Roundup: Top UN officials call for protection of girls' dignity, end to female genital mutilation

Top UN officials on Friday called for the protection of girls' dignity and ending female genital mutilation(FGM), a UN spokesman said here Friday.

Their appeal came one day ahead of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which is observed annually on Feb. 6.

In a joint statement, the heads of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) called on the global community to do more to protect the well-being and dignity of every girl, and to end the practice of FGM, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

Babatunde Osotimehin of UNFPA and Anthony Lake of UNICEF said that there simply is no place for FGM in the future they are striving to create: a future where every girl will grow up able to experience her inherent dignity, human rights and equality by 2030, he said.

According to the latest UNICEF report, at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM in 30 countries, and half of them live in three countries: Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia.

In most of the countries, the majority of girls were cut before reaching their fifth birthdays, with the highest prevalence of FGM among this age in Gambia at 56 percent, Mauritania 54 percent and Indonesia where around half of girls aged 11 and younger have undergone the practice, said the report, entitled "the Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Global Concern."

Countries with the highest prevalence among girls and women aged 15 to 49 are Somalia(98 percent), Guinea(97 percent) and Djibouti (93 percent).

UNICEF also noted a growing momentum to address female genital mutilation. FGM prevalence rates among girls aged 15 to 19 have declined, including by 41 percentage points in Liberia, 31 in Burkina Faso, 30 in Kenya and 27 in Egypt over the last 30 years.

Since 2008, more than 15,000 communities and sub-districts in 20 countries have publicly declared that they are abandoning FGM, including more than 2,000 communities last year.

Five countries have passed national legislation criminalizing the practice. Data also indicate widespread disapproval of the practice as the majority of people in countries where FGM data exists think it should end. This includes nearly two-thirds of boys and men.

But the overall rate of progress is not enough to keep up with population growth. The UN says if current trends continue, the number of girls and women subjected to FMG will increase significantly over the next 15 years.

"All of us must join in this call. There simply is no place for FGM in the future we are striving to create -- a future where every girl will grow up able to experience her inherent dignity, human rights and equality by 2030," Osotimehin and Lake said in their joint statement.

As of 2016, 30 countries have nationally representative data on the practice.

The most senior United Nations officials are urging the world to eliminate FGM by 2030, calling it a "violent practice" that scars girls for life, endangers their health, deprives them of their rights, and denies them the chance to reach their full potential.

"Never before has it been more urgent -- or more possible -- to end the practice of female genital mutilation, preventing immeasurable human suffering and boosting the power of women and girls to have a positive impact on our world," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message ahead of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.

The secretary-general stressed that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted unanimously by UN member states in September, contain a specific target calling for an end to FGM.

"Today I raise my voice and call on others to join me in empowering communities which themselves are eager for change," he said. "I count on governments to honour their pledges with support from civil society, health providers, the media and young people." Endite