Citation

Williams-Breault BD. Health Hum. Rights 2018; 20(2): 223-233.

Affiliation

Senior advisor to the Global Alliance Against Female Genital Mutilation, Geneva, Switzerland, and an adjunct professor and PhD student at Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Harvard School of Public Health, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

30568416

Abstract

Female genital mutilation/cutting is a form of violence against women and girls. It includes all procedures that involve the partial or total removal of external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It is estimated that over 200 million girls and women worldwide have suffered the effects of this practice and that approximately 3.6 million girls and women are at risk each year. Female genital mutilation/cutting violates several human rights outlined under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Human rights-based approaches to eradication include, but are not limited to, the enforcement of laws, education programs focused on empowerment, and campaigns to recruit change agents from within communities.

Language: en