Attachments: IAC-UN Harmful Traditional Practices.pdf
WUNRN
UN Study
Juridical Aspects
B.1.CEDAW
2. Convention on the Rights of the
Child
Factual Aspects
B.Women's Health
1.Female Genital Mutilation
________________________________________________________________________________________________
INTER-AFRICAN COMMITTEE
UNITED NATIONS - ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
COUNCIL
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sub-Commission of the Promotion and Protection of
Human Rights
Fifty-third Session
FIFTH REPORT BY MRS. HALIMA EMBAREK WARZAZI, SPECIAL
RAPPORTEUR ON TRADITIONAL PRACTICES AFFECTING THE HEALTH OF WOMEN AND THE GIRL
CHILD.
The text transcribed by Inter-African Committee
concerns Female Genital Mutilation.
THE REPORT WAS FOLLOWED BY RESOLUTION
E/CN.4/Sub.2/2001/L.9 TRANSCRIBED FOLLOWING THE 5TH
REPORT.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
INTER-AFRICAN COMMITTEE
What is
Female Genital Mutilation ?
Over 100 million women are
affected by FGM. An estimated 2 million girls are at risk of undergoing the
practice every year. Female genital mutilation, commonly known as female
circumcision, is a practice which involves the cutting away of part or the whole
of the female genital organs.
Who performs
the practice? How?
The practice is usually
performed, under very unhygienic conditions, by an untrained elderly woman,
Ouddo in Somalia, Day in Egypt, Khafedha in Sudan, using razor blades, pieces of
glass or knives. These same women, in most countries, are traditional birth
attendants (TBAs) and traditional healers. In Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone,
practitioners perform FGM as an income generating activity. In the Sudan,
Somalia, Djibouti and Nigeria, some mothers are known to take their daughters to
clinics to make sure that the operation is performed under medical care. In
remote nomadic areas where a professional circumciser is not available, old
grandmothers or aunts operate on the girls. In some communities, a barber is
called upon to do the operation.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
================================================================
To
leave the list, send your request by email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.