Georgian Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani has announced that female genital mutilation (FGM) is to be criminalised, Netgazeti has reported.

On 24 January, the government approved the ratification of the Istanbul Convention on combatting domestic violence and violence against women, which includes criminalising FGM.

Female genital mutilation was first uncovered in Georgia in 2016 during an investigation conducted by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in Kvareli Municipality in northeastern Georgia, in the villages of Tivi, Saruso, and Chantliskure.

‘It is important to punish this kind of act under the Criminal Code, since several such cases have been uncovered lately on the territory of Georgia. Conducting female circumcision or forcing a woman to undergo the ritual based on religious, national, or ethnic traditions or without them will be punished. If the victim is pregnant, disabled, or not of legal age, these will be considered aggravating circumstances’, Tsulukiani said.