Asylum Network

Health Professional Advocacy Helps Achieve FGC Victory

In an extraordinary win for women's rights, US Attorney General Michael Mukasey found that past female genital cutting (FGC) may be a basis for women and girls to seek asylum in the United States. This ruling (pdf)—only the third of its kind in three years—opens the door for all women, both those who fear undergoing FGC and those who have been subjected to the practice in the past, to seek asylum in the United States. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), the administrative tribunal that decides appeals of deportation cases, initially ordered the deportation of a young woman who had been subjected to FGC in her home country of Mali. The BIA reasoned that FGC can only happen once. The woman, according to BIA reasoning, therefore had no fear of future persecution as generally is required in asylum cases. The Attorney General, exercising a rarely-invoked procedure that permits him to review BIA decisions, said the BIA's holding in this matter was flawed. The AG directed the BIA to review its original decision.

In an open letter (pdf) to the Attorney General during his consideration of this case, dozens of health professional members of Physicians for Human Rights cited the lasting physical and mental effects of female genital cutting, a harmful traditional practice that each year affects millions of women, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.  

Together with several other NGOs and medical associations, PHR reviewed and signed an amicus brief (pdf) in support of this case and helped coordinate health professional advocacy on this issue.

Related Links:

• AG: Don't deport genital mutilation victim from CNN.com
• Mukasey Vacates Panel's Decision Denying Asylum to Malian Woman from The New York Times
• Court Ordered to Reconsider Asylum Case from The Washington Post
• Genital mutilation victim gets a new chance at asylum in U.S. from The Los Angeles Times