The United Nation Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), on Tuesday, said that the campaign against the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in some communities across the country is yielding positive results, saying no fewer than 594 communities have renounced the act across the country.
The Child Protection Specialist with UNICEF, Mrs Nkiru Maduechesi, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen during a three-day workshop for training law enforcement agencies and judiciary officers on the anti-female genital mutilation law.
Maduechesi said the organisation had intensified drive towards achieving and eradicating Female Genital Mutilation in the country and to make law enforcers be aware of the dangers of FGM.
She identified some of the challenges facing the frontline workers in tackling the menace in the country, saying the law enforcement agencies are not seeing FMG as a crime.
She, however, said the essence of the training workshop on enforcement of FGM laws across the states is to strengthen the knowledge of law enforcers towards enforcement of laws to protect the girl child.
She noted that FGM was one of the worst human rights violations that had been in the country for generations because of the lifelong traumatic effects that a girl child would carry for the rest of his life.
She said “As a social norm, people are no seeing it as a crime, as an offence, that is why UNICEF is investing together without partners in community dialogue, moving from community to community.
“Since the inception of this programme with our partners, UNFPA, we have supported over 594 communities to have a public declaration from their traditional ruler to the least person.
“Actually we have evidence that this girl child violence is reducing, we can say that we are making progress.
“According to the current national demographic survey, we have moved from twenty-five per cent in 2014 to twenty per cent but what we are looking for is zero tolerance to violence against the girl child.
“All stakeholders should come together to put this in front as the agenda to fight against child violence,”
She said the training would also help stakeholders on how best to get justice for survivors of FGM and how to strengthen the system to achieve zero tolerance.
The programme was organised by the Federal Ministry of Information, Child Rights Information Bureau in Collaboration with UNICEF and participants drawn from Osun, Oyo and Ekiti States.
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