US to launch Kenya centre of excellence on the international day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital mutilation

US to launch Kenya centre of excellence on the international day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital mutilation

Washington: (Monday, February 20, 2012) Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a traditional practice that ranges from nicking to total removal of the external female genitalia. An estimated 100 to 145 million women have
undergone this procedure and at least 3 million girls are at risk of being cut each year, about 8,000 girls a day. Though no religion mandates the procedure, FGM/C is practiced across cultures, religions, and continents. It is practiced in 28 countries in
sub-Saharan Africa, northern Iraq, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and new evidence is showing prevalence in other Middle Eastern countries, including Yemen, Iran, Syria, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and parts of South Asia. The practice also can be found in Europe, the
United States, Australia, and other countries in the West where immigrants bring their cultural traditions with them.

The reasons given for conducting FGM/C, which is generally carried out between infancy and the teen years, encompass beliefs about health, hygiene, women’s sexuality, rites of passage to adulthood, and community initiation rites.
Research has shown that all forms of the practice harm women’s health, causing serious pain, trauma, and frequently severe physical complications, such as bleeding, infections, or even death. Long-term complications may include recurrent infections, infertility,
and difficult or dangerous childbirth that can result in the death of the mother and infant.

The U.S. Government has supported FGM/C abandonment efforts since the early 1990s, considering the practice not only a public health concern, but also a human rights issue that violates a woman’s right to bodily integrity. In September
2000, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) officially incorporated elimination of FGM/C into its development agenda, issuing an official policy and strategy on FGM/C that underscored FGM/C as a serious health and human rights issue. The U.S.
Department of State emphasizes the need to raise awareness amongst communities at the grassroots level and in humanitarian settings to reduce the practice of FGM/C.

The United States pursues regional, national, and local coordination among international donors, governments, and community leaders. U.S. Government agencies are actively engaged with internationally based working groups address
FGM/C and are also active in the Donors Working Group (DWG) on FGM/C, which is composed of key international governmental and intergovernmental organizations and foundations committed to supporting the abandonment of the practice. USAID was a co-founder of
the DWG and is dedicated to expanding and strengthening partnerships and increasing resources for abandonment of this harmful traditional practice. The group has collaboratively issued a Platform for Action that summarizes the collective programmatic approach
that focuses on the community approach to social change.

On the occasion of the International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM/C for 2012, the U.S. Government is supporting the launch of the Kenya Centre of Excellence, which will be based at Nairobi University, to create an Africa-based
center for learning and developing innovative research approaches and training leaders and champions for working towards the abandonment of FGM/C and welcomes support from the international community and others to join in this effort.

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Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Feb 20 2012. Filed under USA, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry