'Unleashing Youth Power', is the theme of International Day of Zero tolerance for female genital mutilations 2020. This day has been celebrated every year on the 6th of February since 2012 to amplify the efforts towards ending the female genital mutilation practise. This year, in 2020, we aim to focus on mobilizing youth around the eliminations of harmful practices, including female genital mutilation under the theme: "Unleashing Youth Power: One decade of accelerating actions for zero female genital mutilation."
Let's put an end to female genital mutilation. This international day is to honour the women that have undergone FGM. Female Genital Mutilation is a worldwide problem, most common in african, asian and middle eastern countries. Among the populations that practise FGM, it is seen is a cultural and religious tradition. However, the procedure is recognized internationally for its human rights violations, endangering the health and integrity of girls worldwide. The practice also violates a person's rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in deat. FGM was officially recognized as a form of violence against women and a violation of human rights in the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. In 1995, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action helped advance the international community’s commitment to ending FGM by pledging governments’ support to enact and enforce anti-FGM legislation through means such as but not limited to the assistance of non-governmental, communal, and religious organizations in an effort to eliminate the practise.
“FGM is an act that cuts away equality”
- Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women
In promoting the elimination of female genital mutilation, we must focus on the engagement of communities regarding human rights, equality, sex education and provide attention to the needs of women and girls suffering from the painful practise. The practise has been a traidtion for more than a thousand years, however, the UN has reasons to believe that the female genital mutilation practise is able to be eliminated in just a single generation. By 2030, the United Nations strives for the full eradication of the FGM practise following the urgency of Sustainable Development goal 5: Gender Equality.
With the help of UNFPA, UNWOMEN and WHO; the United Nations has taken valuable action towards accelerated the elimination of female genital muticlation such as the establishment of legal frameworks for banning female genital mutilation and national budget lines funding programmes to address FGM. These programmes such as FGM protection and care serivces, have supported over 3.3 million girls and women. Worldiwde, 200 million girls and women alive today and 4 million girls every year have undergone the pervasive, harmful and devastating procedure. Due to FGMs deeply rooted cultural traditions and expectations, it is a complex issue with economical, physical, emotions, sexual and health consequences.
Overall, the support for FGM is decreasing, even in countries where the practise has been a tradition for many generations. There are positive signs of generational changes in the practice such as that; globally, women aged 15–19 years are less likely to have been subjected to FGM than women in older age groups, indicating that the practice is on the decline and more women are protected from the FGM practise today.
On the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation raise your voice to #endFGM. On International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, 6th of February, we take a look at how the actions and understandings around FGM has evolved in recent decades, and amplifying the voices of survivors and activists in the fight against FGM. We encourgae you to stand against female genital mutilation and stand for gender equality in an effort to protect our women and take a stand for women's rights.
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