Colombia’s Senate approved legislation prohibiting female genital mutilation, advancing a national response to a practice reported in some Indigenous communities. The vote followed two years of legislative debate and sent the measure to President Gustavo Petro for approval.
If Petro approves the bill, Colombia would become the first country in Latin America to enact legislation specifically banning female genital mutilation. The proposal addresses a practice that has persisted despite years of advocacy about its effects on girls and women.
Female genital mutilation involves the partial or complete removal of external female genital tissue for non-medical reasons. The World Health Organization considers the procedure a cause of serious health damage, a potential risk to life and a violation of girls’ fundamental rights. Those risks place the issue at the intersection of public health, child protection and human rights.
The scale of the practice in Colombia remains difficult to establish. A total of 204 cases were reported between 2020 and 2025, although the actual number is believed to be substantially higher. Equality Now, a nongovernmental organization, says Colombia is the only Latin American country where the practice is still known to occur. Its origins in the country are unclear.
Reporting from Colombia’s western, mountainous coffee-growing region has documented the issue in ancestral territories of the Embera Chami and Katio peoples. The practice affects hundreds of girls there, according to the account cited in the reporting. The persistence of cases, coupled with suspected underreporting, has complicated efforts to measure the problem and protect children at risk.
Testimony from affected women has also exposed the consequences across generations. Alejandrina Guasorna, a 74-year-old farmer, learned only in adulthood that she had undergone the procedure shortly after birth. She described growing up in surroundings where deaths of girls connected to the practice were treated as normal.
Embera Indigenous leader Juliana Domico addressed the Senate during consideration of the legislation. She rejected the characterization of genital mutilation as an Indigenous cultural tradition, describing it instead as a harmful practice that had been imposed. Her intervention placed an Indigenous voice directly within the legislative debate and challenged arguments that might frame prohibition as an attack on culture.
The Senate vote is a major legislative step, but the prohibition had not yet taken effect as of the event date. Presidential approval remained necessary. Until that decision, the measure’s legal status was that of legislation approved by the Senate rather than an enacted national ban. The debate therefore moved from the Senate vote to the president’s decision on whether to approve the measure.
