High court rules genital mutilation illegal, earlier convictions will stand

The High Court has ruled that three people's convictions for the genital mutilation for two young girls in NSW will stand.

Girls attending a community meeting on female genital mutilation in the northern town of Katiola in Vallee du Bandama Region, Ivory Coast. Source: AAP/UNICEF

The convictions of three people for female genital mutilation in NSW will stand after Australia's highest court ruled the practice is illegal in all its various forms.

A mother, who cannot be named, midwife Kubra Magennis and Dawoodi Bohra sect community leader Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri were each handed a minimum 11-month custodial sentence in 2016 after they were found guilty of female genital mutilation offences against two girls under 10.

The mother's two daughters had their genitals cut or nicked in separate procedures in 2009 and 2012.

Their 2016 sentence hearing in Sydney heard charges were laid after the girls told a female police officer and a social worker they had been subjected to "khatna" performed by Magennis.

Khatna involves causing injury to a young girl's clitoris by cutting or nicking it.

The tool used was described by the elder girl as something that "looked a bit like a scissor".

However, the trio's convictions were quashed after the court of criminal appeal found that the word mutilate meant some imperfection or irreparable damage had to have been caused.

The High Court on Wednesday ruled the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal erred when it quashed the convictions, saying the phrase "otherwise mutilates" in the law banning female genital mutilation does indeed encompass someone simply cutting or nicking a girl's clitoris.