25, 2018), 3.

3. Brian J. Morris et al., ‘Estimation of Country-specific and Global Prevalence of Male Circumcision’, Population Health Metrics 14, no. 4 (2016): 4–6.

4. Ibid., 5; Male Circumcision, Global Trends, 7.

5. Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot bevordering der Geneeskunst (KNMG), The Non-therapeutic Circumcision of Male Minors (2010), http://www.circumstitions.com/Docs/KNMG-policy.pdf, 7.

6. Ibid., 7; The WHO states on its webpage that circumcision could reduce the possibility to contract HIV with as much as 60% (http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/malecircumcision/en/ accessed July 27, 2018).

7. International NGO Council on Violence Against Children, Violating Children’s Rights: Harmful Practices Based on Tradition, Culture, Religion or Superstition (2012), https://www.crin.org/en/docs/InCo_Report_15Oct.pdf, 22; Male Circumcision, Global Trends, 20–21.

8. Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, ‘Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention: A Prospective Study of Complications in Clinical and Traditional Settings in Bungoma, Kenya’, https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/9/08-051482/en/ (accessed March 22, 2019).

9. T. Hammond, ‘A Preliminary Poll of Men Circumcised in Infancy or Childhood’, BJU International 83, Suppl. 1 (1999): 87; Travis Wisdom, ‘Questioning Circumcisionism: Feminism, Gender Equity, and Human Rights’, Righting Wrongs, a Journal of Human Rights 2, no. 1 (2012): 9.

10. Hammond, ‘A Preliminary Poll of Men Circumcised’, 86–7; Jennifer A. Bossio and Caroline F. Pukall, ‘Attitude Toward One’s Circumcision Status Is More Important than Actual Circumcision Status for Men’s Body Image and Sexual Functioning’, Archives of Sexual Behavior (September 2017), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319635437_Attitude_Toward_One's_Circumcision_Status_Is_More_Important_than_Actual_Circumcision_Status_for_Men's_Body_Image_and_Sexual_Functioning (accessed March 28, 2019).

11. Hammond, ‘A Preliminary Poll of Men Circumcised’, 88; Brandon Loehle et al., ‘Predictors of Men’s Genital Self-image Across Sexual Orientation and Geographic Region’, The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 26, no. 2 (2017): 135.

12. Bossio and Pukall, ‘Attitude Toward One’s Circumcision Status’.

13. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1990, articles 30, 19, 24 (1), (3); Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 1989 [ECHR], articles 2 and 5.

14. Committee on the Rights of the Child, The right of the child to freedom from all forms of violence, General Comment No. 13, 2011, CRC/C/GC/13, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/CRC.C.GC.13_en.pdf, paras 17, 29.

15. Ibid., paras 17, 29.

16. Parliamentary assembly, Children’s Right to Physical Integrity, Resolution 1952, 2013, http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=20174&lang=en, para. 2.

17. Ibid., paras 7.5.1, 7.5.2.

18. UN, ‘UN Launches Plan to Accelerate Male Circumcision for AIDS Prevention in Africa’, https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/12/397192-un-launches-plan-accelerate-male-circumcision-aids-prevention-africa (accessed July 30, 2018); World Health Organization (WHO), Manual for Male Circumcision Under Local Anaesthesia and HIV Prevention Services for Adolescent Boys and Men (2018), http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/malecircumcision/male-circumcision-guide-2018/en/ (accessed May 24, 2018).

19. WHO, Manual for Male Circumcision, 4.

20. Ibid., 16.

21. Male Circumcision, Global Trends, 21.

22. Ibid., 28.

23. International NGO Council on Violence Against Children, Violating Children’s Rights, 21–2. See also: IntactNews, ‘List of Organizations Against Genital Mutilation’, http://www.intactnews.org/node/85/1309998189/list-organizations-against-genital-mutilation (accessed March 21, 2019).

24. Joint statement from the Nordic Ombudsmen for Children and pediatric experts, http://lapsiasia.fi/en/tata-mielta/aloitteet/aloitteet-2013/joint-statement-from-the-nordic-ombudsmen-for-children-and-pediatric-experts/.

