UN report says that despite growing momentum, booming populations insome high-prevalence countries are undermining efforts to tackle practice

More than 200 million girls and women globally have suffered genital mutilation, far higher than previously estimated, which highlighted the need to accelerate efforts to eradicate the practice, the UN has said.

Despite growing momentum to end female genital mutilation (FGM), experts warned that booming populations in some high-prevalence countries were undermining efforts to tackle the practice widely condemned as a serious human rights abuse.

The European Institute on Gender Equality commissioned a study in 2012 to map the situation and trends of FGM in the EU’s 27 member states and Croatia. Although there were no representative calculations of women victims of FGM in Malta, an internal report of 2009 from the Migrant Health Unit on FGM claimed that a substantial number of women migrants came from countries with a high prevalence of FGM. A study conducted between 2003 and 2007 showed that there were 566 births in Malta by mothers of African nationalities.

“If current trends continue, the number of girls and women subjected to FGM will increase significantly over the next 15 years,” the UN children’s agency Unicef said.

The Unicef data covers 30 countries, but half of girls and women who have been cut live in just three countries – Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia. The new global figure includes nearly 70 million more girls and women than Unicef estimated in 2014. But this is largely due to the inclusion of data from Indonesia which was left out in 2014 because there were no reliable national figures at the time.

“Female genital mutilation differs across regions and cultures, with some forms involving life-threatening health risks,” said Unicef deputy executive director Geeta Rao Gupta.

Female genital mutilation differs across regions and cultures, with some forms involving life-threatening health risks

“In every case FGM violates the rights of girls and women. We must all accelerate efforts – governments, health professionals, community leaders, parents and families – to eliminate the practice.”

The ancient ritual – practised across a swathe of African countries and pockets of Asia and the Middle East – usually involves the partial or total removal of a girl’s external genitalia.

In its most extreme form the vaginal opening is also sewn up. In many countries girls are commonly cut before their fifth birthday.

Communities which support FGM often consider it a prerequisite for marriage. Many also see it as a religious obligation although it is not mentioned in the Koran or Bible. But FGM can cause a host of physical and psychological problems. In some cases girls can bleed to death or die from infections caused by dirty blades.

Gupta said collecting data to determine the magnitude of FGM was essential for eliminating the practice.

The country with the highest rate of FGM remains Somalia where figures show 98 per cent of girls and women aged between 15 and 49 have been cut. Guinea, Djibouti and Sierra Leone also have very high rates.

Overall, FGM prevalence rates have fallen in the last three decades but progress has been uneven, Unicef said. Countries which have seen sharp declines include Liberia, Burkina Faso and Kenya.

Data also indicates widespread disapproval of the practice in many countries.

The report does not include data from all countries where FGM has been reported. Those left out include India, Colombia, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Malta has ratified several international conventions condemning FGM, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. A Bill in the Criminal Code introduced last year bans the FGM performed of Maltese citizens or permanent residents in Malta and abroad, and also criminalises the practice performed by Maltese citizens abroad. (Additional reporting by Reuters)

What is female genital mutilation?

• Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, is a form of gender-based violence. It comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

• Female genital mutilation has negative effects on the health of women in the short, medium and long term and may even lead to death. It is carried out for both cultural and social reasons. Religious arguments tend to be used to justify the practice but there is no religious mandate for it.

• According to Unicef, FGM is practised in more than 20 African countries spreading between Senegal in the west and Somalia in the east.

• Although overall figures are difficult to estimate, thousands of women and girls residing in the European Union may have been genitally mutilated or are at risk of FGM.

• The EU institutions and the member states are committed to fighting FGM, as it is shown in the Commission’s Strategy for Equality Between Women and Men (2010−2015). The Daphne III programme has played a crucial role in putting FGM on the agenda in several EU countries and in providing financial support for the implementation of transnational projects in this field.

• The European Parliament resolution of June 14, 2012, on ending female genital mutilation clearly stipulates that “any form of female genital mutilation is a harmful traditional practice that cannot be considered part of a religion, but is an act of violence against women and girls which constitutes a violation of their fundamental rights”. The European Parliament calls on the member states to take a firm action to combat this illegal practice. (Source: European Commission)