UN sounds alarm bell over spread of female genital mutilation

[Nia Imani]

UN sounds alarm bell over spread of female genital mutilation

Cairo (AFP) - Female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) affects a previously unsuspected number of girls and women and is an increasingly globalised problem, UNICEF has warned in new a report.

The unprecedented survey revealed that the practice, also known as female circumcision, affects some three million women each year on the African continent alone.

"FGM/C occurs on a far greater scale than previously thought," said the UN chilren's fund in a press release on Thursday. "This harmful practice is a fundamental violation of girls' and women's rights."

Depending on the country and local traditions, FGM/C ranges from a small cut on the clitoris to complete removal of external genitalia and infibulation, which is the sewing together of the remnant tissue.

"It is estimated that between 100 and 140 million women and girls in the world have undergone some form of FGM/C," the statement said.

FGM/C is routinely traumatic, can lead to severe infections and in some cases deadly haemorrhaging.

UNICEF said that the practice appeared on the decline in Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Yemen while its prevalence remained stable in Ivory Coast, Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Sudan.

Among the other trends reported by UNICEF was that the median age at which FGM/C was performed had dropped significantly in some countries, including Egypt.

It also noted the "medicalisation" of female circumcision, which is increasingly performed by trained health personnel rather than traditional practitioners.

Marta Santos Pais, director of UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre, told AFP that "the key is the recognition of the need to promote community dialogue."

Female circumcision has an impact on women's social status and marriagability in some communities. "If a family alone chooses to abandon FGM/C, their daughter will be stigmatised."

The report also alerts the international community to the increasing globalisation of the phenomenon, which has been brought to western countries by migrant communities.

Santos Pais cited the case of Switzerland where an estimated 7,000 girls and women underwent genital mutilation recently.

In 2003, member states of the African Union signed the Maputo protocol which explicitly prohibits and condemns female circumcision. To date it has only been ratified by 13 states out of the 15 needed for it to come into force.

The UNICEF report is one of the most extensive studies ever conducted on the issue.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051124...N5bnN1YmNhdA--