Female genital and sexual mutilation - Bibliography

WIN News, Summer, 2003

REPORT: ZERO TOLERANCE TO FGM--COMMON AGENDA FOR ACTION FOR THE ELIMINATION OF FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION--2003-2010

INTER-AFRICAN COMMITTEE (IAC)

c/o ECA/IAC, P.O. Box 3001, Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA; e-mail: iac-htp@uneca.org 145, rue de Lausanne, 1202 Geneva, SWITZERLAND; e-mail: cominter@prolink.ch

CONTENTS: "Executive Summary // 1. Background: a) FGM: Situation Analysis // b) Relevance of FGM to the Millennium Declaration // 2. Justification // 3. Goal // IV. Objectives // V. Activities // VI. Follow-up /Monitoring and Evaluation // VII. Stake Holders of the Program // VIII. Sustainability of the Program // IX. Contributions by IAC // X. Chronology of Time Line of Activities // XI. Illustrative Budget // XII. Annexes.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The COMMON AGENDA FOR ACTION against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) was adopted on Febr. 6, 2003 at the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ZERO TOLERANCE TO FGM, which was held at the United Nations Conference Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The goal of the Common Agenda is to eliminate FGM by the year 2010 in Africa and the rest of the world through an intensive, coordinated and integrated approach by all the key players.

THE SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES THAT WILL HELP TO MEET THIS GOAL INCLUDE:

* Conduct Operational Research in order to determine the extent of the problem and design appropriate strategy for elimination

* Develop and produce IEC materials

* Conduct series of awareness raising programs for different groups

* Hold Training workshops for excisers

* Mobilize traditional communities/leaders

* Organize special programs for Youth, religious leaders, the media

* Re-orientate health personnel to stop the 'medicalisation' of FGM

* Provide alternative income generating activities for ex-circumcisers

* Lobby governments for legislation against FGM

* Adopt an integrated multi-prong approach involving all stakeholders

* Periodic monitoring and evaluation of activities.

The time frame set for the completion of this Agenda is 8 years, from 2003 to 2010 when it is hoped that FGM would have been eliminated.

The key players include Government Departments, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, UNESCO, UNIFEM, UNHCR, ECA/ACGD, donors, the World Bank, USAID, European Union and NGOs.

The total budget is 15,528,800 US $ to be shared depending on the areas of interest of each player.

I. BACKGROUND (excerpts)

a. FGM: Situation Analysis

Every single year, all over the African continent, two million girls are subjected to female genital mutilations in the name of tradition, thus impairing severely their chances to live a normal mental and reproductive life, and endangering their survival and that of their children yet to be born. According to the most recent surveys, 120 million women have undergone genital mutilation in 28 African countries and among African immigrants in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Europe and in USA

The Inter-African Committee which, in 1984, became the first regional NGO network to take up the issue at the grassroots level regards female mutilation as an unacceptable social practice. FGM is an extreme form of violence, which assaults the innermost self of the woman, by denying her life and dignity. If boys and men were to be subjected to such a horrendous and heinous practice, there would be an outburst of intercontinental outrage and indignation.

Ironically, what seems intolerable for men becomes acceptable if the victims are only women. To quote the words of Mrs. Chantal Compaore, the first Lady of Burkina Faso and Goodwill Ambassador of IAC--'female genital mutilation is the most widespread form of violence, and also the most deadly, among violence unleashed on women and girl children in Africa.'

Religion has been used in a wrong way in an attempt to justify continuation of the practice. It has been refuted and challenged by religious leaders and scholars, at the symposium organized by IAC in 1998 in Banjul (the Gambia). 'Neither Christianity, nor Islam allows excising part of a sound human organ. Female genital mutilation is a form of brutal violence which existed well before the Christian era, and therefore before the advent of Islam. Religious tenets have been altered and used by those moved by selfish interests to continue to mutilate and to enslave women.'

Since 1977, the NGO Working Group on Traditional Practices continues to lobby for the eradication of FGM and other forms of violence against women. The Group which functions under the umbrella of the NGO Special Committee on the Status of Women was instrumental in the creation of the IAC.

In 1979, the World Health Organization drew the attention of governments to the issue of traditional practices affecting the health of women and girl-children, such as FGM, by organizing a Seminar on "Traditional Practices affecting the Health of Women and Children" in Khartoum (Sudan).

Since its creation in 1884 in Dakar, the Inter-African Committee has resorted to all possible means, in order to draw world's attention to the issue of detrimental traditional practices, particularly FGM. In its awareness campaigns, the Committee lays emphasis on health and human rights. Owing to lobbying efforts of IAC and other NGOs, article 24.3 was successfully included in the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child which was adopted in 1990; which states that 'States parties agree to adopt all efficient and appropriate measures in order to abolish traditional practices which are detrimental to the health of children.'