Ending FGM/C as a global health emergency: Insights from the World Health Summit

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) is not only a grave violation of human rights but also a global health emergency demanding urgent, coordinated action. This was the resounding message from the 2025 World Health Summit, where the Global Platform for Action to End FGM/C along with Equality Now, the Orchid Project, the End FGM European Network and The Girl Generation hosted their first-ever session at this influential forum. Experts, advocates, and survivors called for recognition of FGM/C as a major health issue affecting over 230 million women and girls worldwide, with mounting evidence on its medical, psychological, and economic toll.

A first for the global health agenda

Opening the discussion, Anush Aghabalyan, Head of Advocacy and Policy at Orchid Project, stressed the need to reframe FGM/C as both a human rights violation and a health emergency. “FGM is often framed as a cultural practice, but it’s one of the worst forms of gender-based violence,” she explained. “At the same time, given its severe consequences, it is a profound health crisis.”

This marked a turning point, signalling that the international community must approach prevention, survivor support, and accountability through the lens of public health.

The scale and cost of the crisis

Dr Pascale Allotey, Director of WHO’s Department of Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, outlined the economic and ethical implications. FGM/C is documented in over 90 countries, with an annual medical cost of USD 1.4 billion, projected to rise at the current rate of progress.

Medicalisation, the performance of FGM/C by healthcare professionals, was identified as a pressing issue. Dr Allotey warned, “It gives an illusion of safety, yet it violates the fundamental principle of medicine: do no harm.” She urged investment in health systems that view women and girls as agents of change, not as problems to be solved.

The hidden trauma and the power of language

Dr Leyla Hussein, Global Advocacy Director at The Girl Generation and a psychotherapist, spoke as both an expert and survivor. She described how FGM/C performed in medical settings can heighten trauma, and stressed the psychological impact on survivors, including post-traumatic stress and fear of healthcare settings.

Hussein underscored the importance of language in shaping perception and healing. “When we call FGM a ‘procedure’ or ‘practice’, we sanitise violence. Survivors can choose their own words, but institutions must call it what it is: mutilation,” she said.

FGM/C: A global health issue, not a regional one

Marianne Nguenna Kana of the End FGM European Network dispelled the myth that FGM/C is confined to Africa. She cited data showing it occurs in at least 94 countries across multiple continents. Integrating FGM/C into discussions on maternal health, mental health, and family planning, she said, is essential. “Every time we talk about maternal mortality or safe childbirth, FGM must be part of that discussion.”

She also shared that every euro invested in prevention can yield a return of up to 180 euros, a powerful argument for governments and donors to act now.

University of Birmingham’s new research now reveals a devastating reality: FGM/C is one of the leading causes of death for girls and young women in countries where it’s practised. FGM/C can result in death from severe bleeding, infection, shock, or obstructed labour.

The study estimates that it causes approximately 44,000 deaths each year across the 15 countries we examined. That is equivalent to a young woman or girl every 12 minutes.

This makes it a more significant cause of death in the countries studied than any other excluding infection, malaria and respiratory infections or tuberculosis. Put differently, it is a bigger cause of death than HIV/Aids, measles, meningitis and many other well-known health threats for young women and girls in these countries.

Confronting medicalisation within the health sector

Dr Maryam En-Nosse, Senior Consultant Gynaecologist and representative of FIGO, reflected on a systemic lack of medical training on FGM/C in many countries. “There is no safe, sterile, or ‘less harmful’ version of mutilation,” she stated, calling for global integration of FGM/C education into medical curricula.

The situation in Asia: normalising violence

Divya Srinivasan, Ending Harmful Practices Lead at Equality Now, presented findings showing that 80 million women and girls in Asia have been subjected to FGM/C. She warned that medicalisation is being normalised, even marketed as part of newborn care in countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. “Medicalisation of FGM/C being normalised and even commercialised,” she said, “is profoundly dangerous.”

Srinivasan highlighted accountability gaps, noting that Indonesia is the only country in Asia with a legal provision directly addressing FGM/C.

Building political will and accountability

Closing the session, participants called for bold, survivor-centred action: zero-tolerance policies, legal accountability, ethical standards in healthcare, and sustained funding.

Dr Allotey reiterated WHO’s feminist health approach: “Invest in health systems that are feminist, systems that see women not as problems to be solved but as agents of change.”

Speakers concluded with a shared commitment: to embed FGM/C into global health policy, to amplify survivor voices, and to drive accountability. Ending FGM/C is not only possible, it is imperative for achieving gender equality and global health justice.