25. ‘Ban On Circumcision In Iceland To Be Dismissed in Parliament’, The Reykjavik Grapevine, April 26, 2018, https://grapevine.is/news/2018/04/26/ban-on-circumcision-to-be-dismissed-in-parliament/ (accessed July 30, 2018).

26. See for example: ‘New Law on Male Circumcision in Sweden’, The Lancet (2002), https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2802%2907737-1 (accessed September 12, 2018).

27. KKO 2008:93, para. 15. The court also refers to other decisions of the ECtHR Johansen v. Norway, 7 August 1996, Reports 1996-III, para. 78; Scozzari and Giunta v. Italy, 13 July 2000, Reports 2000-VIII, para. 169.

28. Finnish Government Proposal 309/1993, 56.

29. Ibid., paras 17, 20, 23.

30. Emphasis added.

31. Ibid., para. 24.

32. Ibid., paras 25–6.

33. Ibid., para. 27.

34. KKO 2016:25, para. 27.

35. Landgericht Köln, 151 Ns 169/11.

36. Ibid., paras 7, 11.

37. Ibid., para. 7.

38. Ibid., para. 17.

39. Ibid., para. 11, 13.

40. Ibid., para. 14.

41. Ibid., para. 14.

42. ‘German Government Looking for Quick Fix on Circumcision Ban’, Times of Israel, July 13, 2012, http://www.timesofisrael.com/german-government-looking-for-quick-fix-on-circumcision-ban/ (accessed December 17, 2017); ‘German Court Sets New Circumcision Rules’, The Spiegel online, September 27, 2013, http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/new-circumcision-ruling-requires-doctors-to-discuss-procedure-a-924984.html (accessed September 17, 2017).

43. ‘German Circumcision Law Still Under Fire’, DW, December 12, 2013, https://www.dw.com/en/german-circumcision-law-still-under-fire/a-17288899 (accessed July 30, 2018).

44. Court of Appeals of Washington, State of Washington v. Baxter, No. 32766-0-II, August 15, 2006, paras 2–3.

45. Ibid., para. 26.

46. Ibid., para. 27. Emphasis added.

47. Ibid., para. 33.

48. Ibid., para. 33.

49. See: European Commission, ‘Questions and Answers about Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C)’, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-249_en.htm (accessed September 30, 2018).

50. WHO, ‘Factsheet on Female Genital Mutilation’, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en (accessed September 30, 2018).

51. The fold of skin surrounding the clitoris.

52. The inner folds of the vulva.

53. The outer folds of skin of the vulva.

54. WHO, ‘Factsheet on Female Genital Mutilation’.

55. Ibid.

56. Ibid.; UNICEF, ‘UNICEF Data, Female Genital Mutilation’, https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/female-genital-mutilation/ (accessed July 30, 2018).

57. UNICEF, ‘UNICEF’s data work on FGM/C’, https://www.unicef.org/media/files/FGMC_2016_brochure_final_UNICEF_SPREAD.pdf (accessed July 30, 2018); UNICEF, ‘UNICEF Data, Female Genital Mutilation’.

58. UN, ‘Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform’, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300 (accessed July 30, 2018).

59. UN General Assembly, ‘Resolution 17.2.2015’, A/Res/69/150, http://undocs.org/A/RES/69/150.

60. UN General Assembly, ‘Resolution’, 2.

61. UN General Assembly, ‘Resolution’, 4.

62. The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, 11.V.2011, Council of Europe Treaty Series – No. 210. See the list of parties that have ratified the convention: https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/210/signatures.

63. Emphasis added.

64. Council of Europe, ‘Parliamentary Assembly Resolution 1952, 2013’, http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=20174, para.7.5.1.

65. WHO, ‘Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation’, http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/fgm/about/en/ (accessed August 10, 2018).

66. Male Circumcision, Global Trends, 27.

67. Male Circumcision, Global Trends, 28.

68. UNFPA, ‘Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Frequently Asked Questions’, http://www.unfpa.org/resources/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-frequently-asked-questions#whatisfgm (accessed July 30, 2018).

