Introduction

In June 2002 the Protocol for the prevention of female genital mutilation was presented. It was the result of the interdisciplinary project by the Commission of Expert Persons who received the assignment from the Parliament of Catalonia to design a plan of action against the practice of ritual female mutilation in Catalonia. In the session held on 20th June, 2001, Parliament approved Resolution 832/VI on the adoption of measures against the prac-tice of ritual female genital mutilation, which the Commission on Social Policy had studied in the text of the Proposed law presented by all the parliamentarian groups.

In the years that this Protocol has been in operation there have been important alterations in the legal texts. On one hand, genital mutilation has been established as an offence in the Penal code, and, on the other, there have been other changes in the extraterri-toriality criteria in the execution of this offence, through the amend-ment of the Organic Law of judicial power (LOPJ).

These legislative changes and the true and efficient application of the Protocol after some years, have meant that the Protocol needs to be revised by the Monitoring Commission to improve its opera-tion, adapting the circuits to new social and legal realities, and, above all, incorporating the role of the communities and associa-tions as a key point in the prevention of this ancient practice.

Consequently, the Monitoring Commission, made up of the depart-ments of Education, the Homa Office and Institutional Relations and Participation, Health and Social Action and Civic Responsibi-lity through the Secretariat of Family Policies and Citizens’ Rights, the Secretariat of Infancy and Adolescence, the Catalan Women’s Institute and the Secretariat of Immigration, has revised the Action protocol for professionals working in the different areas of interven-tion, resulting in this new edition which you now have before you.