'FGM is a human rights violation' - UNFPA
The global fight to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM) is being undermined by the movement of some girls across national borders and beyond to undergo the procedure, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) warned in a new report published on Friday.
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| "Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a human rights violation" - UNFPA. Photo: @UNFPA |
Although many States have intensified their efforts towards eradication, the practice continues across the world in part due to “the clandestine nature of cross-border and transnational FGM,” it said.
“Female genital mutilation is part of a continuum of gender-based violence and has no place in a human rights-respecting universe,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.
“It must be eliminated in all of its forms, and the gender stereotypes and patriarchal norms that anchor and perpetuate it uprooted.”
Millions At Risk
An estimated 4.3 million girls were at risk of being subjected to FGM in 2023, according to the report, which was based on in-depth desk research and submissions from States and civil society organizations around the world.
More than 600,000 women in the European Union are thought to be living with the consequences of FGM, which the World Health Organization (WHO) defines as “all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”.
It is mainly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15.
“The practice has no health benefits for girls and women and cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths,” WHO added.
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