'Unseen' News and Views
Voices of Resilience – International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, 6 February
Fatuma, Ethiopia
6 February 2021 (United Nations)* — Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a practice rooted in gender inequalities that rests on the shakiest of foundations of faulty beliefs, perceived obligations and inferred expectations, tied together in a durable knot.
(UN News, February 2020)* — “My flesh has been taken away, but I can never give away my heart”; those are the powerful words of resolve from Abida Dawud, one of three women survivors of female genital mutilation, or FGM, from Ethiopia, who have been speaking to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) about their experiences.
Today, Jan. 6 marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. In commemoration IPS has reissued our piece on FGM/C in India.
Masooma Ranalvi is the founder of WeSpeakOut and has campaigned to end FGM/C.
– Survivors of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C), are determined to share their stories to end this practice – even though they face ostracisation by their communities.
Masooma Ranalvi, an FGM/C survivor and founder of ‘WeSpeakOut’, an organisation committed to eliminating FGM/C or khafd/khafz/khatna explains that FGM/C is practised by various communities in India but is prominently practised among the Dawoodi Bohras.
Girls who undergo female genital mutilation face short-term complications such as severe pain, shock, excessive bleeding, infections, and difficulty in passing urine, as well as long-term consequences for their sexual and reproductive health and mental health.
5 February 2021 (UNEP)* — The past six years have been the warmest on record since 1880, with 2016, 2019 and 2020 being the top three, according to a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) press release on 15 January. The year 2020 was 1.2°C above pre-industrial era (1880) temperatures.
Photo: REUTERS/Adrees Latif / 04 Feb 2021
WMO predicts a 20 per cent probability that temperatures will temporarily exceed 1.5°C as early as 2024. “The speed at which temperatures are increasing is alarming,” says Pascal Peduzzi, Director, GRID-Geneva, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “At this rate, we may reach +1.5°C in the next 15 years.”
(UN News)* — A group of UN independent human rights experts on Thursday [4 February 2021] welcomed the United States’ decision to stop using privately run federal prisons, and urged the Government to also end the outsourcing of all detention centres, including those holding migrants and asylum seekers.
The 2021-2030 initiative hopes to raise funding for ocean science and focus on the sustainable use of marine resources
– The United Nations Secretary-General has urged nations to rise to the ‘defining challenge’ of restoring the ocean’s power to support humanity and regulate the climate.
(UN News)* — January marked the beginning of what many within the UN and beyond view as “the most critical decade of our lives”, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said on Wednesday [3 February 2021], launching a major initiative to protect the world’s oceans through the next ten years.
UNESCO marked the start of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, with a global online event headlined: ‘A Brave New Ocean’.
It aims to raise awareness of the immense challenges and opportunities the world seas provide to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
ROME, 2 February 2021 (FAO)* — Global fisheries and aquaculture have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and could face further disruption in 2021 as lockdowns affect supply and demand across the sector, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 