UN child agency UNICEF and the UK government have joined in calling for an increased commitment to tackling female genital mutilation and child marriage.
Data shows that while the prevalence of both has decreased over the past 30 years, population growth means efforts to end the practices need to be “scaled up dramatically”.
BANGLADESH: Kalpana, 13, stands near her home in Sreenathpur village, Sunamganj in an image taken earlier this year. Kalpana escaped early marriage because of awareness about the effects of early marriage. PICTURE: UNICEF/Mawa
Figures show that more than 130 million girls and women in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the practice is most common have experienced genital mutilation (known as FGM), putting them at risk of prolonged, bleeding, infection, infertility and even death.
Meanwhile it’s estimated that more than 700 million women alive today were married as children with more than one in three of them married before the age of 15.
UNICEF says girls who marry before age 18 are less likely to remain in school and more likely to experience domestic violence. Young teenage girls are also more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than women in their 20s, and their children are more likely to be stillborn or die within the first month of life.
UNICEF and the UK government hosted the first ever Girl Summit in London this week in a bid to rally support for efforts to tackle the issues.
UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake said female genital mutilation and child marriage “profoundly and permanently harm girls, denying them their right to make their own decisions and to reach their full potential”.
“They are detriments to the girls themselves, their families and their societies,” he said. “Girls are not property; they have the right to determine their destiny. When they do so, everyone benefits.”
Announcing new measures to tackle female genital mutilation in the UK, British Prime Minister David Cameron told the summit this week that he wanted to see the practice – along with childhood and early forced marriage – outlawed everywhere “within this generation”.
He said 21 countries had already signed an international charter to eradicate the practices and urged other countries to follow suit.
