Over 140 Million Girls and Women Have Undergone Some Form of Genital Mutilation — Key Facts

Human Wrongs Watch

Over 140 million girls and women have undergone some form of female genital mutilation/cutting, and if current trends continue, about 86 million additional girls be subjected to it by 2030, the UN reports*.

Meaza was 10 when she was subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). She now campaigns to protect other girls from this harmful practice. FGM is declining in Ethiopia and many countries around the world, but still too many girls are at risk. We must do more. Credits: UNICEF/NYHQ2009-2259/HOLT

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

The procedure has no health benefits for girls and women. Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.

Who is affected?

Procedures are mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15, and occasionally on adult women. Although practiced in nearly 30 countries worldwide, it is almost universal in places such as Somalia, Guinea, Djibouti, Egypt and Sierra Leone, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Over 140 million girls and women have undergone some form of FGM/C, and if current trends continue, about 86 million additional girls be subjected to it by 2030.

Neshwa, 15, is one of millions of girls around the world to have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). She hopes to become a doctor. Let girls be girls: http://uni.cf/GS14 #GirlSummit. Credits: UNICEF/NYHQ2009-1466/HOLT

What is the international response?

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), jointly with UNICEF, leads the largest global programme to accelerate the abandonment of the practice. It currently focuses on 17 African countries and also supports regional and global initiatives.

Initiated in 2007, the programme is fully aligned with a statement on the elimination on FGM/C agreed to by 10 UN agencies that deal with women’s health and rights. The joint statement highlights that the practice is a human rights violation with damaging effects on the health of women, girls and newborn babies.

Noting that FGM/C is a social convention that demands a coordinated and collective response, the statement calls for sustained, community-led, multi-sectoral approaches to abandonment with the aim of eliminating the practice within a generation.

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