69. UNICEF, ‘UNICEF Data, Female Genital Mutilation’.

70. ‘Those involved in FGM will find ways to evade UK law’, The Guardian, March 7, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/07/reported-cases-fgm-rise-sharply-uk-no-court-convictions (accessed July 30, 2018).

71. ‘CPS Defends Decision to Bring FGM Case Against Doctor Acquitted in 30 Minutes’, The Guardian, February 5, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/05/cps-chief-alison-saunders-fgm-case-doctor-acquitted-30-minutees (accessed July 30, 2018).

72. ‘UK Solicitor Cleared of Forcing Daughter to Undergo FGM’, The Guardian, March 22, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/22/uk-solicitor-acquited-forcing-daughter-fgm-female-genital-mutilation (accessed July 30, 2018).

73. ‘Doctor Cleared Over FGM Says Women Should be Free to have Intimate Surgery’, Evening Standard, February 28, 2017, https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/doctor-cleared-over-fgm-says-women-should-be-free-to-have-intimate-surgery-a3477941.html (accessed July 30, 2018).

74. See: Yahyaoui Krivenko, ‘Rethinking Human Rights & Culture Through Female Genital Surgeries’, Human Rights Quarterly 37 (2015): 120–2.

75. Sara Johnsdotter and Ruth M. Mestre i Mestre, Female Genital Mutilation: An Analysis of Court Cases, European Commission Report (2015), http://muep.mau.se/handle/2043/20517 (accessed July 30, 2018), 20–1.

76. WHO, ‘Factsheet on Female Genital Mutilation’.

77. See for example: American Society of Plastic Surgeons, ‘Vaginal Rejuvenation’, https://www.plasticsurgery.org/cosmetic-procedures/vaginal-rejuvenation/vaginoplasty (accessed August 10, 2018); Birgitta Essén and Sara Johnsdotter, ‘Female Genital Mutilation in the West: Traditional Circumcision Versus Genital Cosmetic Surgery’, Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica 83 (2004): 612.

78. See for example: NHS, ‘Your Guide to Cosmetic Procedures’, https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cosmetic-treatments/labiaplasty/ (accessed August 10, 2018); Women’s Health Queensland, ‘Genital Cosmetic Surgery’, https://womhealth.org.au/conditions-and-treatments/genital-cosmetic-surgery (accessed August 10, 2018); ‘Labiaplasty: Vaginal Surgery “World’s Fastest-growing Cosmetic Procedure” Says Plastic Surgeons’, The Independent, July 12, 2018, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/labiaplasty-vagina-surgery-cosmetic-procedure-plastic-study-international-society-aesthetic-plastic-a7837181.html (accessed August 10, 2018).

79. International Society of Aesthetic Surgery, The International Study on Aesthetic/Cosmetic Procedures Performed in 2016 https://www.isaps.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/GlobalStatistics2016-1.pdf (accessed August 10, 2018), 7–8.

80. Ibid., 27.

81. Women’s wellness institute of Dallas, ‘Health Benefits to Vaginoplasty’, https://www.womenswellnessinstitute.com/health-benefits-to-vaginoplasty/ (accessed August 10, 2018); The center for cosmetic & reconstructive gynecology, ‘Benefits of Vaginoplasty’, https://www.cosmeticlasergynecology.com/cosmetic-gynecology/the-benefits-of-vaginoplasty/ (accessed August 10, 2018).

82. ‘Online Pornography Blamed as Girls ‘as Young as Nine’ Seek Vaginal Cosmetic Surgery, Doctors Reveal’, The Independent, July 3, 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gynaecology-girls-aged-nine-vaginal-cosmetic-surgery-pornography-social-media-naomi-crouch-paquita-a7821186.html (accessed August 10, 2018).

