Female genital mutilation : report from online discussion

The online discussion on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) took place on 29th October 2013. It was organised on foot of the recent European Institute of Gender Equality (EIGE) report on 'Female Genital Mutilation in the European Union and Croatia'1. This report identified the need to establish a common understanding of prevalence of FGM within the EU Member States. It noted a lack of comparable data on this issue across the Member States due to a lack of harmonisation of methodologies, definitions and approaches used and due to the wide variety of information sources used to collect data and to estimate the extent of FGM at national or regional levels. The online discussion sought to: Advance the development of a common EU-wide definition of prevalence of FGM; Explore common indicators and harmonised methodologies in the EU to determine the prevalence of FGM. This report of the online discussion aims to support a broad dissemination of the insights and learning from the debates. It seeks to inform about progress on data collection and measurement of FGM that in turn would enhance policy development, awareness raising and other work on this issue. This report summarises the key points made and themes explored in the online discussion. Inevitably, it is impossible to reflect fully the variety of ideas and perspectives brought forward.