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WHO is concerned about participation of health workers in female genital mutilation
The World Health organization is expressing concern over the rising number of health workers practicing female genital mutilation.
WHO says the use of health workers in FGM amounts to legitimizing a practice, which poses not only immediate and long, term consequences for the health of women and girls, but also violates their human rights. Patrick Maigua reports from Geneva.
It is estimated that 120 to 140 million women have been subject to female genital mutilation or cutting worldwide. Another three million girls continue to be at risk each year. The World Health Organization says health workers were responsible for at least 18 per cent of all female genital mutilation cases. WHO says the use of health workers in the promotion of FGM was prevalent in Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Yemen and Guinea Conakry. Elice Johanson is an FGM researcher at the World Health Organization.
"This raises serious concerns because health care providers should not take part in the violation of girls human rights, and it can lead to legitimize the practice and make it sound like it is harmless or even beneficial for health, and also it undermines the global efforts towards the total elimination of the practice. One of the things WHO is currently doing is that we are cooperating with the countries particularly countries where this is the biggest problem. We are coordinating the development of a global strategy against the medicalization of FGM and UNICEF and UNFPA are also part of that process."
United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF says the FGM practice is sustained by social perceptions including claims that girls and their families will face shame, social exclusion and have diminished marriage prospects. UNICEF however says success against FGM was being recorded, citing a decline of 65 per cent in FGM cases in Senegal. Patrick Maigua UN Radio Geneva.
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