'The right to live without female genital mutilation' is the baseline of a new campaign launched on 20 July by the Deputy Prime Minister Eduardo Cabrita and the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality Catarina Marcelino. The awareness campaign will be carried out at airports all over Portugal until September, through the distribution of diverse informative material displaying the message 'It's not tradition, it's not culture, it's a crime'. The goal of this campaign is to provide information on the consequences and risks of female genital mutilation (FGM).

A recent report (March 2015) funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology estimated that the total number of foreign women living in Portugal, aged 15 or more, who may have been subjected to this practice is 6,576. This corresponds to 49% of women living in Portugal and born in countries where FGM is practiced. Cases have been identified among migrant communities from Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Senegal, to name the most numerically relevant. The report also estimated that among the 3,832 girls under 15 years living in Portugal, coming from a set of 28 countries, 1,830 have or will be subjected to this practice before turning 15. Along with specific training for health professionals working in hospital and health centres, prevention is one of the recommendations of the report which considers awareness raising as a powerful tool in the protection of this group of children at risk of undergoing such practices. 

The campaign is a joint initiative of the Portuguese government and various public and private entities. It is part of the III Program of Action for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation 2014-2017.

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