Search Results for: female genital mutilation

Gambian lawmakers referred a bill attempting to reverse the Women’s (Amendment) Act, 2015 to the national committee for further consultation on Monday. The Women’s (Amendment) Act, 2015 bans female genital mutilation (FGM). Local activists gathered outside the National Assembly of The Gambia on Monday with protest signs to boycott the bill. FGM is a practice [...]

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UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), a UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide, released a report Friday on International Women’s Day alleging that more than 230 million girls and women worldwide have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), an increase of 30 million or 15 percent compared with [...]

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) Thursday applauded the passage of an African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) resolution supporting the rights of intersex individuals. The resolution calls for the promotion and protection of intersex peoples, those “born naturally with a chromosomal abnormality and reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not appear to fit the [...]

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International leaders and advocacy groups recognized Sunday the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Responding to a UNICEF report released earlier this week which found COVID-19 slowed progress towards ending FGM, the international community banded together to show continuing support to end FGM across the globe. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General [...]

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UN agencies warned Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic could reverse decades of global progress in stamping out female genital mutilation. The warning comes just days before the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on February 6. The World Health Organization has defined female genital mutilation as involving the partial or total removal [...]

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The High Court of Kenya dismissed a challenge Wednesday to the constitutionality of the country’s Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act. The petitioner sought to allow female genital mutilation (FGM) for consenting adults. Dr. Tatu Kamau, a medical practitioner, brought the petition in 2017. Kamau’s petition asserted that practitioners and women in communities practicing FGM [...]

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An Iranian court sentenced British-Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady to nine years in jail on Sunday for “subversive” research work. Iran has arrested dozens of dual nationals in the past few years. Many rights activists and organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, have been critical of and reported on many of the arrests. Ahmady is an [...]

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UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women Dubravka Šimonovic said Monday that a “pandemic of femicide and gender-based violence against women is taking the lives of women and girls everywhere.” Her announcement comes two days prior to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This day has been recognized since 1981, and [...]

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Iran recently passed a law criminalizing abandonment, physical or emotional abuse of children, taking a major leap in terms of rights provided to children and juveniles. The Child and Adolescent Protection Bill was approved by the Guardian Council, the body which determines if a legislation passed by the Parliament is in consonance with Sharia and [...]

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