The applicant, a girl with nationality of Sierra-Leone, born in France to parents from Sierra-Leone, applied for international protection in France on the grounds that she feared persecution under the form of FGM/C performed by either of her parents' families upon return to her country of origin, without being able to avail herself of the national authorities' protection. In this regard, the applicant, through her legal representatives, insisted on her belonging to the Temne ethnic group, in which her parents would not be able to oppose the will of their families and community to mutilate her as this practice results from a common decision-making process involving many individuals besides the parents themselves. The OFPRA rejected the applicant's request. The applicant contested this decision, requesting the CNDA to annul it and grant her refugee protection, or alternatively subsidiary protection.

First, the CNDA recalled the grounds for granting refugee protection and the definition of a particular social group under Article 1.A.2. of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Then, the court noted that non-mutilated women and girls could constitute a particular social group in this sense in societies where FGM/C is a social norm. In this regard, the court noted that determining the existence of the group did not depend on the number of persons concerned but rather on their perception by society and institutions, through which the link between membership of this group and persecution could be established. Based on available country-of-origin information, the court ruled that non-mutilated women and girls did constitute a particular social group in the sense of the 1951 Refugee Convention in Sierra Leone, as the practice of FGM/C was prevalent and was still considered an initiation rite in feminine secret societies, without which they could face exclusion from the community.

Thus, the CNDA, noting that the declarations of the applicant's parents had allowed to establish her well-founded fear of persecution on these grounds, granted her refugee protection.