Criminalising FGM — The Gambia's Women's (Amendment) Act 2015 and Its Enforcement Gap

The Gambia's Women's (Amendment) Act 2015 criminalised performing, aiding or promoting female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), setting penalties of up to three years' imprisonment, and life imprisonment where a girl dies from the procedure.

Enforcement has been weak: as of 2024, only two cases had been prosecuted in the ten years since the law passed, with a conviction secured in just one. In August 2023, three women in Bakadaji were fined 15,000 dalasi (about US$210) for cutting three girls and preparing to cut five more.

National prevalence among women aged 15–49 fell only slightly, from 74.9% in 2013 to 72.6% in 2019/20, according to UNFPA's 2024 FGM country snapshot for The Gambia. Anti-FGM campaigners, including Fatou Baldeh of Women in Liberation and Leadership (WILL), report that some families have responded to the ban by cutting girls earlier — as infants — to avoid detection.

In March 2024, the National Assembly voted down a bill that would have repealed the FGM ban, preserving the legal prohibition, according to Human Rights Watch reporting.

The Gambia is included here as a candid example of a legal reform whose protective intent has been only partially realised: criminalisation created a durable legal norm and successfully withstood a repeal attempt, but weak prosecution capacity and a reported shift toward cutting younger children mean measured outcomes for girls' protection remain limited.

Read the full analysis: https://www.unfpa.org/resources/2024-fgm-country-snapshot-gambia