International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
Table of Content:
International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
● International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation is organized every year on 6 February.
● In the year 2012, the United Nations General Assembly designated 6 February as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, with the aim of amplifying and directing efforts to eradicate the practice.
● The term female genital mutilation (FGM) includes all procedures used to alter or injure the female genitalia for non-medical reasons.
● Girls who undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) face a range of complications, such as severe pain, shock, excessive bleeding, infection, and difficulty in urinating, as well as long-term consequences for their sexual and reproductive health and mental health and so on.
● The theme for the year 2023 of the UNFPA-UNICEF joint program on 'Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation: Fulfilling a Global Promise' is – ‘Partnership with Men and Boys to transform Social and gender Norms to End FGM’.
● Although this practice has been around for more than a thousand years, it needs to be thought that female genital mutilation can end in a single generation. Therefore, following the spirit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (gender equality), it is striving for its complete eradication by the year 2030.
● UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) and UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund), jointly leading the largest global program since 2008 to accelerate the elimination of female genital mutilation (FGM).
● The program currently focuses on 17 countries in Africa and the Middle East and also supports regional and global initiatives.
● Due to the implementation of this joint program, more than 6 million girls and women have access to prevention, protection and care related to female genital mutilation (FGM). For example, some 45 million people have publicly announced their abandonment of FGM and 532,158 girls have been prevented from undergoing FGM.