ARC has posted a translation of a 2013 Swiss legal case upholding a child’s right to genital autonomy. As far as we know this case is previously unknown to the activist and scholar communities.
The Swiss cantonal court held that a four-year-old Muslim boy could not be circumcised because the proposed procedure was inconsistent with the child’s welfare and the decision could be delayed until the child could make the choice himself. The court noted in passing the inconsistent legal treatment of female genital cutting (FGC) and male genital cutting (MGC) and the incongruity of “a special offense solely for injury to the female genitals but not to the male genitals.”
ARC had the case translated from German and we are hereby publishing the translation as we consider it an important case.