African states push for UN ban on female circumcision

DAKAR – Lawmakers from 27 African countries gathered in Dakar on Monday for a two-day conference to push for a UN ban on female genital mutilation as a breach of human rights.

International activists joined envoys from the United Nations and African Union in Senegal to “promote the adoption of a resolution that explicitly bans female genital mutilation as a practice that is contrary to human rights.”
The cutting or removal of young girls’ and women’s clitoris and/or labia affects some 120 to 140 million women in 28 countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, according to the World Health Organisation.

Often carried out for deep-seated religious or cultural reasons, it can lead to infection, urinary tract problems, mental trauma, sterility or complications during childbirth, and in some cases fatal haemorrhaging.
In Africa, around 91 million girls aged nine and under have undergone the practice, with three million operated on each year, the UN population fund’s envoy Rose Gkuba told the conference.

Senegal is one of 19 African countries that have banned the practice and its Families Minister Ndeye Khady Diop said a nationwide campaign between 2000 and 2005 managed to reduce the number of mutilations by over 70 per cent.

Dakar is preparing to launch a second campaign that hopes to eradicate the practice completely by 2015, she said.
– Nampa-AFP

Credit: www.namibian.com.na