“Acts of female genital mutilation constitute acts of persecution on grounds of membership of a particular social group and, where their specific personal applicability to the applicant is established, constitute the basis for the recognition of refugee status pursuant to and for the purposes of Articles 2 et seq. of Legislative Decree No. 251 of 19 November 2007. […] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as early as May 2009, highlighted the seriousness and dangerousness of female genital mutilation, often carried out on newborns or girls under the age of fifteen, with extremely negative long-term physical and mental consequences, ultimately considering it as “a form of gender-based violence that inflicts severe harm, both physical and mental, and constitutes a well-founded ground of persecution. Indeed, all forms of FGM violate a range of human rights of girls and women, including the right to non-discrimination, the right to protection from physical and mental violence, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and, in the most extreme cases, the right to life. It is a form of inhuman and degrading treatment, equivalent to torture.”
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