Over the years, it has been established that more than 200 million women and girls alive today have gone through Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) procedure.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICAF) has called for more commitment from member Nations to the need to eliminate Female circumcision by 2030.
Although the practice has been around for more than a thousand years, there are reasons to think that female genital mutilation could end in a single generation. That is why the United Nations strives for its full eradication by 2030, following the spirit of Sustainable Development Goal 5.
According to a research by UNICAF, Nigeria has the third largest number of women and girls globally, who have had FGM carried out on them. The organisation has also disclosed that FGM is mainly on the increase among Nigerian girls aged 0 to 14.
Sadly, the rates have risen from 16.9 per cent in 2013 to 19.2 per cent in 2018, a “worrying trend,” the UN organisation notes. UNICEF has also pointed out that 68 million girls globally were estimated to be at risk of FGM between 2015 and 2030.
Girls who undergo female genital mutilation face short-term complications such as severe pain, shock, excessive bleeding, infections, and difficulty in passing urine, as well as long-term consequences for their sexual and reproductive health and mental health.
However, in 2023 alone, there are 4.32 million girls around the world who are at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation.
In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) named 6 of February the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, aiming to enlighten the world of the brutal practice and gain support to eliminate it.
This year’s theme is tagged, “Partnership with Men and Boys to transform Social and Gender Norms to End FGM”. It was launched by the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation: Delivering the Global Promise.
Over the last 25 years, the prevalence of FGM has declined globally. Today, a girl is one-third less likely to undergo FGM than 30 years ago. However, sustaining these achievements in the face of humanitarian crises such as disease outbreaks, climate change, armed conflict and more could cause a rollback of progress toward achieving gender equality and the elimination of FGM by 2030.
With eight years remaining in this decade of action, there is potential in eliminating this harmful practice through sustainable partnerships with men and boys. Their voices and actions can transform deeply rooted social and gender norms, allowing girls and women to realize their rights and potential in terms of health, education, income, and equality.
To promote the elimination of female genital mutilation, coordinated and systematic efforts are needed, and they must engage whole communities and focus on human rights, gender equality, sexual education and attention to the needs of women and girls who suffer from its consequences.
The joint programme which was initiated in 2022, was established to support efforts towards the elimination of FGM by 2030. Interestingly, this programme’s ambition is directly linked to the Sustainable Development Goal 5.3, which aims to end all harmful practices by 2030. A part of the programme continues to concentrate on countries with highest rates of prevalence.
Locally, we need religious leaders to strike down myths that female genital mutilation has a basis in religion. Because societal pressures often drive the practice, individuals and families need more information about the benefits of abandoning it.
It said the organisation was reaffirming its commitment to end FGM and prevent other women at risk from going through the practice.
“On the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, we reaffirm our commitment to end this violation of human rights so that tens of millions of girls who are still at risk of being mutilated by 2030 do not experience such suffering. This effort is especially critical because female genital mutilation violates women’s rights to sexual and reproductive health, physical integrity and leads to long term physical, psychological and social consequences.
“In 2015, world leaders overwhelmingly backed the elimination of female genital mutilation as one of the targets in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable Development, this is an achievable goal and we must act now to translate that political commitment to action. At the national level, we need new policies and legislation protecting the rights of girls and women to live free from violence and discrimination.
“Governments in countries where female genital mutilation is prevalent should also develop national action plans to end the practice. At the regional level, we need institutions and economic communities to work together, preventing the movement of girls and women across borders when the purpose is to get them into countries with less restrictive female genital mutilation laws. Locally, we need religious leaders to strike down myths that female genital mutilation has a basis in religion because societal pressure often drive the practice.
Now, Nigerians have called on people to eradicate the act of circumcising a female child and this act should kick off effectively from now.
