Attaining International Acknowledgment of Male Genital Mutilation as a Human Rights Violation

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges facing lawyers and other activists advocating a halt to male “circumcision,” or male genital mutilation, is achieving universal agreement that this practice constitutes a human rights violation. A straightforward reading of numerous human rights treaties demonstrates that circumcision constitutes a violation of numerous international agreements. Acknowledgments of this fact have been recorded by scholars, non-governmental organisations, courts, and the United Nations. To date, neither the United Nations nor any other major, internationally recognised human rights agency or non-governmental organisations has initiated any program to pursue the eradication of male genital mutilation. The organisation to which such a campaign must ultimately be addressed is, of course, the United Nations.