83. Women’s Health Queensland, ‘Genital Cosmetic Surgery’; Awid Women’s Rights, ‘Female Genital Mutilation and Cosmetic Genital Surgery: Do They Have Anything in Common’, https://www.awid.org/news-and-analysis/female-genital-mutilation-and-cosmetic-genital-surgery-do-they-have-anything (accessed August 10, 2018); Navneet Magon and Red Alinsod, ‘Female Cosmetic Genital Surgery: Delivering What Women Want’, The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology of India 67, no. 1 (January–February 2017): 16.

84. Magon and Alinsod, ‘Delivering What Women Want’, 17.

85. See for example: American Society of Plastic Surgeons, ‘Vaginal Rejuvenation’; Plastic Surgery Center, ‘Intiimikirurgia’, https://www.plasticsurgery.fi/projektit/intiimikirurgia/ (accessed August 10, 2018); NHS, ‘Your Guide to Cosmetic Procedures’.

86. Krivenko, ‘Rethinking Human Rights’, 120.

87. Lord Kennet, Lords Sitting January 23, 1984, Prohibition of Female Circumcision Bill [H.K.], para 78, https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1984/jan/23/prohibition-of-female-circumcision-bill#column_78 (accessed August 10, 2018).

88. UNFPA, ‘Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Frequently Asked Questions’.

89. See for example: KKO 2016:25, paras 25–6.

90. ‘Religious Defense Planned in Landmark Detroit Genital Mutilation Case’, Detroit Free Press, May 21, 2017, https://www.freep.com/story/news/2017/05/21/female-genital-mutilation-religious-freedom/319911001/ (accessed July 30, 2018).

91. WHO, ‘Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation’.

92. KNMG, The Non-therapeutic Circumcision of Male Minors, 5.

93. Henriette Dahan Kalev, ‘Cultural Rights or Human Rights: The Case of Female Genital Mutilation’, Sex Roles 51, no. 5/6 (2004): 340.

94. See similar argumentation in Kira Antinuk, 2014 ‘Forced Genital Cutting in North America: Feminist Theory and Nursing Considerations’, Nursing Ethics 20, no. 6 (2014): 726.

95. Hilary Charlesworth, ‘Feminist Methods in International Law’, American Journal of International Law 93, no. 379 (1999): 379–80.

96. John Gledhill, ‘The Power of Ethnic Nationalism: Foucault’s Bio-power and the Development of Ethnic Nationalism in Eastern Europe’, National Identities 7, no.4 (12/2005): 136.

97. Gledhill, ‘The Power Of Ethnic Nationalism’, 353; S. Hänninen and J. Karjalainen, eds., Biovallan kysymyksiä, kirjoituksia köyhyyden ja sosiaalisten uhkien hallinnoimisesta (Tampere: Gaudeamus, 1997), 12.

98. Gledhill, ‘The Power of Ethnic Nationalism’, 358; Vanessa Eveline Munro, ‘On Power and Domination, Feminish and the Final Foucault’, European Journal of Political Theory, 2, no. 79 (2003): 84–5; Hänninen and Karjalainen, Biovallan kysymyksiä, 13.

99. See for example, Costas Douzinas, The End of Human Rights (Oxford: Hart publishing, 2002).

100. See for example: Gillian Youngs, ‘Private Pain/Public Peace: Women’s Rights as Human Rights and Amnesty International’s Report on Violence against Women’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28, no. 4 (2003): 1212–6.

101. Dianne Otto, International Law and Its Others, ed. Anne Orford (Cambridge, 2006), 318.

102. René Urueña, No Citizens Here: Global Subjects and Participation in International Law (Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2012), 113–6.

103. Douzinas, The End of Human Rights, 372.

104. See: Memorandum from George W. Bush to the Vice President et al., ‘Humane Treatment of al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees’ (February 7, 2002).

105. See Miriam Pollack, ‘Circumcision: Identity, Gender, and Power’, Tikkun, https://www.tikkun.org/newsite/circumcision-identity-gender-and-power (accessed March 27, 2019).

106. Krivenko, ‘Rethinking Human Rights’, 127–8.

107. UNFPA, ‘Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Frequently Asked Questions’.