Queensland Consolidated Acts

CRIMINAL CODE 1899 - SECT 323A

323A Female genital mutilation

(1) Any person who performs female genital mutilation on another person is guilty of a crime.

Penalty—

Maximum penalty—14 years imprisonment.

(2) It is not a defence that the other person, or, if the other person is a child, a parent or guardian of the other person, consented to the mutilation.

(3) In this section—

"female genital mutilation" means—

(a) clitoridectomy; or

(b) excision of any other part of the female genitalia; or

(c) a procedure to narrow or close the vaginal opening; or

(d) any other mutilation of the female genitalia;

but does not include—

(e) a sexual reassignment procedure; or

(f) a medical procedure for a genuine therapeutic purpose.

"medical procedure for a genuine therapeutic purpose" means a medical procedure that is—

(a) directed only at curing or alleviating a physiological disability, physical abnormality, psychological disorder or pathological condition; or

(b) performed on a person in labour or who has just given birth and directed only at alleviating physical symptoms in relation to the labour or birth or for other medical purposes; or

(c) performed on a person who has been subjected to female genital mutilation and directed only at treating the effects, or to reversing the effects, of the previous mutilation.

"sexual reassignment procedure" means a surgical procedure to give a person the genital appearance of a particular sex, whether male or female.