The International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation 2021
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively and disproportionately affected girls and women, resulting in a shadow pandemic disrupting SDG target 5.3 on the elimination of all harmful practices including female genital mutilation. UNFPA estimates an additional two million girls at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation by 2030. In response to this disruption, the United Nations, through its UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to End Female Genital Mutilation, has been adapting interventions that ensure the integration of female genital mutilation in humanitarian and post-crisis response.
To promote the elimination of female genital mutilation, coordinated and systematic efforts must engage whole communities and focus on human rights, gender equality, sexual education and attention to the needs of women and girls who suffer from its consequences.
No Time for Global Inaction: Unite, Fund, and Act to End Female Genital Mutilation
In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly designated 6 February as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, with the aim of amplifying and directing the efforts on the elimination of this practice.
This year the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation and the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices (IAC) jointly launch the 2021 theme: "No Time for Global Inaction, Unite, Fund, and Act to End Female Genital Mutilation."
Many countries are experiencing a “crisis within a crisis” due to the pandemic including an increase in female genital mutilation. That is why the United Nations calls on the global community to reimagine a world that enables girls and women to have voice, choice and control over their own lives.
Global High-Level Event on 5 February
Join our Global High Level Event to Accelerate Investment and Action to End Female Genital Mutilation. Unite, Fund, and Act!
5 February 2020 - 8:30-10:00 AM EST.
says Fatuma, a teenager in Ethiopia featured in UNFPA's "Voices
of Resilience" exhibition. © Photo by Luca Zordan for UNFPA
Voices of Resilience: A Virtual Exhibition on Female Genital Mutilation
Organized by the UNFPA, this exhibition raises awareness and encourages action to address female genital mutilation, with an emphasis on how COVID-19 has exacerbated this human rights violation. It features stories of girls and women that highlight the successes over the past decades in the urgent global fight to abandon this harmful practice.
How can you #Act2EndFGM?
